New Mexico leaders proceed with caution
Governor, health officials say state will ease into further reopenings as cases rise
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday the state will continue its slow thaw, with breweries permitted to partially reopen outdoor patios starting Friday even as coronavirus cases begin spiking upward.
As a cautionary tale during a twohour news conference broadcast live on Facebook, the governor and health officials pointed to increasing case numbers in neighboring Arizona, Texas and California after the three Western states moved to aggressively reopen.
New Mexico also has eased many of its health restrictions meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19.
“This evidence is dramatic, and it’s something that gives all decision-makers and all governors pause about where we are in reopening our economy,” Lujan Grisham said of the rising number of positive tests.
New Mexico will continue reopening, however. Under a new public health order that takes effect
Friday, breweries will be permitted to open outdoor patio seating at 50 percent capacity. On Monday, they will be able to resume indoor service at 50 percent capacity, though bar and counter service will remain prohibited.
Acknowledging coronavirus cases will continue to rise as the state eases more restrictions, the governor called the partial reopening a “calculated” and “prudent” risk that balances businesses needs, people’s desire to get out of their houses during the summer months and the need to continue social distancing.
The announcement comes as New Mexico has seen a 10-day spike in positive coronavirus diagnoses after a precipitous decline.
“We were very excited about that drop,” state Human Services Secretary David Scrase said. “And then, unfortunately, over about 10 days we’ve seen a fairly dramatic jump in the average number of daily cases. A good amount of that is driven by … southwestern New Mexico, and most of that is driven by Otero County and the changes in the correctional facility.”
The Governor’s Office announced 121 new positive tests for the virus Thursday, including those of two federal inmates and 17 state inmates at the Otero County Prison Facility, where an outbreak has infected more than 500 people.
The governor and Scrase offered an assortment of good and not-so-good news about the state’s fight against COVID-19:
Nearly 251,000 tests have been administered in New Mexico, a number the governor called an “incredible effort for a state this size.”
Despite its relatively small number of cases — 9,367 on Thursday — New Mexico now has the fourth highest rate of the virus in the nation in proportion to its population.
State residents still should not plan to attend summer concerts or ballgames. At some point, a ban on gatherings larger than six people will be relaxed, but the governor said, “We just don’t see that as being June, July. I know that is a painful decision.”
Northwestern New Mexico also is seeing a small uptick in cases. “In part,” Scrase said, “that is likely due to reopening.”
Lujan Grisham, like other governors across the nation, is leading a difficult balancing act between meeting the demands of the business community and keeping cases from increasing too dramatically.
Though cases are climbing, the numbers are well below New Mexico’s capacity to treat patients who require intensive care and ventilators. On Thursday, the governor said 60 of the 189 patients currently hospitalized for the illness were on ventilators — far below the demand public health officials had feared early on.
Underneath the tightrope act is an understanding the pandemic will not be over until development of either a vaccine or a successful treatment for those with severe symptoms of COVID-19.
When she spoke of breweries reopening Friday, Lujan Grisham said, “These decisions are not invitations to let up on your safe COVID practices. And I want to really harshly remind you again that when you do, people die.
“Every time we introduce risk, we’re likely to have more cases — that has proven to be true,” the governor said.
On Friday, Republicans again criticized the governor for not reopening all businesses that were ordered to close during the pandemic. Party Chairman Steve Pearce, in a statement issued Thursday, called the “piecemeal approach to reopen the state … unjust and inequitable.”
“It makes no sense that counties that have very few COVID-19 cases be subjected to the same rules as other counties where the virus is more prevalent,” Pearce said.
Addressing the concerns of Republicans, business owners and others during the public address, Lujan Grisham said her office receives many questions about why some enterprises have been permitted to open or partially reopen while others, such as bars, have not.
She said it’s a matter of risk: People’s behavior is different at bars and patrons stay longer.
“Having a fairness debate about what opens first doesn’t work in the context of the pandemic,” Lujan Grisham said.
“The entire pandemic is unfair,” she said, “and it creates a situation where we have to calculate risk, introduce it successfully, make those decisions, and then we have to wait a period of time to see what happens as we introduced that risk.”