Baja shuts most services for 5 days
Baja shuts most services for 5 days
Closures coincide with two national holidays
By Sandra DibbleUnion-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. May 1, 2009
TIJUANA – Nonessential public services and private-sector activities have been suspended across Baja California for the next five days under a federal
health ministry order aimed at containing the spread of swine flu throughout Mexico.
Although the state has had no confirmed cases of the disease, Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán said yesterday during a news conference that the
measures are necessary to minimize the possibility of infection.
“It is time for all Baja Californians to close ranks so that we can overcome this situation,” Osuna said. Indications are that activities will resume
as normal on Wednesday, he said. In the meantime, residents are being urged to stay home with their families.
The five-day shutdown coincides with two Mexican holidays, May 1 and May 5, when most government offices are normally closed in the country. Essential
government services – including police, medical care, military operations, customs and financial markets – will not be curtailed. Only essential
businesses such as supermarkets and pharmacies should stay open, the governor said.
The state's maquiladoras are also exempt from the mandatory measures. Javier Martinez Luna, president of Tijuana's Association of Maquiladora
Industries, said it has been left to the discretion of each plant whether to cut back production: “The idea is that the maquiladora industry doesn't
face sanctions for having to maintain its export commitments.”
In addition, the Roman Catholic Church announced the suspension of Sunday Mass in the Tijuana Archdiocese, recommending that worshippers watch it on
television or listen on the radio.
The measures come as Baja California takes other steps to ward off flu. Officials on Tuesday began monitoring all points of entry to Baja California –
border crossings, airports, roads and ports – to minimize the possibility that an infected person could enter the state.
Dr. José Bustamante, Baja California's health secretary, said booths have been set up at those points, with medical staff ready to screen anyone with
symptoms of the disease. At the border with Sonora and Baja California Sur, soldiers are boarding buses, asking passengers with symptoms to step
forward so they can examined, Bustamante said.
A key part of the campaign has been building public awareness of the disease, and Bustamante has been making regular appearances, urging residents who
believe they have fever, headache, soreness and congestion to seek treatment at public health centers.
While eight cases have been confirmed in San Diego County and five in Imperial County, Baja California officials reported none as of yesterday
afternoon. Bustamante said the same phenomenon occurred last year, when measles was recorded across the border and in neighboring Mexican states, but
Baja California had no signs of the disease.
Bustamante said he is called immediately when a potential case of swine flu is identified. Yesterday, he said 10 people were under observation
statewide with possible symptoms.
Patients must be screened by a doctor and an epidemiologist before they are given an initial test that screens for influenza A or B, Bustamante said.
From April 16 to Wednesday afternoon, only 12 patients had been tested, Bustamante said in an interview. None of them had shown signs of the disease,
but samples have been sent to a federal laboratory in Mexico City for further testing, which in turn will send them to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention for verification.
Bustamante said he has the resources both for testing and for treatment, but would not give out specific numbers. He said he has the means to obtain
more test kits and medication if it becomes necessary.
“The governor made it very clear to me that I can buy what I need, hire who I need,” Bustamante said.
The United States and Mexico have been collaborating for years on tracking diseases along the border, and are doing so to stem the spread of swine flu
both at the national and local levels, where Baja California officials are working with the San Diego County health department.
“We have very good interactions with the Mexicans,” said Dr. Larry Kline, a San Diego physician who is one of two California members of the
U.S.-Mexico Health Commission.
“Mexico has put extreme measures in place that didn't have to necessarily be that extreme,” Maria Teresa Cerqueira, chief of the World Health
Organization's U.S.-Mexico Border Office in El Paso, Texas. “People are prepared, they know what to do.”
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