El Paso County officials prepare for Covid-19 Christmas surge

EL PASO, Texas -- With the Christmas holiday only days away El Paso County officials are preparing for a possible COVID-19 surge.

County Judge Ricardo Samaniego tells ABC-7 that they are anticipating what could come.

In order to prepare, the county is looking into getting more medical resources and is also looking into future morgue capacity.

“You begin to anticipate that you might have these issues so you don’t want to be requesting them when the numbers are high and you are trying to request them and everyone else is trying to do the same. We are already looking at where these resources that we might need for January,” Samaniego said.

In a statement from the Texas Department of State Health Services, they have “had resources in El Paso for many, many months, but we have received additional STARs (State of Texas Assistance Request) from facilities in El Paso.”

A spokesperson with the department tells ABC-7 that presently there are 256 medical surge staff deployed to Trauma Service Area I- which includes El Paso County, Hudspeth County, and Culberson County. However, they said they have been instructed to move staff from areas where COVID-19 hospitalizations are low, to areas where hospitalizations are higher. 

The department is also deploying an additional 10 hospital beds, 10 cardiac monitors, 20 IV pumps and 10 ventilators to these three counties.

Samaniego told ABC-7 his biggest concern is that “they won’t have the personnel to align with the demand.”

As a result, the county judge says they have been anticipating the worst that could arise. “The more you anticipate. I would rather go towards being very concerned and not having to be concerned than not be concerned and all of a sudden it comes at us and we are not prepared for it." 

Samaniego says that right now the most important thing is “we don’t get to a point where people have to wait to see their loved ones at funeral homes. That was excruciating to wait to see loved ones wait months at a time.” He added that many families had to wait up to 4 months to see their loved ones. 

Samaniego said that one problem is personnel shortages. He says that it is more difficult this year to find workers. 

Ultimately, the county judge says that all of the mistakes that the community makes end up in the hospitals. 

Samaniego says that they have 300 morgue spaces. He says, “we are ready, but we still don’t need it at this time but we are close.”

He added that there are no plans right now to expand the morgue’s capacity, but they are anticipating doing so in the future.