EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — COVID-19 outbreaks are being reported at two additional migrant shelters on the Mexican border.
Chihuahua state authorities on Wednesday said a total of 23 migrants are ill or recuperating in Juarez and in Ojinaga, which borders Presidio, Texas.
The first outbreak was reported late last month at the Leona Vicario federal facility in Juarez, where a family of three caught the virus. Ten more migrants have since been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Holy Spirit church in south Juarez is reporting seven coronavirus patients. The church is the site of a “filter” shelter where migrants newly arrived at the border are placed under observation for two to 14 days.
The shelter in Ojinaga has two patients. No other information was immediately available on their condition.
On Wednesday, Juarez reported it now has 1,917 cases and 420 deaths related to COVID-19.
Advocates in the United States have expressed concern about Mexico’s ability to stop the spread of the coronavirus at migrant shelters and camps and called on the Trump administration to stop sending to Mexico asylum seekers scheduled for hearings in federal U.S. court.
Meantime, the COVID-19 outbreak in Juarez’s Cereso prison now has claimed three lives and sickened 47 inmates. The first coronavirus death there was reported on May 21, with another 10 prisoners initially placed under observation.
Three Mexican army bases in Chihuahua are reporting 70 coronavirus patients but no deaths.
At least three U.S.-run plants in Juarez, known as maquiladoras, have had major outbreaks, with 37 cases and 25 fatalities.
