Increased Coronavirus cases hits Eastern Coachella Valley
The East Valley has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. Eisenhower Health Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Alan Williamson told News Channel 3 some of those cases are identified specifically in the farm communities.
"That’s very concerning to us because in doing contact tracing with those cases once we identify a positive case, we are finding the number of these patients are coming from multi-generational, or sometimes multi-household where there’s quite a number of people in 2-bedroom homes, 2- bedroom apartments and so on," Dr. Williamson said. Definitely there is an increase in the number of cases that we’re seeing in the farm communities in the Eastern part of the valley.
The trend has become prevalent among vulnerable populations of the desert. In many cases, health experts said conditions to quarantine are almost nonexistent.
"It's hard to socially distance when you're living in such close quarters," Nurse Practitioner & Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine Co-Founder, Rosa Lucas said.
CVVM is a nonprofit organization providing resources for people of the Eastern Valley that are either underinsured or not insured at all. They have seen first hand what it could be like for people in the valley to be infected with Coronavirus.
"A few of them who I called to tell them they were positive were super sick. I said, 'you have to go to the emergency room right now, you’re barely breathing, and you’re coughing so hard.' 'I’m burning up.' 'How long have you been this way?' 'A few days.' 'Why don’t you go to the hospital, do you have insurance?' 'Yes but I’m afraid to go,'" Lucas said.
Lucas said many people are scared to go to the hospital because they are undocumented. She said many are living in extreme poverty and would rather put food on the table than purchase medicine.
"When you are the only person working in a household especially in a seasonal job, you can’t afford to take time off."
CVVM has facilitated 2 free testing sites for East Valley residents in recent weeks. She said the most recent site saw an increase in positive Coronavirus test results.
"It’s heartbreaking to see this for people who work so hard and are so unappreciated for so many years and so neglected by our own government, by our own people, by our own organizations. We need to face facts that we have a problem in this desert and that there are communities of people, mostly Latinos, who do not have what they need to thrive and definitely not to survive," Lucas said.
The organization also tested unsheltered homeless individuals in the area. Lucas said fortunately none of those tests were positive.
