The Mayor of El Paso, Texas, which is reeling from a staggering surge in coronavirus cases, says ‘COVID fatigue’ and shopping at large retailers are to blame for the spike.
El Paso’s hospitals have become overwhelmed with a troubling increase in coronavirus patients and deaths, prompting the city to bring in at least 10 mobile morgues earlier this month, pay inmates $2 an hour to carry dead bodies away, and deploy the Texas National Guard to help.
‘About almost six weeks ago, we started spiking significantly. I think people just… the consensus is people just had COVID fatigue and they let down,’ Mayor Dee Margo said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.
‘As Dr. [Deborah] Birx said, you got to wear the mask and you’ve got to maintain the distancing and you’ve got to avoid crowds,’ he added.
El Paso has recorded more than 86,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 920 deaths with a seven day rolling average positivity rate of 13.59 percent.
Mayor Dee Margo of El Paso, Texas says his city’s surge in coronavirus cases is due to ‘COVID fatigue’. ‘About almost six weeks ago, we started spiking significantly. I think people just… the consensus is people just had COVID fatigue and they let down,’ Margo said on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday
He said contact tracers have found that 55 percent of positive cases came from shopping at big box stores for the week of November 10 to 16. A view of a shopper at Academy Sports and Outdoors in El Paso on Black Friday above
Jacqueline Fuentes and her brother Michael Fuentes pictured purchasing a sound bar from Best Buy on Black Friday in El Paso, Texas. As a result Margo said he asked big stores like Walmart to enact ‘voluntary limitations’ to lower occupancy in the stores to prevent further spread of COVID-19
A view of a Costco store in El Paso, Texas on November 18 above. Residents have been urged to stay home except for essential trips due to the staggering surge of cases and deaths in the state that prompted the border town to bring in 10 mobile morgues to handle the pile-up of bodies
On Monday 461 new COVID-19 cases were reported and one new death. There are 905 people currently hospitalized with 317 patients in the ICU and 214 patients on ventilators.
In Texas overall more than one million people have tested positive for the virus and more than 21,000 have died.
Margo revealed that contact tracers have connected a wave of positive infections from big box stores.
‘We did a deep dive in our contact tracing for the week of November the 10th through the 16th and found that 55 percent of the positives were coming from shopping at large retailers, what we’d term as the big box stores,’ Margo said.
‘And those are considered essential under CISA guidelines under Homeland Security. And we don’t really have – I don’t have any control over any limitations there,’ he said.
There are 905 people currently hospitalized with 317 patients in the ICU and 214 patients on ventilators
El Paso has recorded more than 86,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 920 deaths with a seven day rolling average positivity rate of 13.59 percent, as of Monday. On Monday 461 new COVID-19 cases were reported and one new death
El Paso County detention inmates pictured helping moving bodies to refrigerated trailers outside the Medical Examiner’s Office on November 14. The mobile morgues were brought in to help with the surge of coronavirus deaths in the state
The El Paso Sheriff’s Office said that the city began to use inmates on November 9 on a volunteer basis to help move the dead into morgues. By November 16 there were at least 10 mobile morgues in the city
County officials said the inmates were paid $2 an hour and were tested and provided with PPE by the Medical Examiner’s office and would face a two-week quarantine once the program was over
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said the inmates were only used temporarily until the Texas National Guard came in as a last resort. A view of a low-level inmate helping load bodies wrapped in plastic into a refrigerated temporary morgue trailer in a parking lot at the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s office on November 17
A view of El Paso County detention inmates helping move bodies to the mobile morgues outside the Medical Examiner’s Office on November 14 above
As a result Margo said he asked big stores like Walmart to enact ‘voluntary limitations’ to lower occupancy in the stores.
Nearly one month ago the El Paso area reached capacity at hospitals and additional medics and the National Guard was deployed to aid in the situation.
Today is still under a strain.
‘Right now in the hospital — the latest numbers I have on our hospitalization is we are at 79 percent of our hospitalization capacity, which gives us 21 percent excess of which we didn’t have – we haven’t had in some time,’ he said.
He said that the crisis seems like it’s started to plateau, but infections are started to impact an older age group.
‘We also dug up the fact that previously – over 52 percent of our positives were coming in the ages of 20 to 39. Now it’s 30 to 50. So we’re just trying to maintain, but recently, and I’m – I’m fearful to even mention it, we’ve started to seem like we’re starting to maybe plateau,’ he said.
However, the holidays may impact that.
‘On Thanksgiving Day, we had 406 positives. The next day was 678,’ Margo said.
Earlier this month hospitals in the El Paso area were looking dire.
Nearly one month ago the El Paso area reached capacity at hospitals and additional medics and the National Guard was deployed to aid in the situation. ‘Right now in the hospital — the latest numbers I have on our hospitalization is we are at 79 percent of our hospitalization capacity, which gives us 21 percent excess of which we didn’t have – we haven’t had in some time,’ Mayor Margo said. A view of a medic registering people for a COVID-19 test in El Paso on November 23
El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office staff roll bodies that are in bags labeled ‘COVID’ from refrigerated trailers into the morgue office on November 23
Respiratory Therapist Vidal Perea checks the oxygen on a COVID-19 patient at the El Paso Long Term Acute Care Hospital on November 6
The El Paso Sheriff’s Office said that the city began to use inmates on November 9 on a volunteer basis to help move the dead into morgues.
County officials said the inmates were paid $2 an hour and were tested and provided with PPE by the medical examiner’s office and would face a two-week quarantine once the program was over.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said the inmates were only used temporarily until the Texas National Guard came in as a last resort.
‘If there’s no personnel, no one to help out, and there’s volunteers, even if they are inmates, then that’s what we’re left with,’ he told KFOX14. ‘It was just a temporary focus, and we’re waiting for the Texas National Guard to help us out with that.’
On Thanksgiving eve El Paso initiated a new curfew running from 10pm to 5am through Monday November 30.
‘We need to do everything possible to avoid the perfect storm. I will use every tool that I have such as issuing a curfew to slow the spread of this virus. We’re now cautiously anticipating the outcome of Thanksgiving. Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s, and the terrifying effects of the flu season,’ Judge Ricardo Samaniego announced last Tuesday.
Last week Samaniego enouraged big box stores to distribute their Black Friday sales throughout the day to avoid amassing large crowds that can’t social distance. He also urged locals against gathering for the shopping event and urged them to stay home except for essential needs.
Nationally more than 13million coronavirus cases have been reported and more than 266,800 deaths.
Source: Daily Mail
