This is the third time in three years that the Virus has forced officials to isolate migrants at a Mexican government facility.

EL PASO, Texas (border report) – The largest state-run migrant Shelter in Juarez has stopped accepting new arrivals due to a Chickenpox Outbreak, Mexican officials have confirmed.

Five children have tested positive for the virus and have been placed in isolation at the Leon Vicario federal shelter, while their parents and others who had close contact with them are being monitored, a federal official told Border Report. Children and anyone who tests positive for the virus will receive medical care from visiting doctors from the Mexican Institute of Social Security Hospital.

Leona Vicario, a former closed industrial facility converted into dormitories, a kitchen and living quarters, is currently hosting about 500 migrants, said Juan Carlos Loera, federal government spokesman in Juarez. The facility can accommodate up to 1,000 guests, but has never accommodated more than 700 people.

This is the third time in three years that the shelter has dealt with a chickenpox outbreak. About 150 migrants with the virus, mostly Honduran children, were isolated in December 2021, and 144 more were diagnosed with chickenpox in 2020.

(Juarez photojournalist Roberto Delgado contributed to this report)