Justin Sequera, age 22, hugs his mother Jacqueline Aguirre, at the gravesite of her father, Fernando Aquirre, who died of Covid-19 at the age of 69 in McAllen, Texas. | Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The pandemic has overwhelmed hospitals in the state’s lowest-income, primarily Hispanic communities.

It was a Friday night, and Ivan Melendez, the public health authority for Hidalgo County, Texas, had been on the job since 7 am. He was preparing to put in another 10 hours of work as he parked outside Edinburg Regional Medical Center, about a half-hour drive from the Mexican border.

He knew what to expect inside the hospital, where an office space has been converted into a temporary Covid-19 floor with about 50 beds separated by curtains. For months, he had witnessed scenes that had once been unimaginable: bed after bed of intubated and