Virus cases skyrocket statewide
New Mexico, Santa Fe County have set daily record for new COVID-19 cases
New Mexico and Santa Fe County both have shattered daily COVID-19 new-case records that had stood since November 2020, before vaccines were available.
As of Friday, the county had 393 new cases, according to the state Department of Health; its previous daily high was 266. The state had 4,246 new cases, up from a previous daily high of 3,675. Both marks were set Nov. 19, 2020. Seven other counties also reported 100 or more new cases Friday.
The state also recorded 14 additional deaths. Among them was a Santa Fe County woman in her 80s who had been hospitalized.
The daily count, likely the result of the highly contagious omicron variant spreading through the state, pushed New Mexico’s total caseload since the start of the pandemic to nearly 370,000 — with more than 21,000 new cases in an eight-day stretch — and the death toll close to 6,000.
The Health Department renewed its COVID-19 public health orders, continuing the state’s indoor-masking rules and vaccination requirements for some employees. Among the changes are reducing the isolation and quarantine peirod for those who test positive to five days from 10, reflecting updated federal guidelines.
Health officials also updated booster shot recommendations, with kids ages 12 to 15 approved for the third Pfizer vaccination and a decreased time span between the second and third dose for people 12 and over to five months from six months. “Children ages 5 to 11 who are immune compromised should receive a booster dose 28 days after completion of the primary series,” the Health Department said in a news release.
New Mexico remains one of the most heavily vaccinated states in the nation, though many residents still have not received the shots. Health Department data shows 76 percent of adults completed the initial series and 36.6 percent have had the booster, while 57.5 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 and just 18.5 percent of children ages 5 to 11 have had the initial series
of shots. Children younger than 5 are still not eligible for doses.
Some schools and preschools announced they were closing or shifting temporarily to remote learning to prevent the spread of the virus among children.
The Food Depot also will be closed to the public effective Monday amid the high case numbers, the Santa Fe-based food bank said in a news release. Food distributions in the food bank’s nine-county service area will continue as scheduled, the release said.
New Mexico’s seven-day positivity rate — the percentage of people who test positive for the virus out of the overall number of people who have been tested — reached 23.2 percent. When the Health Department released its final update of 2020, on Dec. 30, the rate was 13.8 percent.
The counties with the highest numbers of new cases were Bernalillo, with 1,287; Doña Ana, 711; Sandoval, 296; San Juan, 243; Lea, 154; McKinley, 202; and Rio Arriba, 118.
The other newly reported deaths included eight people in Bernalillo County; and one each in Cibola, Curry, Doña Ana, Eddy and Valencia counties.
The number of New Mexico residents who have died from coronavirus complications is now 5,983, while the state’s total number of cases during the pandemic reached 369,113.
As of Friday, 539 people were hospitalized statewide for treatment of COVID-19.
According to the New York Times, Santa Fe County is averaging 170 new cases a day, a number that equals 113 cases per 100,000 residents. In early December, the county was averaging about 50 cases a day, according to the Times.
Bernalillo County was averaging 716 cases a day as of Friday, although its per-100,000 number was lower than Santa Fe County’s, at 105.
For further comparison, on Friday’s date one year ago, New Mexico recorded 1,841 new coronavirus cases and 39 more deaths, while Santa Fe County recorded 131 new cases and one additional death. Bernalillo County had 449 deaths, less than half Friday’s total. The state had 2,680 deaths; it’s set to surpass 6,000 on Monday.