El Centro Regional Medical Center is shown in this undated photo. (Courtesy El Centro Regional Medical Center)
For Luis Olmedo, environmental justice work must continue during a pandemic — especially in Imperial County.
The executive director of Comite Civico de Valle was on his way Tuesday morning to a county Air Pollution Control Board meeting, where he planned to watch on his phone outside and wait to enter the building until his organization’s agenda item came up. He was doing his part to help stop the spread of coronavirus by keeping his distance from others.
“Life has changed over the past 48 hours,” Olmedo said in a phone interview with inewsource before the meeting. “And it’s getting tighter and tighter when it comes to the ability to carry out normal duties and the way we’re able to carry them. Everything is changing.”
Why this matters
Imperial County has fewer than 300 hospital beds and long-standing community health challenges. Despite those challenges, county officials are working to protect the region’s 180,000 residents as the coronavirus pandemic worsens.
Imperial County, one of the poorest counties in California and with one of the highest rates for people with asthma, has had two residents test positive for COVID-19 as of Wednesday night, when the latest figures were released. The husband and wife contracted the novel coronavirus while traveling in Florida, officials said.
They were initially treated at the El Centro Regional Medical Center, with one later being quarantined at home. Both were moved to a San Diego hospital to recover.
No additional county cases have been reported since those two on March 11. Thirty-nine people have been tested as of Wednesday night, according to the county Public Health Department. Twenty-nine have tested negative, with eight results pending.
There is no evidence that coronavirus is spreading in the county, but officials have warned the numbers may grow.
That worries Olmedo, who’s concerned about the spread of coronavirus among some of Imperial County’s most vulnerable populations — including those who already suffer from respiratory illnesses.
About 12% of the county’s residents have asthma, compared to nearly 9% statewide. The county ranked among the highest in California for children’s visits to emergency rooms for asthma-related issues. And while air quality has improved in the region, some parts still fail to meet federal standards.
“And then you add another layer to the already scarred and vulnerable lungs — it is going to take a toll on our healthcare system,” said Olmedo, whose organization works on asthma-related issues.
Imperial County’s two hospitals have fewer than 300 beds. In a 2016 state application, El Centro Regional Medical Center said that in fiscal 2013 there was one primary care doctor for every 4,170 county residents. That’s compared to one for every 1,341 residents statewide.
The El Centro hospital’s patients face health care disparities, and access to care “has long proven to be a major challenge,” according to the application.
A hospital hallway in El Centro Regional Medical Center is shown in this undated photo. (Courtesy El Centro Regional Medical Center)
Even so, the county’s health care leaders say they’re prepared to handle the spread of coronavirus in their community.
Dr. Stephen Munday, the county’s health officer, announced an order Tuesday that bans gatherings of 50 or more people and placed restrictions on restaurants and other businesses beginning Friday. He also advised hospitals to “preserve resources, including delaying non-emergent or elective surgeries or procedures when feasible.”
Munday’s order will continue through March 31.
“Many of my fellow health officers around the state have chosen to take action to try to protect the public. Many of them chose to do so because there was significant community spread going on around them,” he said at a Tuesday news conference. “I have given my recommendations to the Board of Supervisors that rather than wait for community spread to occur (locally), we should take action to prevent community spread.”
The county Office of Education closed the region’s public schools on Tuesday until at least April 17, reversing an earlier decision. San Diego County school districts made the decision last week to close schools on Monday.
At Imperial County schools, breakfasts and lunches are still being served on weekdays at more than 30 sites.
Alvaro Ramirez, safety and emergency preparedness coordinator at the county Office of Education, said superintendents and public health officials decided to close schools “as a precautionary measure in the best interest of our community.”
“While the health trends in our area remained relatively stable over the weekend, those at our neighboring areas did not,” Ramirez told inewsource in an email. “The Imperial Valley is a closely knit, interconnected community, with strong ties to our neighboring areas.”
The Imperial Irrigation District, which provides electricity to 155,000 residential and commercial customers, announced Tuesday it will not disconnect electricity for non-payment until further notice. It also is temporarily waiving late fees. Spokesman Robert Schettler said no changes have been made to the district’s water services, which are not offered within city limits. About 97% of the water it delivers goes to agricultural customers, he said.
At the El Centro Regional Medical Center, CEO Adolphe Edward told inewsource the hospital has focused on infection prevention, including the use of an ultraviolet system for disinfecting. He pointed to the hospital’s affiliation with the UC San Diego Health System, saying the medical center will continue to rely on UCSD’s expertise.
The hospital has enough surgical masks, ventilators and other supplies to continue to serve patients if coronavirus cases increase, he said. Officials also have asked the county Public Health Department for more surgical masks and hand sanitizers.
“We are told that we’re going to receive additional shipments,” Edward said. “We’re not worried at all about the actual level of equipment that we have.”
He said if people take the advice of experts and practice social distancing, the county’s system will be able to respond to the crisis.
“We know what to do to protect the public,” Edward said. “We are doing everything we can to protect them. Because ‘them’ is us. We are the community. We’re doing this because we are from the community.”
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Daniela Flores, a 28-year-old Imperial Valley native and a public health professional, said it took several days to persuade her parents that for now they should close their 30-year-old floral business in Calexico. They were the first business in their neighborhood to close, Flores said.
The county is a “word-of-mouth community,” she said, and not all residents are accustomed to interacting with local officials. Flores hopes neighbors and relatives will use their networks to spread information rapidly, especially to those who are not regularly online.
“My hope is that we take a community approach at this and not leave it all up to the local officials because, frankly, they have a lot on their hands,” Flores said.
Olmedo said he’s seeking ways for his organization to help. And while he’s also concerned for other vulnerable parts of the state, he’s optimistic, too.
“It takes time,” he said. “Things don’t happen overnight. And even in understanding that, I feel very confident of the fact that we live in California, in a state that is taking care of its citizens and residents.”
Do you have information that could further inewsource’s mission of holding officials and institutions accountable in the COVID-19 pandemic? Help make sure our journalism is responsible and focused on the right issues. Reach out at contact@inewsource.org
inewsource is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to improving lives in the San Diego region and beyond through impactful, data-based investigative and accountability journalism.
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Below is a breakdown of staffing data at inewsource. We determine the composition of our staff by asking them to self-identify. It is based on a newsroom of 11 and a total staff of 15 as of August 2020. Percentages are based on 15 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, full-time fellows and full-time and part-time interns.
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Gender Identity
Gender Identity
Gender Identity
Women
80%
Women
82%
Women
75%
Men
20%
Men
18%
Men
25%
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation
Straight
87%
Straight
82%
Straight
100%
LGBTQ-identifying
7%
LGBTQ-identifying
7%
Not specified
7%
Not specified
7%
Speak a language beyond English at home
33%
Speak a language beyond English at home
18%
Speak a language beyond English at home
75%
Race/Ethnicity
Race/Ethnicity
Race/Ethnicity
White
67%
White
73%
White
50%
Hispanic or Latinx
20%
Two or more races
18%
Hispanic or Latinx
50%
Two or more races
13%
Hispanic or Latinx
9%
Age
Age
Age
20-29
40%
20-29
45%
20-29
25%
30-39
47%
30-39
45%
30-39
50%
60 or older
13%
60 or older
9%
60 or older
25%
* The percentages in the charts have been rounded and may not add up to 100.
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Lorie Hearn is the chief executive officer, editor and founder of inewsource. She founded inewsource in the summer of 2009, following a successful reporting and editing career in newspapers. She retired from The San Diego Union-Tribune, where she had been a reporter, Metro Editor and finally the senior editor for Metro and Watchdog Journalism. In addition to department oversight, Hearn personally managed a four-person watchdog team, composed of two data specialists and two investigative reporters. Hearn was a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University in 1994-95. She focused on juvenile justice and drug control policy, a natural course to follow her years as a courts and legal affairs reporter at the San Diego Union and then the Union-Tribune.
Hearn became Metro Editor in 1999 and oversaw regional and city news coverage, which included the city of San Diego’s financial debacle and near bankruptcy. Reporters and editors on Metro during her tenure were part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that exposed Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham and led to his imprisonment.
Hearn began her journalism career as a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, a small daily outside of Philadelphia, shortly after graduating from the University of Delaware. During the decades following, she moved through countless beats at five newspapers on both coasts.
High-profile coverage included the historic state Supreme Court election in 1986, when three sitting justices were ousted from the bench, and the 1992 execution of Robert Alton Harris. That gas chamber execution was the first time the death penalty was carried out in California in 25 years.
In her nine years as Metro Editor at the Union-Tribune, Hearn made watchdog reporting a priority. Her reporters produced award-winning investigations covering large and small local governments. The depth and breadth of their public service work was most evident in coverage of the wildfires of 2003 and then 2007, when more than half a million people were evacuated from their homes.
Laura Wingard is the managing editor at inewsource. She has been an editor in San Diego since 2002, working at The San Diego Union-Tribune, KPBS and now inewsource. At the Union-Tribune, she served in a variety of roles including as enterprise editor, government editor, public safety and legal affairs editor, and metro editor. She directed the newspaper’s award-winning coverage of the October 2007 wildfires and the 2010 disappearance of Poway teenager Chelsea King. She also oversaw reporting on San Diego’s pension crisis.
For two years, Wingard was news and digital editor at KPBS, overseeing a team of four multimedia reporters and two web producers. She also was the KPBS liaison with inewsource and collaborated with inewsource chief executive officer and editor Lorie Hearn on investigative work by both news organizations.
Wingard also worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal as the city editor and as an award-winning reporter covering the environment and politics. She also was the assistant managing editor for metro at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside. She earned her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Fullerton, with a double major in communications/journalism and political science.
Brad Racino is the assistant editor and a senior reporter at inewsource. He has produced investigations for print, radio and TV on topics including political corruption, transportation, health, maritime, education and nonprofits.
His cross-platform reporting for inewsource has earned more than 50 awards since 2012, including back-to-back national medals from Investigative Reporters and Editors, two national Edward R. Murrow awards, a Meyer “Mike” Berger award from New York City’s Columbia Journalism School, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism, San Diego SPJ’s First Amendment Award, and a national Emmy nomination.
In 2017, Racino was selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News as one of 10 “Emerging Leaders” in U.S. nonprofit journalism.
Racino has worked as a reporter and database analyst for News21; as a photographer, videographer and reporter for the Columbia Missourian; as a project coordinator for the National Freedom of Information Coalition and as a videographer and editor for Verizon Fios1 TV in New York. He received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2012.
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Jennifer Bowman is an investigative reporter at inewsource, covering mostly education. She’s happy to be back in her hometown after stints at daily newspapers in Michigan and North Carolina.
At the Asheville Citizen Times, Jennifer’s award-winning coverage of yearslong corruption helped...
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