Migrants in a sprawling encampment steps from the U.S. border in Matamoros, Mexi...
MEXICO CITY/NEW YORK CITY - Migrants in a sprawling encampment steps from the U.S. border in Matamoros, Mexico, have begun to isolate as best they can in their closely packed tents in preparation for the arrival of the coronavirus.
For months, thousands of migrants, many U.S. asylum seekers returned under the Trump administration’s controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy implemented last year, have passed through the encampment nestled among brush by the river-border. Matamoros had a population of more than 520,000 people as of 2015, the national statistics institute says. Its five public hospitals have just 25 ventilators and 11 intensive care beds between them, according to the State Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks.
Julio Frenk, a former Mexican health minister, said the situation in Matamoros reflected a broader failure by Mexico’s government to prepare. In the event of a suspected case, migrants will be instructed to stay in their tents as tests are sent to Mexico City for processing. Those who require hospitalization will be transferred about an hour away to the city of Reynosa, which has a similar supply of ventilators, Gonzalez De la Garza said.
Global Response Management, a nonprofit providing medical services, plans to step up care by building a 20-bed field hospital near the camp, to be staffed in alternating shifts by teams of five medical practitioners.
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