LOS ANGELES: A Southern California-area hospital system, immigrant advocacy groups and Americans living in Mexico criticised on Tuesday (Aug 11) a US government draft proposal that could block US citizens and permanent residents from entering the country if they are suspected of being infected with the novel coronavirus.
The pushback comes a day after Reuters and other news outlets reported the administration of US President Donald Trump was considering a regulation that would give the government authorisation to keep out Americans believed to have contracted COVID-19 or other diseases.
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Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, which operates five hospitals in San Diego County, told Reuters the hospital system "would never endorse American citizens not being able to get the care they need."
Scripps and Sharp HealthCare, which operate hospitals that serve many COVID patients in the San Diego-area, sent a joint letter to Trump officials in April that called for medical checks at the border and mandatory quarantine for individuals suspected to be infected with coronavirus. But Van Gorder said they never supported blocking Americans.
Furthermore, Van Gorder said the percentage of coronavirus patients who recently crossed the border had declined at Scripps' hospital in Chula Vista.
READ: Half the daily 100,000 COVID-19 cases in Americas are in US: WHO director
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Phil Canete, co-director of the Refugee Health Alliance, a San Diego-based organisation that provides medical care to migrants, called the reports "extremely troubling."
"The irony of this regulation is that it presents a barrier for medical workers and (organisations) like ours to mitigate COVID spread across the border," hRead More – Source
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