Coronavirus

Passengers arrive in Puerto Rico from areas of greatest contagion by coronavirus in the US

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The spike in COVID-19 cases in regions with the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans living in the United States, added to the historic volume of traffic of passengers arriving from those places through the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport could represent an open route for the transmission of the virus. In Puerto Rico, epidemiology, public health, and infectious disease experts interviewed by the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) agreed. Upon reviewing data of the areas of greater COVID-19 infection in the United States, it appears that New York, New Jersey, and Florida are among the first 10 places in the spread of the virus. According to 2018 Census data, these three states are where the most Puerto Ricans live. Most of the flights that arrived at the airport between Mar.

Coronavirus

Pasajeros llegan a Puerto Rico desde las zonas de mayor contagio por coronavirus en Estados Unidos

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El aumento de casos de COVID-19 en las zonas donde viven más puertorriqueños en Estados Unidos sumado al histórico tránsito de personas que llegan desde estos lugares a través del Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín (AILMM) podrían ser una vía franca para el contagio del virus en Puerto Rico, coincidieron expertos en epidemiología, salud pública e infecciones entrevistados por el Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI). Al examinar los datos en las áreas de mayor contagio de COVID-19 en Estados Unidos, surge que Nueva York, New Jersey y Florida están en los primeros 10 lugares de propagación del virus. En esos tres estados es donde más puertorriqueños residen, según datos de 2018 del Censo. La mayoría de los vuelos que llegaron por el aeropuerto entre 8 y 17 de marzo vinieron desde estos estados, indican los datos analizados por el CPI. “A medida que aumentaron los casos allá [en Nueva York, New Jersey Florida] y siguieran los vuelos a Puerto Rico, acá también iban a aumentar los casos.

english

UPR with No Plan to Fix Defects that Could Make Buildings Vulnerable to Earthquakes

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The public university administration has only addressed five out of 92 findings related to the backlog of structural deficiencies identified more than two years ago, before Hurricane María. Although the University of Puerto Rico’s (UPR) administration has been given notice to avoid further structural damages in its campuses in case of earthquakes, the President of the institution, Jorge Haddock, acknowledges that there is no plan or a cost estimate to fix the flaws, which due to lack of maintenance and old construction defects, make some buildings vulnerable to possible earthquakes. A group of structural engineers — who inspected the 11 campuses last January after the earthquakes — approved the use of most of its facilities, but identified at least 92 pre-existing flaws, some dating to inspections done in 2017 that should be taken care of. As of Feb. 11, the UPR had only addressed five of the identified claims, six were in the process of repair and had half-mitigated 12 of the reported flaws, according to a list the university administration gave the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish).

Los chavos de María

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allowed multimillion-dollar fraud in Puerto Rico’s power grid repair contracts

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The audit of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) published Sept. 30, 2019 details how two of its districts — Hunstville and Jacksonville — failed to supervise and review the contracts, invoices and work performed by companies Fluor Enterprises and PowerSecure in Puerto Rico. These failures led to the U.S. Corps of Engineers paying $20.9 million to Fluor Enterprises and $29.2 million to PowerSecure.

Los chavos de María

El Cuerpo de Ingenieros de EE UU permitió un desfalco multimillonario en la recuperación de la red eléctrica en Puerto Rico

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La auditoría al Cuerpo de Ingenieros, publicada el pasado 30 de septiembre, detalla cómo dos de sus distritos — Hunstville y Jacksonville — fallaron en supervisar y revisar los contratos, facturas y trabajos realizados por las empresas Fluor Enterprises y PowerSecure en Puerto Rico.