NM reports 7 more virus deaths, 147 new cases

SANTA FE — State health officials reported seven more coronavirus deaths and 147 more cases Tuesday, pushing New Mexico’s death toll to 476 people.

Most of the cases confirmed Tuesday are in San Juan and McKinley counties in northwestern New Mexico, the hardest-hit region of the state.

Six of the new cases are individuals being held by federal agencies at the Torrance County Detention Facility.

The falling number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 continues to be a bright spot. The state reported 141 patients in hospitals Tuesday — a 10% decline from a week ago.

The seven deaths announced Tuesday were adults ranging in age from their 60s to their 90s, including two from Doña Ana County, two from Cibola County, and one each from Sandoval, San Juan and Taos counties.

The state now classifies 4,874 people as having recovered from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus.

Altogether, the state has conducted 302,083 tests and confirmed 10,838 cases of the disease — a positive rate of 3.6%

Coronavirus cases in New Mexico are generally growing at a slower rate than in surrounding states, according to data released by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In a recent one-week period, New Mexico’s confirmed cases increased about 1.2% a day — a smaller percentage than in Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, according to LANL data through Sunday.

Only Colorado had a lower daily growth rate over the week, at 0.7%. The biggest jump in the region was in Arizona, where case counts grew 5.7% a day, according to LANL data.

Daily growth rates for the week that ended Sunday, according to Los Alamos National Laboratory, are: Arizona, 5.7%; Oklahoma, 3.6%; Texas, 3.5%; Utah, 2.9%; New Mexico, 1.2%; and Colorado, 0.7%.