TIJUANA (Border Report) — Baja California’s Governor Jaime Bonilla is expressing doubt over what the Coronavirus’ final impacts might be on his state.
During his daily briefing with the media on Sunday, Bonilla compared death rates from COVID-19 to other causes of death.
“No pandemic is on the list where you find cancer, deaths from tobacco or alcoholism,” Bonilla said. “This has frozen and scared people like nothing else in the last 70 years. Is this really going to be as grave of situation as has been predicted or are scientists scaring us?”
Bonilla added that he’s now questioning the need for stay-at-home orders.
“When I’m told Baja California needs to extend this through June until July, because that’s the information they are interpreting but it’s not turning out to be real … this is where I start to doubt,” he said.
The governor added he’s not trying to discredit those in the medical profession.
“I don’t want anyone to feel offended or that I’m calling them liars, we’re just saying they don’t have all the information, that’s all,” Bonilla said.
In Bonilla’s state, there have been a reported 786 positive tests with 83 deaths, second only to Mexico City.
According to the state’s Secretary of Health, Tijuana has had 471 cases with 51 deaths. In Mexicali, the state’s capital, there have been 270 cases with 26 deaths. The two cities lie just south of the California-Mexico border.
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