While hospitals seem to overflow amid the second wave of Covid-19 in Mexico, some "villages" created to overcome the disease and break the infections'' chain look practically empty.
The Voluntary Isolation Centers (CAV) of the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) in Mexico City offer accommodation and meals to those infected with Covid-19 who, for different reasons, cannot isolate themselves at home, all for free.
Although its official name is CAV, those who have been received by this place prefer to call it "Covid-aldeas," according to El País.
The place run by the Navy suggests that it is attached to a strict military routine, but those who have been in the "Covid-Villages" describe the uniformed as "angels dressed in blue," who "pamper" you with bits "warm" treatment.
All the patients who come to the "Covid-Village" have to wear face masks and keep their healthy distance, which has not been a problem for the inmates to maintain a good relationship with each other that leads them to overcome the virus.
To be an inhabitant of this "Covid-Village," there are only three requirements: between 18 and 45 years old, without previous pathologies, and present mild pathologies of the disease, because its only an isolation center, not a hospital.
After almost a year of the pandemic in Mexico, the seafarers have softened and given asylum to some exceptions. "We have learned to be more flexible," Lieutenant Romeo Alegría, the medical supervisor of one of the CAVs, told El País.
"Patients not only arrive with Covid symptoms, they come with fear and a lot of uncertainty. Here we try to provide them with a space and give them security, part of their treatment is to reinforce their mood," Lieutenant Ana also told the Spanish newspaper Belem Soto, one of the doctors from the "Covid-village."
In Mexico City, there are two "Covid-villages" located in the Coyoacán mayor''s office to accommodate 744 people. A bed that can mean defeating the virus and not infecting a loved one.
Traducción: Valentina K. Yanes