As covid-19 surges in West Texas, hospital care is lacking, but residents of the wide open spaces don't social distance

Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine, Texas (New York Times photo by Joel Angel Juarez)

It's a tale likely being repeated in many rural areas of the United States: the coronavirus pandemic is overwhelming the Big Bend region of West Texas, and even though there's little local hospital care available, many residents in the region still aren't taking social-distancing precautions seriously.

The area is one of the most remote parts of the contiguous U.S. and one of the least-equipped to handle an outbreak. The Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine, which has 25 beds and a makeshift Covid-19 ward at the end of a hallway, is the only hospital in 12,000 square miles, Sarah Mervosh reports for The New York Times.

Alpine and Brewster County
(Wikipedia map)

Coronavirus cases are surging in the area; Big Bend counties ranked among the top 20 in the nation last week for highest new infection rates. One big reason for that: many are carrying on business as usual, and not consistently wearing masks and observing other social-distancing measures, Mervosh reports.

"The area’s limited contact tracing shows more localized spread — in bars, in multigenerational homes and through people who ignore positive test results and continue to work and socialize as normal," Mervosh reports. "In Alpine, the largest city, with a population of 5,900, residents wear masks with their cowboy hats to shop at Porter’s grocery store, but take them off to eat indoors at restaurants in town. There is far from universal agreement about whether masks are necessary and effective. In a sign of the dispute that has played out on and off social media, the county was left without a local health authority when the doctor in the position, a pediatrician working on a volunteer basis, quit this fall after facing pushback from residents who opposed mask orders and other restrictions."