Governor relaxes health orders, Taos moves to ‘Red Level’
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham addressed the state Monday afternoon (Nov. 30) to outline New Mexico’s new “Red to Green” reopening levels during the pandemic. The “Red to Green” method takes a countyby-county approach to assess how individual counties are handling COVID-19, and will allow most nonessential businesses to open at limited capacity. Businesses allowed to open as of Wednesday (Dec. 2) include ski areas, gyms and salons.
The governor appeared on Facebook Live to discuss the three phases of reopening, and to announce the end of the state’s two-week “reset.” Starting Wednesday (Dec. 2) every county in the state (except for San Miguel) entered the “red” level.
What do the levels mean?
RED LEVEL – will allow houses of worship and close-contact businesses – such as gyms and salons – and outdoor recreational facilities to open at 25 percent
total capacity. Restaurants will be allowed to operate outdoor dining at 25 percent capacity. Hotels and lodging will open at 40 percent for those that have completed COVIDsafe training, and 25 percent for those that haven’t. Close contact recreational facilities like movie theaters and bars will remain closed. The five-person limit for social gatherings also remains in effect, as well as a new limit of 10 vehicles gathered for one event.
YELLOW LEVEL – will allow for a little more relaxation of restrictions, and will be implemented when case positives are no more than 8 per 100,000 people, or a positivity rate (the positive percent of all tests given) less than 5 percent over 14 days. Restaurants will be able to open indoor dining at 25 percent capacity. Lodging facilities will be able to accommodate 60 percent of their total capacity, and big box stores will allow 125 customers or 25 percent, whichever is smaller. Outdoor recreation facilities, close-contact businesses and houses of worship will stay at 25 percent capacity, but all capacity limitations on non-retail essential businesses will be lifted. Mass gatherings will be limited to 10 people, and vehicular gatherings can be no larger than 25 cars.
GREEN LEVEL – takes effect when a county has both a case incident rate no greater than eight per 100,000 population and a positivity rate less than 5 percent over 14 days. In the green level, counties will be able to open all businesses at 50 percent capacity excluding close-contact recreational facilities. Places of lodging can open at 75 percent if they have completed NM Safe Certified training. Mass gatherings will be limited to 20 people and 100 vehicles.
When will counties be re-evaluated?
Lujan Grisham said that counties will be re-evaluated every two weeks as of Wednesday (Dec. 2) and if a county moves to a more restrictive level (from yellow to red, or green to yellow), they will have 48 hours to make the appropriate changes. While she acknowledged how tough things have been for businesses, the governor said that this “isn’t where the story has to end. We can move through it fairly quickly and effectively.”
Businesses react to new mandate
The announcement of the new health orders was good news for certain businesses that were required to shut their doors for the two week “reset” in mid-November. Ski areas, which had to delay their late November openings are now able to go ahead with some semblance of a ski season.
“Once our testing protocol for all staff receives approval, we will announce our 2020-21 opening date! In the meantime, we continue to prepare the resort and mobilize staff to get lifts spinning,” said Taos Ski Valley in a statement. Previously, Taos Ski Valley said they were prepared to open within 10 days of the end of their shutdown.
Red River Ski Area marketing manager Reed Weimer said their team is similarly working on finalizing testing plans and procedures with the state. “Once approved, we will announce our new opening date. We’re looking forward to being able to offer skiing and snowboarding for guests to get outside and enjoy the mountains.”
With ski areas opening and bringing in skiers from out of town, hotels now prepare to operate at 40 percent of total capacity while in the current red phase.
Elena Dumond, director of operations at Sagebrush Inn & Suites in Taos said that she is “looking forward to hopefully getting through the winter season without another closure or tough restrictions that limit business capacity.” Dumond explained she has found herself in tough situations when trying to explain New Mexico’s public health orders to people from out of state, but that she and her staff have done a good job of keeping themselves and their guests safe so far.
Dumond said she felt the recent two-week shelter-in-place order was a smart move. “It really was a good thing that the shelterin-place happened when it did because it did make a difference,” she said.
While ski areas and hotels are allowed to open in some capacity, restaurants that don’t have outdoor dining capabilities remain stifled in the “red level.”
Taos Mesa Brewing Taproom is lucky enough to have outdoor space enough for 16 to 20 people and will be installing a new heater to accommodate outdoor diners. Co-owner Jason Wylie said that even though they have space for outdoor dining, it’s still tricky heading into the winter.
“It’s all so weather dependent,” Wylie said. “At any moment the weather here could just change on a dime. I don’t know what to
anticipate honestly.” He said while he is glad they are able to open in a slightly greater capacity, he thinks a longer shutdown and more government assistance is the appropriate response.
“Limited dining doesn’t really do the trick. Running a restaurant in a regular year is a thin margin,” he explained. “In my opinion it would be advantageous for everyone to continue with limited dining and/or no dine-in service – take out only – but then [receive a] stimulus package that would help offset the economic hardships that this industry is going to face.”
What communities can do
Even though Taos County’s test positivity rate remains well above 5 percent – it was 15.1 percent as of press time – the town prides itself on the job they have done thus far. Town manager Rick Bellis emphasized that Taos was the first town in the state to take stricter health precautions. “The town went on record early on to support the Governor and passed the first in the state curfew and mandatory municipal orders requiring distancing and face coverings,” said Bellis in an email.
In order to address the immediate needs of the town’s businesses and residents, Bellis said they “have moved from handing out cloth reusable masks to obtaining surgicalgrade masks which we will be distributing to the general public to increase the level of protection out there.” Along with the cloth masks, the town will also be “obtaining and distributing the even higher level protection KN-95 masks to businesses that have frequent contact with the public to further decrease the chance of spread.
“We do support the stop light red-greenyellow system imposed by the Governor as it rewards those communities doing well and encourages people locally to be part of the effort in order to return life to normal,” Bellis added. Despite the relentless efforts to combat the virus, the town of Taos, Ranchos de Taos and El Prado have seen the biggest surge in cases since the second wave began.
Another proponent of the county-bycounty reopening strategy has been Red River Mayor Linda Calhoun, who said that the new approach is more fair to counties with low infection rates. “Early on, whenever the northwest was having such a huge outbreak, we had hardly any cases,” explained Calhoun.
“Look at Red River, we’re keeping our people safe, we’re doing something right, so maybe don’t treat the whole state the same way, maybe there was some logic in looking at different areas of the state and treating them differently. I’m glad that the governor has decided to try that,” said Calhoun.
She expressed satisfaction with the way Taos County has handled the pandemic so far. “I think Taos is doing exactly what they think they need to be doing. Every community just has to kind of watch out for themselves, stay at home and go out as little as possible.”
About the statistics
The positivity rate is the percentage of all COVID tests performed that come back positive. For example, Taos’ current positivity rate means that for every 100 people tested, 15 of those tests came back positive.
The other metric used is an average daily number of eight cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period. This means that because of Taos County’s population of 33,000 people, the county would have to reduce the number of daily positive cases to 2.6 or less per day over a two-week period in order to move to a different level. Currently the county is averaging 19.75 cases per day.