作为总统唐纳德·特朗普计划在周二访问亚利桑那州，以突出他承诺的边境墙项目，他将会去一个越来越担心小说冠状病毒这种不分国界的做法可能会助长快速增长的感染率。
总统计划在亚利桑那州尤马举行第200英里新边界墙竣工的摄影机会。该市发言人戴夫·纳什(Dave Nash)告诉美国广播公司新闻，亚利桑那州的病例“像曲棍球棒一样上升”，与尤马的病例一起上升，尽管他说他觉得该县已经做好上升的准备。
根据公共数据，在西部一小时车程的埃尔森特罗镇，居民们看到了加州迄今为止最糟糕的感染率和死亡率。墨西哥边境沙漠地区的周边县是少数几个仍处于某种程度封锁之下的加州县之一。
在尤马的东部，诺加莱斯市正在观看亚利桑那州最高的感染率。
在边境，亚利桑那州和加利福尼亚州的美国地方、州和医院官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，他们担心病毒可能会在一定程度上跨越国界，这是造成疫情的部分原因，在疫情爆发后不久宣布的有限限制下，每天都有大量的必要工作人员和旅行者被允许通过检查站。他们认为，与美国西南部平起平坐的墨西哥各州也感受到了类似的疫情。
2017年11月14日，亚利桑那州诺加莱斯市边境站，一名男子在等待他的文件被批准，以便从墨西哥进入美国。
根据约翰·霍普金斯大学的统计，在全国范围内，美国报告的数字远高于其南部邻居，约有230万阳性病例，超过12万人死亡。与墨西哥接壤的各州约有368，000例阳性病例。与德克萨斯州和新墨西哥州相比，亚利桑那州和加利福尼亚州的边境社区最近出现了更令人担忧的案件增长，尽管这些州的官员也表示他们对此感到担忧。
墨西哥政府报告的病例和死亡人数在疫情爆发的头几周增长相对缓慢，官员们在3月中旬开始报告数字。但最近几天，这一数字以前所未有的速度增长，最新的病例总数超过18万，死亡人数接近2.2万纽约时报。政府官员承认，由于缺乏测试和结果延迟，这两个数字都被低估了美联社报道。
“墨西哥城不堪重负，”埃尔森特罗地区医疗中心首席执行官阿道夫·爱德华博士告诉美国广播公司新闻，他指的是埃尔森特罗以南的墨西哥边境城镇。“他们正处于巅峰。他们真的非常努力，以至于我们一直呼吁(援助组织)去那里帮助他们。”
根据该报告，墨西哥下加利福尼亚州的感染率同样很高，该州向西延伸至蒂华纳纽约时报的数据。
上周，美国政府将禁止非美国公民从墨西哥进入墨西哥的非必要旅行的旅行限制又延长了一个月。埃尔森特罗市长埃夫兰·席尔瓦说，但是这些旅行限制，加上必要的工作人员，并没有阻止住在下加利福尼亚州的25万多名美国人以及成千上万到南方去购物、吃饭、探亲然后回家的人频繁的例行跨境旅行。
“我们的边境对我们来说极其重要，”席尔瓦说。“我们不仅仅因为距离近而联系在一起，在很多情况下，我们还因为血缘而联系在一起。”
2020年6月4日，在墨西哥的墨西卡利，人们通过墨西卡利-卡莱西科行人过境点进入美国。
在亚利桑那州的诺加莱斯，市长阿图罗·加里诺说成千上万辆卡车每天穿越边境对于重要的商业活动来说，人们每天都要排几个小时的队才能穿过去。他说，该市没有跟踪边境过境在传播冠状病毒中扮演的角色，但他认为这一定是一个因素。
加里诺说:“如果你站在边境的一条线上，在那里站了两三个小时，很可能你并没有在社交上拉开距离。”。
经授权的越境人员必须接受美国全国机场进行的同样的海关检查。根据目前的联邦指导方针，检查包括对可能的COVID-19症状的视觉筛查，以及必要时由健康筛查人员进行的额外检测。
加里诺说，在一系列吸引了边境两边大批人的庆祝活动之后，案件激增——复活节星期天，接着是五月节、母亲节和阵亡将士纪念日。该市取消了非常受欢迎的七夕节，通常有超过10，000人聚集在一起游行和听音乐。
加利福尼亚州的帝国县和亚利桑那州的圣克鲁斯县公布的数据显示，只有一小部分冠状病毒感染可以最终追踪到越境的人。但是地方和州官员以及健康专家告诉美国广播公司新闻，他们强烈怀疑这些数字是巨大的。
他们说很难评估边境墨西哥一侧的感染率，因为很少有墨西哥城镇能够获得检测和其他资源。
加里诺说，拥有22，000人口的诺加莱斯比拥有500，000多居民的墨西哥诺加莱斯显示出更多的阳性病例——尽管这两个城镇在边境相遇。
“这里有问题，”加里诺谈到冠状病毒计数时说。
墨西哥墨西卡利和诺加莱斯的当地官员周一晚间没有立即回应美国广播公司的置评请求。美国海关和边境保护局的一名发言人将美国广播公司新闻的问题提交给疾病控制和预防中心，该中心周一晚间没有立即做出回应。
爱德华兹说，在美国，埃尔森特罗的医疗中心最近几天被迫将大量病人转移到该地区的其他设施，因为病毒“耗尽了我们的资源”他说，他现在已经开始从其他地区医院听到，他们也越来越担心重症监护室床位不够用。
2020年6月4日，墨西哥墨西卡利，车辆通过墨西卡利-墨西哥边境进入美国。
斯克里普斯健康公司首席执行官克里斯·范·戈尔德说公司的医院在加利福尼亚的圣地亚哥县，已经从帝国县接收了数百名病人，但是最近不得不冻结转移，因为他们的空间不够了。
范·戈尔德说，他在4月底给特朗普政府写了一封信，要求联邦政府在边境进行医疗检查，“至少要进行体温检查”，并要求对疑似阳性者进行隔离。他说，他担心如果努力重启经济，将会带来更多的交通北移，下加利福尼亚的医疗资源不足可能会构成“非常真实的威胁”。
对于当地官员来说，疫情的严重性已经开始显现。早些时候，加里诺和其他官员一样，对实施封锁或关闭边境持保留态度。上周，他和越来越多的亚利桑那州市长一起要求他的居民在公共场合戴口罩。
“我现在关心的是亚利桑那州诺加莱斯市民的健康和幸福，”加里诺说。“因此，如果边境将在7月21日之前对非必需品关闭，我认为这是一个很好的举措，因为在那个月内，如果不是必需品，至少有几十万人将无法通过。”
As Trump visits wall, fears at the border with uptick in coronavirus cases
As PresidentDonald Trumpplans to visit Arizona Tuesday to highlight his promised border wall project, he will be dropping into a region where there are growing fears that a novelcoronavirusthat respects no borders may be helping fuel fast-growing infection rates.
The president is scheduled to hold a photo opportunity for the completion of the 200th mile of new border wall in Yuma, Ariz. Dave Nash, a spokesperson for the city, told ABC News that cases in Arizona are "going up like a hockey stick," rising alongside cases in Yuma itself, though he said he felt the county was prepared for uptick.
An hour west, in rural town of El Centro, residents are seeing by far the worst rates of infection and death in California, according to public data. The surrounding county, in the desert region along the Mexico border, is one of the few California counties that remains under some level of lockdown.
And to the east of Yuma, the city of Nogales is seeing thehighest infection rates in Arizona.
At the border, American local, state and hospital officials in Arizona and California told ABC News they were concerned about the possibility that the virus crisscrossing the national boundary could be in part to blame, with the high number of essential workers and travelers who are permitted daily through checkpoints in accordance with limited restrictions announced not long after the outbreak began. They believe the Mexican states that sit flush against the American Southwest are feeling a similar strain from the epidemic.
A man waits for his paperwork to be approved so he can pass to the U.S. from Mexico at the Border Station in the city of Nogales, Ariz., Nov. 14, 2017.
Nationwide the U.S. has reported much higher figures than its southern neighbor, some 2.3 million positive cases and more than 120,000 deaths, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University. The states bordering Mexico account for approximately 368,000 positive cases. Border communities in Arizona and California have seen a more concerning increase in cases recently, relative to those in Texas and New Mexico, though officials in those states also said they're concerned.
Cases and deaths reported by the Mexican government had shown a relatively slow growth in the first few weeks of the pandemic when officials started reporting numbers in mid-March. But in recent days, the figures have been increasing at a faster rate than ever, with the latest number of total cases surpassing 180,000 and deaths near 22,000, according toThe New York Times. Government officials have acknowledged both figures are undercounts due to lack of testing and delayed results, according to anAssociated Press report.
"Mexicali is overwhelmed," Dr. Adolphe Edward, CEO of El Centro Regional Medical Center told ABC News, referring to the Mexican border town immediately south of El Centro. "They're at their highest peak. They are really, really struggling to the point that we have been calling on [aid organizations] to go to work there to help them."
Infection rates are similarly high across the entire Mexican state of Baja California, which stretches west to Tijuana, according to theNew York Times' data.
Last week, the U.S. government extended for another month the travel restrictions that ban non-essential travels of non-U.S. citizens from Mexico into the country. But those travel restrictions, in addition to essential workers, do not stop the heavy flow of routine cross-border travel for the more than 250,000 Americans who live in Baja, California, and thousands who travel south to shop and eat and visit relatives and then return home, said El Centro Mayor Efrain Silva.
"Our border is extremely important to us," Silva said. "We're bonded by not just proximity, but we're bonded by blood in many cases."
People enter the United States through the Mexicali-Calexico pedestrian border crossing on June 4, 2020, in Mexicali, Mexico.
In Nogales, Ariz., Mayor Arturo Garino said thousands of truckscross the border every dayfor essential businesses, and people are in line for hours everyday to walk across. He said the city is not tracking the role border transit is playing in spreading the coronavirus, but said he believes it must be contributing.
"If you stand on a line at the border to come across and you're standing there for two hours, three hours, probably you're not social distancing," Garino said.
Authorized border crossers are subject to the same customs inspection conducted at U.S. airports across the country. Under current federal guidelines, the checks include visual screenings for possible COVID-19 symptoms and additional tests by health screeners if necessary.
Garino said cases skyrocketed after a series of festivities that attract large numbers from both sides of the border -- Easter Sunday, followed by Fiesta de Mayo, Mother's Day and Memorial Day. The city has cancelled its very popular Fourth of July festival, where more than 10,000 people typically gather for a parade and music.
Imperial County in California and Santa Cruz County in Arizona have released figures showing only a small percentage of coronavirus infections could be conclusively traced to people who crossed the border. But local and state officials and health experts told ABC News they have strong suspicions the numbers are significant.
They said it has been difficult to assess infection rates on the Mexico side of the border because so few Mexican towns have access to testing and other resources.
Garino said that Nogales, with a population of 22,000, shows more positive cases than Nogales, Mexico, which has more than 500,000 residents – even though the two towns meet at the border.
"There's something wrong here," Garino said of the coronavirus count.
Local officials in Mexicali and Nogales, Mexico did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment late Monday. A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection referred ABC News' questions to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did not immediately respond late Monday.
In the U.S., Edwards said the medical center in El Centro has in recent days been forced to transfer large numbers of patients to other facilities in the area because the virus has "stretched our resources." He said he has now begun hearing from other area hospitals that they, too, are increasingly worried about running out of intensive care beds.
Vehicles enter the United States through the Mexicali-Calexico border crossing on June 4, 2020, in Mexicali, Mexico.
Scripps Health CEO Chris Van Gorder said thecompany’s hospitalsin San Diego County in California have taken in hundreds of patients from Imperial County, but recently had to freeze transfers because they were running out of space.
Van Gorder said he sent a letter to the Trump administration in late April asking for the federal government to conduct medical checks at the border, "temperature checks at the very least," and mandate quarantine for suspected positive individuals. He said he was concerned that inadequate medical resources in Baja California could pose a "very real threat” if there were efforts to re-start the economy that would bring more traffic north.
For local officials, the gravity of the outbreak has begun to set in. Early on, Garino had been among those officials who expressed reservations about imposing a lockdown or closing the border. Last week, he joined a growing number of Arizona mayors to require his residents to wear masks in public.
"My concern right now is the health and well-being of the citizens in Nogales, Arizona," Garino said. "So if the border is going to be closed for non-essentials until July 21, I think that's a good move because at least several hundred thousand people within that month will not be able to come across if they're not essential."
