Overrun Texas hospital to send covid patients home to die.

Starr County, with a population of about 61,000, is located in the Rio Grande Valley about 230 miles south of San Antonio. It has more than 1,700 confirmed coronavirus cases and 17 deaths as of Friday, according to the county. Vasquez told The Monitor there are more than 32 more pending confirmation by the state.

Per 100,000 people, Starr County has reported about 92 cases a day over the past week — the 11th highest rate in Texas, data compiled by Harvard Global Health Institute show.

Starr Memorial quickly filled up its eight-bed COVID-19 unit after the state began reopening and expanded to 17 beds, Vasquez said. It expanded again to 29 beds when state officials sent medical workers to the county.

On Sunday, Gov. Abbott announced U.S. Navy teams will go to South Texas to provide medical assistance, including the hospital in Starr County.

Still, the new committee will be necessary, officials say. The hospital transfers COVID-19 patients daily to other counties and even out-of-state, but those hospital beds are filling up, Vasquez said.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/rio-grande-valley-hospitals-also-treating-mexican-nationals-seeking-covid-19-treatment/amp/

“One of the factors is the border, we in McAllen Medical are receiving many patients from Mexico, they are coming in because their resources over there are also limited so they are coming in to our area seeking medical attention and by law we have to provide it,” said Dr. Lopez, “The patients that cross the border say ‘we don’t have hospital space over there, the oxygen is gone, we don’t have medications so we cross the border’, that’s the situation in the border.”