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COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 609 new COVID-19 cases, an approximate 27% increase from the day prior, and the highest single daily case count since Feb. 26, when the state reported 659 cases (although that spike was driven by nearly 200 state inmates cases). There have now been 212,577 total COVID-19 cases; DOH has designated 197,192 of them as recovered.
Bernalillo County had 207 new cases, followed by Eddy County with 40 cases and Sandoval County with 39. Santa Fe County had 12 new cases.
“New Mexico’s rise in case numbers prove this pandemic to be far from over,” DOH spokesman David Morgan tells SFR via email. “More New Mexicans this week have a better chance of knowing family or friends who have tested positive than the week before. Be careful out there; do not let your guard down against this virus.”
The state also announced two additional deaths, one recent and one from more than 30 days ago (DOH says it only reports COVID-deaths when death certificates are issued, and some are delayed due to incomplete information); there have now been 4,416 fatalities.
As of yesterday, 187 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, a 48% increase since one week ago and more than 200% increase from the first week of July.
Currently, 73.4% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 65.1% are fully vaccinated. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 50% have had at least one dose and 39.1% have been fully vaccinated. In Santa Fe County, among those 18 years and older, 83.6% have had at least one dose and 74.9% are fully inoculated.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Saving green chile
New Mexico Lt. Gov. Howie Morales said yesterday the state will provide up to $5 million in federal pandemic money to help ensure adequate labor for harvesting red and green chile this season. Morales’ assurances follow Republican lawmakers’ assertion via a letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham earlier this week that the $300 federal supplemental unemployment payments “are now the leading cause of labor shortages in virtually every area of our state’s economy, including the chile industry.” The letter, written by state Reps. Rebecca Dow (Truth or Consequences) and Luis Terrazas (Silver City), as well as Sen. Crystal Diamond of Elephant Butte, further contends that “people in Southern New Mexico are witnessing firsthand how the chile industry is becoming a casualty of our flawed supplemental unemployment insurance program. Though the chile farmers of our state may bear the early burden of this labor shortage, it is not long before other agricultural industries feel the effects of this policy.” Morales, however, says the labor shortage predates the insurance, which, he notes many agricultural workers can’t receive due to their immigration status. The state plans to boost workers’ pay to ensure this year’s harvest. “We don’t ever want a chile season to be wasted and crops to be lost,” Morales told the Albuquerque Journal, while noting the industry has long-term challenges to address, including immigration law and technology.
Santa Fe campaign disclosure law holds
A federal judge has rejected an appeal from the Rio Grande Foundation over a lawsuit challenging the City of Santa Fe’s campaign laws. Specifically, the group challenged the city’s campaign disclosure requirements. The dispute dates to May 2017, when the so-called “soda tax” proposal came before Santa Fe voters (and ultimately failed to pass). The Rio Grande Foundation opposed the proposal and launched a “No Way Santa Fe” campaign, which subsequently provoked a citizen complaint. The foundation complied with the city’s order and did not, in its judicial action, seek any back-relief for the soda tax issue but, rather, “prospective relief” for future issues, saying that the city’s disclosure requirements for nonprofits “substantially burden and chill the Foundation’s rights to free speech and association.” Regarding the dismissal of the appeal by the 10th District Court of Appeals in Denver, Foundation President Paul Gessing told the Associated Press his organization plans to seek another hearing and “We won’t disclose our donors until or unless the court specifically demands we do so. We’ll continue to protect our donors’ privacy to the fullest extent of the law.” Other organizations supported the city’s transparency requirements, including the Brennan Center for Justice, New Mexico Ethics Watch, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause.
PED suspends Floyd school board over COVID-19 vote
Outgoing Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart yesterday suspended the five-member Floyd school board in Roosevelt County for its refusal to implement PED’s COVID-19 school re-entry protocol, and reinstated Superintendent Damon Terry, whom board members had placed on leave for refusing to carry out their orders. Terry will instead report to Stewart for the time being (Stewart’s resignation is effective Aug. 20). The Floyd board voted July 26 at a special meeting to make masks and social distancing optional and to disregard state guidelines on indoor air quality, transportation, surveillance testing and other COVID-safe practices for the Floyd Municipal Schools’ 225 students, 20 teachers and 22 support staff. “The PED takes its responsibility to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all staff and students incredibly seriously,” Stewart wrote in a suspension memo. “We cannot put students, staff and their families at unnecessary risk as we continue the fight against the Delta variant. By ignoring these basic safety measures, the board impairs the ability of the district to offer safe and uninterrupted in-person learning opportunities.” The suspension followed a discussion between Stewart and Board President Leon Nall, and is the third such suspension Stewart has enacted during his tenure.
Listen up
Based on anecdotal evidence, many Santa Feans’ thoughts on ants mostly revolve around how to get rid of them. Not so for SFI External Professor Deborah Gordon, a Stanford University biology professor, who studies ants’ collective behavior. In SFI’s most recent Complexity podcast, host Michael Garfield talks with Gordon about how ants work in colonies (not along the rigid caste system as some may believe), and what people “can we learn from ants about the strategies for thriving in times of uncertainty and turbulence,” as well as which algorithms ants use to navigate environmental change.
A visit to Trinity
Citizens can visit White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico’s Trinity Site, twice a year, on the first Saturdays of April and October. New York Times writer Dennis Overbye writes of doing so in “Touring Trinity, the Birthplace of Nuclear Dread,” a feature story juxtaposing the site’s history with its present-day experience. Overbye, also the author of Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Search for the Secret of the Universe and Einstein in Love: A Scientific Romance, visited Trinity with two friends, and ended up sharing a hotel room with both due to the coinciding Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Despite the signs warning visitors not to take any souvenirs, Overbye did carry home some allegedly radioactive trinitite: “On returning home, I took my bounty of trinitite to the office and gave it to a colleague whose spouse taught chemistry and had access to a Geiger counter,” he writes. “I was hoping that my pebbles would be at least as radioactive as a banana, but my friend’s verdict came the next day. ‘Pathetic,’ he said.”
More films head into production in NM
The state Film Office this week announced two more productions underway in New Mexico. The short film Dispatch, produced by 701 Productions, will be filming in Santa Fe and Albuquerque in August, and employ approximately nine New Mexico crew members, 13 New Mexico principal cast members and 20 New Mexico background and extras. Directed by Aeryn Lee and produced by Aeryn Lee and Gentry Lee (both of Permafrost), Dispatch, as described in a news release, “follows a disturbing 911 call from ringing phone to resolution. As the case unfolds, the line between innocence and guilt blurs and family bonds are tested.” The documentary Successful Outlaw, produced by Successful Outlaw LLC, will shoot in Taos, New Mexico, from August until November 2022 and employ 12 New Mexico crew members. In a news release, director, producer and editor David Luis Leal Cortez says the film follows the life of biker, builder and master silversmith Daniel “Pepe” Rochon as he builds an off grid, adobe-style hacienda: “My goal is to make a character driven, transcendental documentary that elucidates and expands one’s ideas about sustainability and creativity, and the blending of the two,” he says. Supported by the New Mexico Film Foundation, Successful Outlaw is also seeking funding in the form of tax-deductible donations.
Drying out
The National Weather Service says today will be sunny with a high near 86 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the morning.
Thanks for reading! The Word has been enjoying designer Christine Rhee’s fake New York Review of Books Classics covers (you can read more about them here).
