MEXICALI, Mexico/EL CENTRO, Calif., (Reuters) – Coronavirus cases are surging in a scorching hot desert region straddling south California and a city near Mexico’s Tijuana, leading to saturated hospitals, a cross-border overspill of patients and airlifts from rural U.S. clinics.
A medical scribe and registered nurses are seen at the El Centro Regional Medical Center during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in El Centro, California, U.S., May 27, 2020. Picture taken May 27, 2020. REUTERS/Ariana Drehsler
Mexicali, capital of the Mexican state of Baja California, has the third-highest number of confirmed COVID cases in Mexico, with its main hospitals at four-fifths capacity, state health department data shows.
Only a few miles beyond the border fence, Imperial County, California, is coping with the most COVID hospitalizations per capita in the state – well over twice the rate of the next highest county.
For the past two weeks, Imperial County’s largest hospital has used helicopters to fly some patients to other clinics