It’s been more than two months since corona virus has affected us here in Honduras. I don't know how many weeks we've been in some type of curfew. Here is the first of a few posts on what I think and see here.
The situation has been precarious and there have been problems that continue.
Honduras was not prepared, to put it mildly. The healthcare system has been broken for years, with insufficient medicine in the clinics, without a budget that pays medical personnel on time and that sees that hospitals and clinics have the equipment they need. This is not to mention the scandalous crime of a few years ago when there was serious corruption in the national health service.
Thus there were – and are – doctors and nurses without adequate biosecurity equipment. There are not enough machines for inhalation therapy. And, according to one report, there are not enough places in intensive care units in at least one hospital in San Pedro Sula.
One of the problems has been the availability of tests. First, the only facility to analyze tests was in Tegucigalpa. Later it was possible in San Pedro. This week, there is a private testing facility in San Pedro which is assisting. In mid-April there were less than 100 tests being reported each day. This past week they have begun reporting more than 400 tests per day.
As of last night, according to reports from an international source, there have been 1461 cases detected, 99 deaths, 132 recovered patients: 1230 active cases detected. But this means 10 deaths per million inhabitants of Honduras and 148 cases detected per million. There have been 5635 tests, which means 571 tests per million. A quick comparison: the US has 3840 cases per million and 228 deaths per million inhabitants, but 24,416 tests per million. My guess is that there are more cases here in Honduras that are not reported due to lack of testing and backlogs of reporting of tests.
The largest number of cases in Honduras come from the San Pedro Sula area, the industrial capital of Honduras. There are also a significant number of cases detected in the region of the capital, Tegucigalpa. Other parts of the country have been seriously affected, especially the north coast. There has been only one case detected in the department (the equivalent of a state) where I live, Copán. The patient recovered and returned home from the hospital with a warm greeting from her neighbors.
The measures taken here are very strict on paper. They have gotten stricter over the course of the past five weeks. At first we could go out once a week, depending on the last number on our identity card. The first weeks they had three or four id number per day. It was, in my mind, a disaster that could endanger people. Later, one could circulate only once a week but only two id numbers per day. This week only one id number can circulate each day and so it’s two weeks between the time when you can get to the bank or a grocery store. You can go out to local small stores (tiendas or pulperías) but what you can get is limited. This means a lot of planning (and also helping or seeking to help your neighbors.)
In addition, we are supposed to wear face masks in public.
In addition, people are not to congregate and no one should be out between 5 pm and 6 am.
In the past week or so there has also been a complete curfew in the department of Cortes and in two cities, El Progresso-Yoro and Las Vegas-Santa Barbara, where there have been serious outbreaks of COVID-19.
Some see this as a type of military control – and there may be an element of this. But one of the problems that I detect is that the idea of keeping a distance between person is something foreign to the culture. I still see people shaking hands. In addition, wearing masks is a problem. Some see this as giving in to fear and have no idea of the problems of contagion. In addition, there is the problem of obtaining masks – and the cost for the poor!
One of the measures taken in our part of the country is control of entry and exit from communities. In some places this has been done by local authorities who have set up road blocks, checking on the persons and where they come from as well as spraying disinfectant on the vehicles and the shoes, pants, and hands of the passengers.
There are still a few road blocks within the area of our parish but the number has decreased. Part of this is due to the fact that there are roadblocks, with military presence, at the three major points of entry into the parish.
I don’t know if this isolation is really effective, but I think it has cut down on the dangers in our area. We’ll see.
What about the future?
I think what is important is the need to keep one’s guard up.
I have been receiving calls and text messages for people regarding religious education in the villages. I advise the catechists to put it off, because of the continuing risks. But I hear of people getting together for Sunday celebrations and fear that this may open the people to future risks. One community is taking a little better approach; only one neighborhood of the village can come to the Sunday celebration to lessen the number of people present. I still have some problems with this, but at least this is better than other places.
Another problem is that some think that because COVID-19 has not come here there is no problem, not recognizing that the measures taken may have contributed to the safety here. To let down one’s guard could be disastrous.
There are other concerns.
There are people who do not have enough food. I’ll write about this in a future post since it’s a complicated issue and there have been different responses in different parts of the country.
There are also questions of what to do in the long run, when COVID-19 has decreased. How are we to respond, especially in terms of pastoral work. That’s material for another future post.
In the meantime, I’m staying at home (except for my assisting the municipality’s distribution of food stuffs and May 13 when I’ll try to stock up on food, pay bills, and connect in person with the pastor).
Pray, study, stay at home, keep well and safe. And imagine a new way of living together as we move out of this.
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