The municipal president assures that there are more than 161 cases and 16 have died so far this month; “La Llave del Istmo” connects the mezcal corridor of Valles Centrales with Tehuantepec and Salina Cruz
In the municipality of Magdalena Tequisistlán, known as “La Llave del Istmo”, the population breathes sadness and lives death as a result of Covid-19, says the municipal president, Roel Filio Lozano.
“For us, what in the other towns of the Isthmus is a third wave of infections, is the first wave. Last year we placed filters at the entrance of the population and we did not have problems like the ones we are facing these days, ”he says in an interview.
The municipal president says that with the confirmation of tests, there are more than 161 people infected, but he believes that there must be more. “I believe that a third of the 7,000 inhabitants (may be infected), because many people are going to the Oaxacan capital, in search of beds in hospitals.
“The disease is rapidly infecting the population and has already killed about 15 people so far this month. That is why we say that in Tequisistlán sadness is breathed and death is experienced. When will this dramatic chapter end? We do not know ”, the mayor responds himself.
Given the emergency that the community is experiencing, professionals from Magdalena Tequisistlán who work in other parts of the country and the world are sending aid such as medicines and money so that families can attend to the needs of their patients.
While the municipal government, to the extent of its economic possibilities, is acquiring medicines and oxygen tanks that are provided to the relatives of patients who suffer from the disease at home, given the lack of beds in hospitals.
Faced with this outbreak that hits the community, many families have already gone to Salina Cruz, others to Tehuantepec, looking for where they could care for their sick patients due to the virus, because in Tequisistlán there is only one clinic that does not have medical conditions.
The situation in itself is complicated in the Isthmus, because the Covid de Juchitán Hospital, operated by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) and the Health Institute for Well-being (Insabi) was dismantled, while in Ciudad Ixtepec it was dismantled. has been on strike for more than 21 days, precisely because it does not have the conditions to care for Covid-19 patients.
Eleven years ago, recalls the mayor Roel Filio Lozano, first the government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and after Gabino Cué Monteagudo, they left a hospital in Tequesquitlán unfinished and the work remains abandoned. “We know here by the name of ‘White Elephant’ and we would like it to be rebuilt,” he says.
The Key to the Isthmus
Like “La Llave del Istmo” which connects the Mezcal corridor of Valles Centrales with Tehuantepec and Salina Cruz, the municipality of Magdalena Tequisistlán also links by land with some eight communities in the Chontal area, before which the authorities ask whoever crosses their territory don’t stop in town.
“Those residents necessarily pass through Tequisistlán and we are only asking them not to stay in town, to leave because we are sick and we do not want to infect them. A policeman accompanies them to the west exit until they head towards the Chontal mountains ”, confesses the municipal president.
According to the most recent classification of the Sanitary Jurisdiction 2 Istmo, of the Oaxaca Health Services (SSO), Magdalena Tequisistlán is in the color orange, with high risk, in the epidemiological traffic light. Official figures say 118 cases have been confirmed, of which 32 are currently active; also indicates only the death of four people due to this disease.
Meanwhile, in red, maximum risk, are other municipalities in this region of Oaxaca such as Salina Cruz, Tehuantepec, Ciudad Ixtepec, Juchitán, El Barrio de La Soledad and Santo Domingo Ingenio. Then Magdalena Tequisistlán follows, in orange, at the epidemiological traffic light.
