Health officials continue to warn about threats to New Mexico's hospital capacity in the wake of surging COVID-19 cases across the state over the last two weeks.
Leaders at Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center joined Health and Human Services Secretary David Scrase in a virtual webinar earlier today to urge New Mexicans to strictly adhere to COVID-safe practices to avoid overwhelming the state's hospitals.
"We're at a record number of hospitalizations," Scrase said. "We've never been at a point this high."
Concerns about growing hospitalizations are only mounting as the state once again announces a record-breaking number of new cases: 1,082 today. Bernalillo County led with 260 new cases, followed closely by Doña Ana County with 248 and Luna County with 106. Santa Fe County had 51 new cases today.
The chart below shows all the state's cases on the left and the picture over the last week on the right, with darker colors indicating counties with higher numbers of new cases.
The state also announced three additional deaths from Bernalillo, Grant and Sandoval counties; there have now been 994 fatalities.
As of today, 323 people are hospitalized with COVID-19.*
While the state is meeting its gating criteria for ICU beds statewide, Scrase said officials will be reviewing its criteria of 439 or fewer adult ICU beds available across the state.
At that number, according to Presbyterian Medical Chief Medical Officer Jason Mitchell, hospitals have to switch to contingency plans and start closing other areas of the hospital. Beyond that, hospitals enter a crisis level, which can include sharing equipment, training outside providers to run ventilators and other emergency measures.
"New Mexico is heading in that direction if it doesn't make changes," Mitchell said. On its current trajectory, the state will exceed its COVID-19 contingency beds in mid-November and its crisis ICU beds in December.
"We're not past the tipping point," Mitchell said. "We actually have the ability to bring this curve back down."
Christus Chief Medical Officer David Gonzales also reviewed Christus' COVID protocol, and noted this surge is producing more sick people than the last one. "What we're seeing here at Christus is that the severity seems to be a little lower than the previous surge, and when I say a little bit lower…we have less people on ventilators. But we have a whole lot more people on sophisticated high flow oxygen, and they're requiring non invasive ventilation. It may appear the severity is less, but these people are sick, they're ICU level…and there are a lot more of them."
The upshot, Mitchell said, is New Mexico is at "a pivotal point. We're not past the tipping point, but we do have to make changes as a community. The data is really clear…all the models agree: We are at a point where we have to take it seriously. We could not do anything and feel like we're kind of OK for a couple of weeks, and then it really hits us a month from now. What we observe directly in our day-to-day lives is not going to reflect the criticality of where we are right now."
New cases
- 260 new cases in Bernalillo County
- 32 new cases in Chaves County
- 36 new cases in Cibola County
- 28 new cases in Curry County
- 248 new cases in Doña Ana County
- 24 new cases in Eddy County
- 4 new cases in Grant County
- 1 new case in Guadalupe County
- 5 new cases in Hidalgo County
- 67 new cases in Lea County
- 4 new cases in Lincoln County
- 1 new case in Los Alamos County
- 106 new cases in Luna County
- 25 new cases in McKinley County
- 1 new case in Mora County
- 14 new cases in Otero County
- 2 new cases in Quay County
- 12 new cases in Rio Arriba County
- 6 new cases in Roosevelt County
- 41 new cases in Sandoval County
- 17 new cases in San Juan County
- 7 new cases in San Miguel County
- 51 new cases in Santa Fe County
- 6 new cases in Sierra County
- 11 new cases in Socorro County
- 17 new cases in Taos County
- 1 new case in Torrance County
- 1 new case in Union County
- 49 new cases in Valencia County
- 2 new cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the Otero County Processing Center
- 2 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County
- 1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County
New fatalities
- A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions
- A male in his 90s from Grant County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions
- A female in her 20s from Sandoval County who 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:
- Adobe Assisted Living in Las Cruces
- Albuquerque Heights Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center
- Artesia Healthcare and Rehabilitation
- Atria Vista Del Rio in Albuquerque
- Avamere at Fiesta Park in Albuquerque
- Bear Canyon Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque
- BeeHive Homes Volcano Cliffs in Albuquerque
- Belen Meadows Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Belen
- Bloomfield Nursing and Rehabilitation
- Brookdale Santa Fe
- Brookdale Valencia Albuquerque
- Calibre Sagecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Las Cruces
- Casa del Sol Center in Las Cruces
- Casa de Oro Center in Las Cruces
- Casa Maria Health Care Center in Roswell
- Casa Real in Santa Fe
- Clovis Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Clovis
- Colfax Long Term Care Center in Colfax
- Desert Springs Nursing and Rehabilitation in Hobbs
- El Castillo in Santa Fe
- Fairwinds Assisted Living in Rio Rancho
- Good Life Senior Living in Artesia
- Good Life Senior Living in Carlsbad
- Good Life Senior Living in Lovington
- Good Samaritan Manzano Del Sol Independent Senior Living in Albuquerque
- Good Samaritan Society Grants
- Good Samaritan Society Las Cruces
- Ladera Center in Albuquerque
- Laguna Rainbow Care Center in Casa Blanca
- Lakeview Christian Home in Carlsbad
- Las Palomas Center in Albuquerque
- La Vida Llena Assisted Living in Albuquerque
- Lotus Care Homes Galaxia in Albuquerque
- Life Care Center in Farmington
- LifeSpire Assisted Living in Rio Rancho
- Lovington Healthcare in Lovington
- Kingston Residence of Santa Fe
- Mission Arch Center in Roswell
- The Montebello on Academy in Albuquerque
- The Neighborhood in Rio Rancho
- New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences
- North Ridge Care Center in Albuquerque
- Odelia Healthcare (Camino Healthcare) in Albuquerque
- Palmilla Senior Living in Albuquerque
- Princeton Place in Albuquerque
- Red Rocks Care Center in Gallup
- The Rehabilitation Center of Albuquerque
- Retirement Ranches in Clovis
- Retreat Healthcare in Rio Rancho
- The Rio Las Estancias in Albuquerque
- Rio Rancho Center
- Sandia Ridge Center in Albuquerque
- San Juan Center in Albuquerque
- Silver City Care Center in Silver City
- Skies Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque
- Sombrillo Nursing and Rehabilitation in Los Alamos
- South Valley Care Center in Albuquerque
- St. Anthony Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Clovis
- Sunset Villa Care Center in Roswell
- Uptown Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque
- Village at Northrise in Las Cruces
- Village Retirement Community in Roswell
- Vista Hermosa in Santa Fe
- Welbrook Senior Living Las Cruces
- Westwind House Assisted Living in Albuquerque
- Wheatfields Senior Living Community in Clovis
- White Sands Healthcare in Hobbs
Statewide cases
According to a state news release, previously reported numbers included three cases (one in Chaves County, one in Doña Ana County and one in Sandoval County) that have been identified as duplicates and one case in Bernalillo County that was not lab confirmed—these have now been corrected. County totals are subject to change upon further investigation and determination of residency of individuals positive for COVID-19.
- Bernalillo County: 11,116
- Catron County: 10
- Chaves County: 2,066
- Cibola County: 607
- Colfax County: 45
- Curry County: 1,596
- De Baca County: 2
- Doña Ana County: 6,325
- Eddy County: 1,505
- Grant County: 191
- Guadalupe County: 43
- Harding County: 1
- Hidalgo County: 122
- Lea County: 2,177
- Lincoln County: 384
- Los Alamos County: 48
- Luna County: 1,082
- McKinley County: 4,674
- Mora County: 15
- Otero County: 527
- Quay County: 104
- Rio Arriba County: 513
- Roosevelt County: 469
- Sandoval County: 2,040
- San Juan County: 3,805
- San Miguel County: 182
- Santa Fe County: 1,791
- Sierra County: 116
- Socorro County: 248
- Taos County: 245
- Torrance County: 100
- Union County: 41
- Valencia County: 1,002
Cases among people being held by federal agencies
- Cibola County Correctional Center: 348
- Otero County Prison Facility: 390
- Otero County Processing Center: 189
- Torrance County Detention Facility: 44
Cases among people being held by the New Mexico Department of Corrections
- Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County: 92
- Lea County Correctional Facility: 110
- Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 5
- Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 1
- Otero County Prison Facility: 472
- Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 2
- Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County: 55
- Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 4
*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.
