Hospitals are currently transferring patients to different facilities miles and miles away to manage the influx of US green card holders and Americans who have contracted COVID-19 in Mexico. Now, they are crossing the border to get treated in California hospitals which have reportedly been overwhelmed due to the increasing number of patients.

The El Centro Regional Medical Center for instance, a small hospital located along the Mexico-California border, has been swamped with patients, according to Emergency Department Director Judy Cruz.

According to a New York Times report, the hospital used to have among its patients, "a smattering of Americans residing across the border". During their rest days, staff are called or tasked to transfer up to two patients every each day, to bigger facilities. Cruz also said, they'd get an upwelling for 24 to 48 hours that most of the time, necessitated "all hands on deck."

Then, the Pandemic Came

The health care facility with 20-bed intensive-care unit or ICU has reportedly been "overwhelmed with ailing Imperial Valley residents," the US green card holders and Americans escaping overcrowded hospitals and clinics in Mexicali, a city with 1.1 million population on the other side of the border.

To ease the tension, San Diego and Riverside counties started to accept transfers in two months ago. However, rising crisis pressed California last week, to initiate an extraordinary response that enlists hospitals as far as San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Sacramento to receive patients from far, and at times, inaccessible "southeastern corner of the state."

Last week too, a patient was being transported from El Centro Hospital at least, every two hours, said Cruz adding, "Compared to 17 in a whole month before the global health crisis came."

Meanwhile, California Hospital Association president Carmela Coyle said, they worked hard for the flattening of the curve in the state. Incidentally, Coyle issued an appeal to hospital systems within California for assistance.

Specifically, she said, at present, they have "surge in Imperial Valley" as the situation in Mexicali is quite severe. San Diego County, as well as the other parts of the border, have crossed the border, with a wave of patients from Baja California who are stricken with the virus.

Border towns in Arizona are currently suffering from a surge in contagions that health officials believe, is associated with people who enter the state from Sonora state.

Disease Progresses due to Baja California's Unpreparedness

A physician at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Chula Vista, Juan Tovar said, their emergency room used to accepting patients from Mexico for things such as substitute cancer care, bariatric operation and plastic surgery. However, the COVID-19 crisis has brought an entirely different dynamic.

The physician added, they are seeing COVID-19 patients come to the ER who is very ill. In addition, these patients' illness has developed into an advanced phase as care was reportedly "not readily available in Baja California.

One reason is seen why Chula Vista has more cases of the virus per capita compared to San Diego, which happens to be a city "five times bigger," is border influx.

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