SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Despite having 74 percent fewer Coronavirus cases, the Mexican city of Tijuana has more COVID-19 deaths than San Diego County.
According to stats provided by Baja California’s Secretary of Health, there have been 1359 people infected with the virus in Tijuana, 311 of whom have died.
In San Diego County, 5161 cases have been confirmed with 190 fatalities.
The results indicate that in Tijuana, 23 percent of those who get the virus will die, while in San Diego, the number is 3.7 percent.
Though the amount of testing being conducted can also result in a higher death rate, one of the primary reasons given for the disparity in numbers is that Tijuana significantly fewer respirators than San Diego.
And if the trend continues with escalating cases in Tijuana, they will run out of respirators by Saturday according to Alonso Perez, the state’s Secretary of Health.
“We have 10 ventilators at our disposal in all the hospitals in Tijuana, we’re trying to bring as many as we can get from neighboring communities such as Mexicali and Ensenada,” Perez said.
He added that for every 10 people who leave the hospital, 12 will come in testing positive for COVID-19, and one of them will require a respirator in Tijuana.
Perez said they are trying to acquire 60 ventilators from other public and private sources.
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