Juarez shelter stops taking in migrants due to chicken pox outbreak

Juarez shelter stops taking in migrants due to chicken pox outbreak



by: Julian Resendiz
Posted: Feb 7, 2023 / 01:08 PM CST
Updated: Feb 7, 2023 / 01:08 PM CST




This is the third time in three years the virus has forced officials to isolate migrants at Mexican government facility



EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The largest migrant government shelter in Juarez has stopped taking in new arrivals due to a chicken pox outbreak, Mexican officials confirmed.

Five children tested positive for the virus and have been placed in isolation inside the Leona Vicario federal shelter, and their parents and other people who had closed contact with them are under observation, a federal official told Border Report.

The children and anyone else who tests positive for the virus will receive medical treatment from visiting doctors from the Mexican Social Security Institute hospital.


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Migrants stand about inside the gated Leona Vicario federal government migrant shelter in Juarez, Mexico. (Border Report photo)

Leona Vicario, a former gated industrial facility modified with dormitories, kitchen and living areas, is currently hosting about 500 migrants, said Juan Carlos Loera, the federal government’s representative in Juarez. The facility can house up to 1,000 guests but has never held more than 700.

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This is the third time in the last three years that the shelter has dealt with a chicken pox outbreak. Some 150 migrants with the virus, mostly Honduran children, were placed in isolation in December 2021 and 144 others also were diagnosed with chicken pox in 2020.

(Juarez photojournalist Roberto Delgado contributed to this report)



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