El Paso Update: 'On the Brink of Disaster'

Reporting from outside the medical examiner's office in El Paso, "where coronavirus has taken hold unlike any other place in the country," CNN correspondent, Omar Jimenez, points to the six mobile refrigerated units acting as temporary morgues that can hold a total of 176 bodies. Four more have been ordered, "just to keep up with the number of deaths that we have seen here," he states in the video accompanying the source article.

"Coupled with the record number of hospitalizations here, and officials say they are on the brink of disaster."

Planetizen's recent post noted that the El Paso metropolitan area, population 844,000, composed of El Paso and Hudspeth counties, had the third-highest coronavirus case incidence on Nov 2 according to The New York Times metro/micro area tracker after Minot, N.D. (pop. 76,000) and Beaver Dam, Wis. (pop. 88,000), respectively.

It moved up a notch to #2, just behind Minot. Daily infections are nearly 204 cases per 100k on Nov. 12, according to the metro tracker. By contrast:

• Texas average daily case incidence: 33/100k
• The U.S. average daily case incidence: 39/100k
• Andorra's average case incidence (highest of any country): 97/100k
• North Dakota's average case incidence (highest in the U.S.): 172/100k

"Officials attribute the sharp increase [in coronavirus infections] to a range of factors, from Covid-19 fatigue to the reopening of businesses to the family-oriented culture, where large families living in the same households is common," write Jimenez and Ashley Killough for CNN on Nov. 11.

The rising number of cases is the reason why El Paso County Commissioner David Stout is so supportive of the judge's order to close down non-essential businesses, arguing officials need to get the crisis under control before federal and state resources are needed in other parts of the state.

Controversial county stay-at-home order

In addition to the severity of the corona crisis in El Paso, at this time unique for large population metros, what makes the region's outbreak so notable is the way it is attempting to mitigate infections, specifically the controversy over the enactment of the two-week county-wide stay-at-home order issued by the Democratic county judge, Ricardo Samaniego that expired Nov. 11. [County judges in Texas are elected officers who preside over commissioners courts that serve as the governing bodies for the 254 counties.

"Local leaders clashed over what to do to quell the spiraling coronavirus crisis," wrote New York Times correspondent, J. David Goodman, on Nov. 10.

The top county official ordered a lockdown [referring to the inital stay-at-home order on Oct.29] and curfew. But the mayor disagreed, and the police said they would not enforce it. Then the state attorney general weighed in — a lockdown was unnecessary and illegal, he said. [See prior post as well].

Texas recently surpassed one million confirmed cases of the virus [the first state to do so, though California followed on Nov. 12], with 19,000 dead. Of the 6,100 patients hospitalized across the state, one out of every six are in El Paso...Half of all patient beds in the city are now taken up by those with Covid-19.

In short, as dire as the crisis is, it's exacerbated by the intergovernmental squabbling. On Nov. 11, Samaniego extended the shut-down through the end of the month, writes Renuka Rayasam for the POLITICO Nightly newsletter on Nov. 11. 

Even as Covid-sickened patients overwhelmed local hospitals and flooded morgues, the original two-week order became embroiled in politics: City leaders said they weren’t consulted on the order and refused to enforce it. Texas’ attorney general Ken Paxton joined a suit against the county order. Finally, on [Nov. 6], a state judge kept the order in place. An appeals court could yet overturn it.

El Paso’s Covid situation in November recalls New York’s situation in April: Hospitals have set up tents in parking lots. They’ve evacuated patients to other cities. The county ran out of morgue space. The public health department reported another 14 deaths and 863 cases today.

To a certain extent, El Paso is today what New York City was seven months ago. As infections skyrocket across the nation, all metropolitan areas should take notice.

Related in Planetizen:

• Corona Crisis in America: The Metropolitan Area to Watch, November 3, 2020
• We are Entering the Steep Slope of the Epidemic Curve', November 1, 2020
• Texas County First in Nation to Issue Second Stay-at-Home Order, July 23, 2020