Virus cases spike in California county on Mexican border

EL CENTRO, Calif. (AP) — As much of California begins reopening businesses amid improved coronavirus conditions, a farming region on the state's border with Mexico is experiencing a spike in hospitalizations that some believe is driven by American citizens who live in Mexico coming to the U.S. for care.

How quickly different parts of California reopen is driven by the ability by country officials to control the virus. So the surge in the Imperial Valley region could hurt its perpetually struggling economy, which is heavily intertwined with the large industrial city of Mexicali, Mexico.

El Centro Regional Medical Center, the Imperial Valley's largest hospital, admitted 14 infected patients Monday night, sending its coronavirus caseload soaring to 65. That prompted it to temporarily stop accepting COVID-19 patients.

The coronavirus caseload at the region's only other hospital, Pioneer Memorial Hospital, rose to 28 on Monday from 19 two days earlier.

Caseloads eased by Wednesday but only after the El Centro hospital sent seven new patients to San Diego County for treatment and Pioneer transferred nine patients elsewhere in Southern California.

The spike is “coming to us from somewhere and we want to make sure that we don’t overwhelm either one of the hospitals and overwhelm the system with COVID patients to the point that we can’t take care of you,” said Dr. Adolphe Edward, El Centro Regional Medical Center’s chief executive officer, in a video posted on his hospital’s Facebook page.

He believes U.S. citizens living on the Mexican side of the border are driving the increase, saying hospital staff have spoken with coronavirus patients who say they have addresses in Imperial Valley but live in Mexicali, where cases are spiking.

Three private hospitals in...