Empowering a Covid-19 Clinic in Matamoros, Mexico

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Footprint Project partnered with Global Response Management (GRM) to power the COVID-19 Clinic for the Matamoros Refugee Camp. The Footprint Project provided a solar tent and trailer which became the first operational Solar Powered COVID-19 Clinic supporting doctors and medics. Footprint Project’s first-in” solar battery systems powered lighting, communications, and refrigeration for the 20-bed treatment center. The Solar COVID-19 Clinic remained in Matamoros, Mexico through June, off-setting diesel emissions the approximately 2,500 asylum seekers in the tent encampment.

While humanitarian field operations almost always rely on diesel generators, FP’s solar trailer and solar shelter are providing clean, quiet power for the new ITC. Studies show that respiratory viral infections in refugee settings are associated with high rates of illness and excess case-fatality due to overcrowding, suboptimal living conditions, and malnutrition. According to GRM, approximately 25% of adults living in the camp have a comorbidity. FP’s mobile solar-plus-battery storage systems will help eliminate generator fumes and localized air pollution next to patients in respiratory distress (up to 20,000 lbs CO² carbon avoidance per month), as well as drastically reduce GRM’s fuel costs (up to $2,000 fuel savings per month).

“As far as we know, this is the world’s first solar COVID treatment center,” said Will Heegaard, FP Director. “The last thing someone who is intubated or on a ventilator needs is a nearby diesel generator spewing particulate matter.”

The COVID ITC was constructed on the outskirts of the crowded tent village, away from residential areas and the pre-existing general clinic where GRM has been providing free medical care to the camp’s migrant population since October 2019. The new, 20-bed ITC is stocked with personal protective equipment, COVID diagnostic machines, and a portable ventilator, all exclusively for isolation and treatment of migrants living in the camp. As of May 1, there were 112 COVID-positive cases in the surrounding city of Matamoros, which has just 25 ventilators and 11 intensive care beds for its population of over half a million.

The roughly 2,000 migrants, largely from Central and South America and the Caribbean, have been forced by the Trump Administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) to stay in Mexico throughout their legal claim to asylum. Over 1,300 are still awaiting their first court date, the pandemic now extending that wait even further with all MPP hearings postponed. Meanwhile, camp residents continue to be confined to small, huddled tents and are dependent on communal showers, kitchens, and bathrooms, making social distancing nearly impossible.

“It’s very important not just for people in the camp, but for everyone in Matamoros, to prevent, prepare, and be safe from the virus,” said Lourdes Tatiana Hayes, translator for GRM and asylum- seeker from Peru, regarding the new ITC. “But we hope we never use it.”

Arial view of the Covid-19 Clinic powered by Footprint Project’s solar battery tent and trailer.

Arial view of the Covid-19 Clinic powered by Footprint Project’s solar battery tent and trailer.