For the second straight day, the state of New Mexico reported fewer than 45 cases of COVID-19 and reported numbers not seen since the early weeks of the pandemic.
At the same time, the number of tests reported also remained low coming out of a long holiday weekend.
The state Department of Health reported 44 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, half of which were from Bernalillo County. No other county had more than five reported cases.
The state also reported no additional deaths, the first such day since July 3 and one of just a handful of days since the first reported death on March 23.
The state reported a total of 4,426 new tests since Monday’s report. Monday, the state reported just 3,411 new tests results, the lowest total since July 5.
The state now has 26,181 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 807 total deaths related to the disease.
The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Mexico reached 68, three higher than the total reported on Monday. This could include those from other locations who are hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized for the disease out of state. The total number of hospitalizations has largely remained steady since August 21.
DOH designed 13,701 confirmed cases as recovered on Tuesday, an increase of 97 from Monday’s total.
Gating criteria
The state also updated its gating criteria over the last two days, and is meeting nearly all its goals, but has fallen behind the total number of tests per day.
The spread rate, or the number of people someone infected with COVID-19 will spread the disease to, dropped to 0.87 as of September 7, the lowest rate since late July and early August. The only region with a rate higher than the state’s 1.05 goal is the southwest, with 1.09, also as of September 7.
The total number of cases, which is determined on a seven-day rolling average by the date the tests are conducted, fell to 111 as of September 1, the lowest number since June 11. This number lags behind when results are reported because not all labs process tests in the same amount of time. Some, including state labs, generally report results the next day, while other private labs may take longer.
The positivity rate, which is the percentage of positive tests to total tests on a seven-day rolling average, is at 2.4 percent as of September 6, well below the goal of 5 percent or below.
But the number of tests per day on a seven-day rolling average dropped to 4,910 as of September 6, the first time New Mexico was beneath its goal since June 26. At its peak in late July, the state averaged over 7,900 tests per day.
Testing details
DOH reported 799,673 total test results as of Tuesday on its state coronavirus information page.
The department also reported the number of newly reported cases from Tuesday by county.
- 22 new cases in Bernalillo County
- 4 new cases in Chaves County
- 1 new case in Curry County
- 3 new cases in Doña Ana County
- 4 new cases in Eddy County
- 1 new case in Grant County
- 1 new case in Lea County
- 1 new case in Luna County
- 1 new case in McKinley County
- 1 new case in Rio Arriba County
- 2 new cases in San Juan County
- 2 new cases in Santa Fe County
- 1 new case in Valencia County
DOH also reported the total number of cases by county including the cases reported on Tuesday.
DOH identified two previously reported cases (one in Colfax and one in Doña Ana County) as duplicates, and five previously reported cases (two in Doña Ana County and one in each of Bernalillo, CIbola and McKinley County) were not lab confirmed. These have been removed from the totals.
- Bernalillo County: 5,979
- Catron County: 11
- Chaves County: 820
- Cibola County: 397
- Colfax County: 23
- Curry County: 707
- Doña Ana County: 2,955
- Eddy County: 584
- Grant County: 89
- Guadalupe County: 32
- Harding County: 2
- Hidalgo County: 98
- Lea County: 1,205
- Lincoln County: 175
- Los Alamos County: 27
- Luna County: 342
- McKinley County: 4,244
- Mora County: 6
- Otero County: 228
- Quay County: 64
- Rio Arriba County: 370
- Roosevelt County: 210
- Sandoval County: 1,262
- San Juan County: 3,220
- San Miguel County: 87
- Santa Fe County: 868
- Sierra County: 38
- Socorro County: 78
- Taos County: 118
- Torrance County: 63
- Union County: 31
- Valencia County: 527
DOH reported the following numbers of COVID-19 cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the following facilities:
- Cibola County Correctional Center: 324
- Otero County Prison Facility: 281
- Otero County Processing Center: 159
- Torrance County Detention Facility: 44
DOH also reported the following numbers of COVID-19 cases among individuals held by the New Mexico Corrections Department at the following facilities:
- Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County: 29
- Lea County Correctional Facility: 4
- Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 1
- Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 1
- Otero County Prison Facility: 473
- Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 1
- Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 4
There are 45 acute care or long-term care facilities with at least one staff or resident who tested positive for the disease within the last 28 days, according to DOH. This is one more facility than reported by DOH on Monday.
