TIJUANA (Border Report) — The city of Tijuana is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases and health officials are blaming Halloween night revelers for spreading the virus.
State Health Secretary Alonso Pérez Rico said the state is seeing more hospitalizations and people on respirators likely infected after going out to celebrate, something citizens were warned not to do.
On Halloween night, the city’s Avenida Revolucion and other popular areas were packed with thousands of people, many not wearing masks or social distancing.
“The cases that are coming back positive now, people having to be hospitalized, show a change in a trend, where six weeks ago patients were not as mobile,” Pérez Rico said. “We can shut everything down during the winter, have no activities to slow down COVID-19.”
Pérez Rico said the number of patients requiring respirators has doubled in just one month.
He said they are better prepared to handle cases with 163 ventilators and 470 hospital beds now available.
“We have seen consecutive weeks with cases going up, Halloween didn’t help.”