Going forward, New Mexico might be working with the federal government to help pilot future work on surveillance, research and contact tracing as part of creating a national strategy to keep addressing the COVID-19 crisis.
Calling it a bit premature to announce, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham nonetheless reported that she spoke to the White House this morning about the possibility. "We had a very productive conversation," she said, noting that the state's high level of per capita testing, current success overall at "bending the curve" for the virus' trajectory and readying state hospitals for possible surges had put New Mexico in a position where it could help lead a federal public health strategy. That's "critical," she said, in order for the states—some of which are starting to work in tandem with one another—to craft economic development recovery strategies.
This news—along with other updates from the governor, Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel and Human Services Secretary David Scrase—accompanied today's report on cases.
First: the good news. There have been no new deaths; so far, 36 people have died from the virus.
Today, the state reported 80 additional positive tests, bringing the state total to 1,484.
As of today, 90 people have been hospitalized; 22 are on ventilators. The health department has designated 353 COVID-19 cases as having recovered by the New Mexico Department of Health.
Santa Fe County has two new cases, bringing the total here to 78, but in an interview prior to today's public briefing, Scrase told SFR "what the modeling for Santa Fe County shows is that Santa Fe County is the role model for the rest of the state."
From an epidemiological stance, Scrase says, COVID-19 seems to have a reproductive number— R0, pronounced "R naught—of 2.5, meaning the number of cases one infected person will cause. The R effective rate, he says, looks at "how many people are really being effected," versus the properties of the actual virus. In Santa Fe, Scrase notes, the effective rate of transmission is now 1.0, at least statistically. "Once you get below one," he says, "then the virus dies out." As such, he says, "Santa Fe County is the superstar in the state right now."
Health officials provided a geographic look at the rest of the state, where the northwestern part of the state—San Juan, McKinley and Sandoval counties—are being hit the hardest, accounting in combination for 75% of the state's new cases Monday and Tuesday of this week. "We're keeping a really close eye on that," Scrase said.
"It's an important area of our state to watch," he said during the public briefing, noting that those counties also have a higher rate of low-income residents, with greater challenges accessing food, housing and medical care, making them even more vulnerable to the virus.
As for the state's overall exponential growth—how long it takes for cases to double—Scrase said the doubling rate is up to 4.6 days. "They're still doubling, that's still really important but we believe the effective social distancing that everyone has been doing is really what's made the difference in this."
The state also continues to add private partners to its testing capacity, Health Secretary Kunkel said. So far, the state has tested 32,850 people, with 60 sites operating regularly across the state in all 33 counties. Laboratory capacity continues to expand, and the state can now perform up to 3,500 tests per day and plans to grow that as well. New testing partners include the National Jewish laboratory in Denver, Colorado, Sandia Laboratory—which can now test federal employees and is working on being able to test others—and Walmart also has entered into a contract, she said. The state also has deployed Abbott Laboratories' rapid testing kits to rural hospitals in the state.
Officials said the state also has secured more Personal Protection Equipment and hopes to have more on the way. This week, it received 200,000 N95 masks, 1.3 million surgical masks and 50,000 face shields. It has pending orders for 400 ventilators independently as well as 1,000 through the Federal Emergency Management Administration, 1.5 million N-95 masks and 600,000 gloves.
"I wanted New Mexicans to see we are having success," Lujan Grisham said. "We are really on this. Is this an assurance that there will be no shortages or difficulties anywhere in the state? No, it's not. But it should you give you great confidence that we are taking nothing for granted and our front line health care workers and our first responders and our food delivers and preparers are getting what they need to stay safe, keep patients safe and served and keep everybody else in the state from being at risk of catching this infection."
As for the question of when and how state businesses might be allowed to reopen, it's still an open question. The current stay-at-home orders and essential business regulations are in effect through the end of April, and the governor did not discuss whether they would be extended.
She did speak, more than once, to concerns from around the state about the competitive advantage Big Box stores—such as Lowe's and Home Depot—have over small businesses, as the former were characterized as essential. The issue, Lujan Grisham said, is troubling to everyone in the country who is trying to make sure their local businesses can survive. "…It's not easy and the financial strains and struggles of these businesses and the communities also affected are real."
Nonetheless, she said, because the state is not yet at its surge and the cases haven't peaked, allowing even smaller groups at smaller businesses opens up the possibility of increasing transmission of the virus. "The notion that if you have risk at once place, it's fair to have risk at two places is not an effective strategy where you're dealing with a public health emergency," she said. "The virus does not care where humans are in contact with other humans." The state is, she said, working on a number of strategies for how it will ease restrictions after the virus surges.
Still, there may be some possible good news in the offing for one type of small business: plant nurseries. As SFR originally reported last week, they were not included in the the governor's most recent list of essential businesses. This concerned not just nursery owners, but local growers, who have been contacting the governor's office.
"I'm sympathetic to the nurseries," Lujan Grisham said. "New Mexicans are ready to have some hope right now for spring and summer and planting and supporting a local business… " She, herself, grows tomatoes. However, continually granting exemptions to the public health order "flies in the face of dealing with the public health emergency…We are looking for fairness. We don't want to hurt small businesses where we don't have to. But this is not an either or: I have to do both. I have to deal with this public health crisis and keep trying to keep folks at home and that means that we're restricting access to any number of small local businesses and we are pained by it."
Nonetheless, she said, the administration is considering how it might allow the nurseries to operate via internet and with curbside sales and delivery. "We are taking a look," she said. "They should expect to hear from us…we have a couple of ideas that I hope will bear—pardon the pun—fruit in short order in the next day or so."
New cases
Per the state Department of Health, the most recent cases are:
- 13 new cases in Bernalillo County
- 1 new case in Cibola County
- 4 new cases in Doña Ana County
- 1 new case in Grant County
- 38 new cases in McKinley County
- 9 new cases in Sandoval County
- 11 new cases in San Juan County
- 2 new cases in Santa Fe County
- 1 new case in Socorro County
Congregate living facilities
The Department of Health has identified positive COVID-19 cases in residents and/or staff at the following congregate living facilities:
- Advanced Health Care of Albuquerque in Albuquerque
- Aztec Health Care in Aztec
- Beehive Homes in Farmington
- Central Desert Behavioral Health in Albuquerque
- Good Samaritan Manzano del Sol in Albuquerque
- La Vida Llena in Albuquerque
- Legacy Santa Fe in Santa Fe
- Life Care Center of Farmington in Farmington
- Uptown Genesis in Albuquerque
Statewide cases
The case numbers reported previously included three duplicates in San Juan County. The error has been corrected and is reflected in today’s numbers. Including the above newly reported cases, New Mexico has now had a total of 1,484 positive tests for COVID-19. County totals are subject to change upon further investigation and determination of residency of individuals positive for COVID-19.
The Department of Health has detected community spread in Bernalillo, Doña Ana, McKinley, Otero, Sandoval, San Juan, and Santa Fe counties and is investigating cases with no known exposure.
Bernalillo County: 477
Catron County: 1
Chaves County: 19
Cibola County: 29
Colfax County: 2
Curry County: 10
Doña Ana County: 54
Eddy County: 7
Grant County: 11
Lea County: 2
Lincoln County: 1
Los Alamos County: 6
Luna County: 2
McKinley County: 242
Otero County: 3
Quay County: 1
Rio Arriba County: 10
Roosevelt County: 1
Sandoval County: 262
San Juan County: 200
San Miguel County: 2
Santa Fe County: 78
Socorro County: 16
Taos County: 15
Torrance County: 12
Valencia County: 21
* Per the state, hospitalization figures may include individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 out of state but are currently hospitalized here but does not include New Mexicans who tested positive for COVID-19 and may have been transferred to a hospital out of state.
