New Mexico health officials today reported 319 new positive test cases for COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 16,456, of which the health department has designated 6,654 as recovered. This is the third highest day of cases in New Mexico since the start of the pandemic.
Bernalillo County continues to drive the new cases: 111 of them today. Rio Arriba County had 37 new cases today—28 more than the day prior. SFR has a pending request to the health department about the rise in Rio Arriba County and will update this story if and when more is learned.
Doña Ana County had the third highest number of cases today: 36. Valencia County had double the number of cases from yesterday (11) with 25.
Santa Fe County had seven new cases today, bringing the total here so far to 396, 167 of which have been designated as recovered.
The state also announced three additional deaths from McKinley and San Juan counties, bringing the total number of fatalities to 565.
As of today, 166 people are hospitalized.*
The latest figures arrived following a data-heavy virtual news conference earlier today with Human Services Secretary David Scrase that looked at the evolving COVID-19 picture in the state, and included the regular pitch to the public to wear a mask to help slow the rising number of cases here, mentioning a recent case in which masked COVID-19-positive hairdressers failed to infect any of their clients.
"I'm on a kick every single time to talk to people about wearing mask," Scrase said. "This is really more a message to people who don't wear a mask: In operating rooms in America for the past 100 years, everyone has worn masks. It's not that operating rooms listen to too much NPR; they started doing this before NPR, there's science behind this. For those of your readers who still struggle with this concept of wearing a mask, I have a question: If you had to have an upcoming surgery, how comfortable would you feel with your operating team not wearing masks or not wearing gloves? I haven't run into anyone who would be comfortable with that scenario."
Despite a few moments of levity from Scrase, overall, the picture was relatively grim with rising cases throughout the state.
"It's contributing to virtually every region," Scrase said. "COVID is everywhere. It's everywhere people are."
As such, the issue of re-opening schools in the fall remains an open question, he said, with the modeling team at Los Alamos National Laboratory performing "complex" tests of various scenarios.
"Our intention is to get the data wrapped up, the analysis final and present something to the governor next week," Scrase said. "We know it's the number one issue on the public's mind…independent of everyone's political or emotional responses, I think we will have done everything we could to look at those scenarios carefully."
On the slightly bright side, he noted, New Mexico isn't in the "worse than red" category on the COVID exit strategy website, which indicates "uncontrollable spread," but remains red for "trending poorly."
With cases rising, hospitalizations also are beginning to increase. Deaths have been lower, which could change given the growing cases and hospitalizations.
Notably, the state is seeing an uptick of asymptomatic people who test positive for COVID-19. This is a good sign, Scrase says, as it indicates people are getting tested—possibly after learning they were in proximity to someone who had tested positive.
"If we contact people before they have symptoms and isolate them and get them a test, we should see an increasing number of asymptomatic people," he said. "People who are symptomatic are generally going to get tested; upward trend is a good thing. It could also represent the fact that people are more informed about COVID and they are getting more information and they are realizing, 'hey maybe I should get tested.'"
More young people are being tested, he said. The case numbers also remain high for people in the 20 to 29 age group—beyond what would be expected from increased testing.
Another potentially good sign comes from tracking of mobility. "The more people travel, the higher the case counts will go," Scrase said, "and that's been true through most of the pandemic." Now, mobility appears to be mostly "leveling off." Keeping in mind that mobility always dips on the weekends, the following chart shows the relationship between various public health orders, mobility and case counts.
As for the overarching question on everyone's mind about why cases are going up, the reasons vary. In border towns such as those in Lea and Curry counties, travel to Texas is helping drive new cases. In Bernalillo County—where rising cases may send it beyond McKinley County soon for total numbers—no specific event or issue is at play. People are getting together, sometimes in larger groups. People aren't wearing masks. People aren't taking precautions. The results of holiday weekends, such as July 4, are starting to show up. The growing numbers haven't, as of yet, shown to be the result of tourists or specific events.
"We're searching for a particular reason," Scrase said. "[Something] people are doing that we can tell them to stop doing. At this point we're not finding those common themes in the contact tracing interviews."
As for contact tracing, the state continues to train new contact tracers to keep up with the growing number of cases and, thus, people that need to be alerted and isolated. Contact tracing remains one of the state's gating criteria not being met. The state's modeling also shows, Scrase said, New Mexico maxing out its hospital capacity.
"If everything keeps going as badly as it's going, we will completely strain our resources," Scrase said. "This is not good news. We're very focused on this [and] mask wearing could help decrease this."
New cases
- 111 new cases in Bernalillo County
- 2 new cases in Chaves County
- 1 new case in Colfax County
- 9 new cases in Curry County
- 36 new cases in Doña Ana County
- 1 new case in Eddy County
- 1 new case in Grant County
- 1 new case in Hidalgo County
- 11 new cases in Lea County
- 5 new cases in Luna County
- 16 new cases in McKinley County
- 1 new case in Mora County
- 6 new cases in Otero County
- 3 new cases in Quay County
- 37 new cases in Rio Arriba County
- 1 new case in Roosevelt County
- 12 new cases in Sandoval County
- 26 new cases in San Juan County
- 1 new case in San Miguel County
- 7 new cases in Santa Fe County
- 4 new cases in Taos County
- 25 new cases in Valencia County
- 2 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County
New fatalities
- A male in his 40s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
- A male in his 80s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
- A female in her 70s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
Congregate facilities
The Department of Health has identified at least one positive COVID-19 case in residents and/or staff in the past 28 days at the following facilities:
- The Adobe in Las Cruces
- The Aristocrat Assisted Living Center in Alamogordo
- Advanced Health Care of Albuquerque in Albuquerque
- BeeHive Homes of Farmington in Farmington
- Bloomfield Nursing and Rehabilitation in Bloomfield
- Blue Horizon Assisted Living in Las Cruces
- Bonney Family Home in Gallup
- Brookdale Juan Tabo Place in Albuquerque
- Camino Healthcare in Albuquerque
- Casa del Sol Center in Las Cruces
- Casa de Oro Center in Las Cruces
- Casa Real in Santa Fe
- Cedar Ridge Inn in Farmington
- Crane’s Roost Care Home in Aztec
- Desert Springs Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Hobbs
- Good Samaritan Society in Grants
- Good Samaritan Society in Las Cruces
- Life Care Center of Farmington in Farmington
- Montebello on Academy in Albuquerque
- The Neighborhood in Rio Rancho
- Princeton Place in Albuquerque
- Red Rocks Care Center in Gallup
- Retirement Ranches, Inc. in Clovis
- The Rio at Las Estancias in Albuquerque
- Rio Rancho Center in Rio Rancho
- Sagecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Las Cruces
- Sandia Ridge Center in Albuquerque
- Sombrillo Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Los Alamos
- Sierra Health Care Center, Inc. in Truth or Consequences
- Spanish Trails Rehabilitation Suites in Albuquerque
- Taos Living Center in Taos
- The Village at Northrise in Las Cruces
- Welbrook Senior Living Las Cruces in Las Cruces
Statewide cases
According to a state news release, previously reported numbers included two cases that have been identified as out-of-state residents: one in Doña Ana County and one in McKinley County; these have now been corrected. Previously reported numbers did not include one case in Doña Ana County that was thought to be an out-of-state resident that has since been determined to be a New Mexico resident and has been added to Doña Ana County. County totals are subject to change upon further investigation and determination of residency of individuals positive for COVID-19.
Bernalillo County: 3,578
Catron County: 4
Chaves County: 189
Cibola County: 259
Colfax County: 11
Curry County: 291
Doña Ana County: 1,645
Eddy County: 168
Grant County: 47
Guadalupe County: 24
Harding County: 1
Hidalgo County: 77
Lea County: 333
Lincoln County: 32
Los Alamos County: 14
Luna County: 140
McKinley County: 3,724
Mora County: 3
Otero County: 96
Quay County: 22
Rio Arriba County: 193
Roosevelt County: 84
Sandoval County: 895
San Juan County: 2,808
San Miguel County: 30
Santa Fe County: 396
Sierra County: 17
Socorro County: 63
Taos County: 69
Torrance County: 49
Union County: 14
Valencia County: 241
Cases among people being held by federal agencies
- Cibola County Correctional Center: 2
- Otero County Prison Facility: 275
- Otero County Processing Center: 149
- Torrance County Detention Facility: 43
Cases among people being held by the Mexico Department of Corrections
- Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County: 9
- Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 1
- Otero County Prison Facility: 459
- Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 1
*Per the health department, hospitalization figures include people who were tested elsewhere but are hospitalized in New Mexico, but don't include people who were tested here but are hospitalized out of state.
