Teachers’ union chief praises push to vaccinate educators

State officials say they’re working with Biden administration on inoculation plan, raise concerns over Texas lifting restrictions

Mary Parr-Sanchez called President Joe Biden’s plan to help get the coronavirus vaccine to teachers and school support staff a “game changer” that could accelerate campus openings across the state.

The Biden administration announced

Tuesday it will use the Federal Retail

Pharmacy Program to provide enough doses to ensure all educators are inoculated by the end of the month.

“I think President Biden’s announcement is what educators have been wanting to hear,” Parr-Sanchez, president of the National Education Association of New Mexico, said in an interview Wednesday.

News of the teacher vaccination effort came as state health officials expressed optimism about the effect of vaccinations in bringing down daily caseloads statewide, but also concerns about a recent decision by the governor of Texas to lift business restrictions and a mask mandate. The action could cause another spike in that state, potentially leading to greater spread in New Mexico.

The timeline for launching the federally aided vaccinations for teachers in New Mexico was still unclear.

State Health Secretary Dr. Tracie Collins said in a virtual news conference Wednesday the state has been talking with the White House about the initiative.

“[We’re] working with them this week, them being the president and the office, to figure out about doses and how we roll this out,” Collins said.

As of Monday, 71 of the state’s 89 school districts had reopened using a hybrid-learning model, in which students are in the classroom at least two days a week and otherwise learning remotely.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a news release Wednesday providers have vaccinated about 14,000 people who have identified themselves as teachers through the state’s vaccine registration website.

That’s less than a third of the 45,000 educators who have registered to receive the vaccine, said Matt Bieber, a spokesman for the state Department of Health. Thousands of other people work as support staff in schools.

State and local education leaders have lobbied for school employees to be moved to a higher priority in the vaccine distribution process since shots became available in December. Many New Mexico teachers were able to get vaccinated earlier this year, before the Department of Health acknowledged there had been a miscommunication about who was eligible for shots as the state moved into a new phase of distribution.

Currently, the department is prioritizing for vaccination critical health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, New Mexicans 75 and older, and those 16 and older at risk of a severe illness.

Collins did not indicate when teachers would become eligible for vaccines.

Parr-Sanchez said it is crucial to get students back into the classroom, but not at the expense of teachers’ health.

“Kids are hurting and they need to be back at school,” she said. “They are social creatures and they need that interaction at school. But one thing I am not willing to do is sacrifice the health and well-being of educators.”

Meanwhile, Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to roll back business capacity limits and toss that state’s face mask requirement will likely quicken the spread of the coronavirus in New Mexico’s border counties, with estimates showing it could lead to a 40 percent increase in cases.

Scrase used El Paso as an example of the differences in case spread. That city is averaging 36 cases per 100,000 people and has a test positivity rate of 15 percent, he said. By comparison, Doña Ana County, which borders El Paso, averaged 26 cases per 100,000 and had a test positivity rate of 6.77 percent as of Feb. 22.

“We are modeling this very closely,” Scrase said. “[Wearing] masks, social distancing 6 feet apart, staying home whenever possible — all these things work. This is not the time to back off.”

State Epidemiologist Christine Ross said she and other health officials regularly examine data from surrounding states and collaborate with health leaders there, especially when it comes to discovering hot spots that could impact multiple states.

“We try to stay as coordinated as possible and share situational awareness, especially as it relates to border areas,” Ross said.

Collins also said the 17,200 doses of the recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine the state received this week will be distributed to the 10 counties with the lowest vaccine coverage. Bieber said eight of the 10 counties had providers ready to receive those doses, including Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Doña Ana and Bernalillo.

However, the state will not receive any more shipments of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine until later in the month, Collins said, because the company is working on its production.

Scrase emphasized the importance of getting shots out into the community. He noted the state distributed an average of 11,623 doses of vaccine per day over the last seven days — more than 43 times the average daily coronavirus case count, which he called a “recipe for success.”

Vaccinations have driven a 50 percent drop in the number of daily cases, according to modeling by Los Alamos National Laboratory. While Scrase cautioned that the rate of case decline has leveled off over the past week, with a seven-day average of 265 as of Feb. 25, it is a far cry from the average of 1,451 cases Jan. 8.

Scrase said the leveling off of cases corresponded with the state’s modified COVID-19 business restrictions announced Feb. 25, as well as some counties reaching the least-restrictive level that allows bars, clubs and theaters to open for the first time since the pandemic began.

“We knew that we would see an uptick in cases as we reopened,” Scrase said. “This is a great combination. The vaccine came at the right time, and I think people are enjoying the ability to do a little bit more.”