Sonora health officials seek tougher border restrictions with AZ over virus

TUCSON — The top health official leading new coronavirus response efforts in the Mexican state of Sonora will petition the federal government in Mexico City to implement stricter controls at the state’s shared border with Arizona over concerns about the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19.

Both states are struggling to combat outbreaks of the virus and have become regional epicenters in their countries for the number of infections reported in the past few weeks.

Arizona has one of the highest infection rates in the United States and has continued to break daily records in the number of confirmed positive cases and hospitalizations. The state’s Department of Health Services had reported 91,858 COVID-19 cases and 1,788 deaths as of Friday.

Across the border, Sonora has also seen infection rates soar and has among the highest number of cases in Mexico, despite having one of the smallest populations.

The state reported 8,976 confirmed positive cases and 909 deaths as of Wednesday night. But testing, and access to testing, is much more limited. Hospitals in the state’s major cities are at full capacity and facing doctor shortages, according to local health officials.

On Tuesday, Enrique Clausen, Sono

ra’s health minister, announced his intention to seek more restrictive, temporary controls for nonessential travel along his state’s 365-mile-long border with Arizona and New Mexico to better fight the new coronavirus within its borders, he said.

“It’s so important to implement the necessary measures to protect the health of Sonorans. And one of them, at this moment, has to be reducing the border crossings from the United States towards Mexico,” Clausen said Tuesday during his daily briefing.

His petition calls for greater restrictions on Mexicobound traffic that mirror those the U.S. government has in place until July 21 for northbound traffic coming from Mexico, which allows travel only for work, health or emergency reasons.

In anticipation of the Fourth of July weekend, the state government announced plans to place filters at Sonora’s main border cities to turn back tourists and other traveling for nonessential reasons, KJZZ reported.

Mexico’s National Health Council and the Foreign Affairs Ministry will review the state’s petition. So far, the federal government in Mexico City has refused to issue directives tightening travel restrictions at its northern border with the U.S., much to the frustration of border residents and state governors.

The Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, the foreign ministry, acknowledged the importance of containing the spread of the virus across the border shared with the U.S.

On Thursday, the ministry announced border restrictions for the first time since the pandemic arrived in Mexico. The ministry in a written statement called on U.S. citizens and Mexicans living in the U.S. to avoid traveling to Mexico during the Fourth of July weekend.

“Sanitary filters will be installed along several border crossings and roads between Thursday, July 2 and Sunday, July 4, with the goal of protecting the health of the Mexican population, particularly those in the border states,” the statement read.

The ministry said Mexico-bound travelers would be vetted at border crossings, and asked those traveling for tourism and recreational purposes to stay away or risk “impeded access” into the country.

Sonora’s first confirmed COVID-19 case, recorded back on March 16, was an elderly man who had just returned from a trip to Arizona. The following week, concerned residents blocked southbound traffic for several hours at the main border crossing in Nogales to demand stricter controls.

In response, Sonora Gov. Claudia Pavlovich deployed staff from the state’s health ministry to ports of entry to do temperature controls on Mexico-bound traffic. Local health officials in cities such as Nogales also installed “sanitation tunnels” to spray pedestrians at its border crossings.

Symptom-tracing campaign launched

On Sunday, the Sonora Health Ministry announced a more proactive approach to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic within the state through a coordinated, statewide symptom-tracing campaign. Their goal is to reduce the number of sick people showing up at overwhelmed emergency rooms in public hospitals.

“The health ministry will be calling you to detect if you have or don’t have COVID symptoms and give you follow-up care,” Pavlovich said in a brief video message published Tuesday.

Health workers will call families within the state this week to inquire about COVID-19 symptoms. If someone at the home reports symptoms, the health worker will schedule an appointment at one of 15 testing sites statewide, Clausen said Sunday during the announcement of the strategy.

Clausen has been the face of the state’s pandemic response, holding daily briefings where he regularly urges people to stay home and adhere to social distancing guidelines.

He has taken an increasingly harsher tone and has been using stronger language to address the state’s 2.85 million residents, as the number of cases and deaths continues rising.

“This enemy will not be defeated until we have a vaccine,” he said Tuesday. “Until that happens, it will seek to destroy everything in its path. It will want to hurt those you love because this enemy, and listen to this closely, is cruel and ruthless.”

The Mexican federal government lists Sonora under its maximum alert level for COVID-19 spread, along with 13 other states.

Per their guidelines, Sonora is allowed to operate only essential businesses. Hotels and public spaces must not exceed 25 percent capacity, while restaurants are barred from dine-in options, and all other businesses must remain closed.

Sonora’s public hospitals at capacity

The Health Ministry reported that all public hospitals in the state’s major cities are at capacity, even as more sick patients continue arriving to the emergency rooms.

That includes Sonora’s two main border cities of San Luis Rio Colorado — across from the Yuma area — and Nogales.

This week, health officials in Nogales, located across from its sister city of Nogales, Arizona, issued an “urgent call for help” to state and federal officials, asking for assistance to deal with surging cases of COVID-19.

Nogales is in the midst of one of the most severe outbreaks in Sonora. In the past month, confirmed cases and deaths have increased five-fold. As of Wednesday, the state reported 1,404 known cases and 115 deaths.