El Paso doctors call on mayor to enforce lockdown, say schools shouldn’t reopen due to virus

El PASO, Texas -- In an open letter to Mayor Dee Margo on Sunday, the El Paso Pediatric Society called on him to enforce the county judge's lockdown order and take other measures in the wake of what it called an "overwhelming increase in mortality, near-breaking point hospital bed capacity, and extreme duress for our frontline healthcare workers" due to Covid-19.

"We endorse enforcing a lockdown of non-essential services for the next two weeks, or until such time that evidence of mitigation of the spread of the disease is attained, and until measures supported by science allows us to restart progressive opening," the Borderland group representing pediatric doctors and child health professionals said in their letter.

The strongly-worded letter also called for students not to return to school classrooms and an end to high school sports for the time being because of the virus' rapid spread and the risk it poses to the community.

The physicians group also sought to rebut the mayor's expressed concerns about the damage to the local economy that would be inflicted by enforcing Judge Ricardo Samaniego's order to close all non-essential businesses.

"We understand the economic impact of this necessary closure but we believe that there will be no economy to speak of if we lose any more lives or incapacitate our workforce," the organization, comprised of medical specialists in the treatment of children and their diseases, wrote.

Margo responded Sunday evening by saying the following....

“I would like to reassure the healthcare community, and all El Pasoans, that I remain committed to working with our Public Health Authority to implement COVID-19 protocols which are allowable by the Governor’s order.”

The entire letter to the mayor, obtained by ABC-7, can be viewed below.