April 13, 2020

The daily recap of New Mexico COVID-19 news (4/13/20 edition)

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Note: This daily recap of COVID-19 news from New Mexico is available in a free daily email. Sign up here.

See all of our COVID-19 coverage here.

  • State officials announced six additional deaths related to COVID-19 on Sunday. The Department of Health also announced 74 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in New Mexico to 1,245. Read our story here
  • The state of New Mexico is making plans for what happens if it is short on ventilators when the surge in cases starts to spread across the state.
  • A doctor at the University of New Mexico Hospital has launched clinical trials for multiple drugs that may be useful in treating COVID-19 in patients.The trials include experimental treatments of two antimalarial drugs, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and one drug that was developed to treat ebola. Read our story here
  • Native Americans represent 29 percent of the COVID-19 cases in New Mexico, despite accounting for just 11 percent of the state’s population, according to an analysis by New Mexico in Depth
  • Holy Cross Medical Center in Taos County announced that 10 of the 15 who tested positive for COVID-19 are full-imtes county residents, the Taos News reported. One is a dual residency and the other four were out of state residents.
  • McKinley County, which has the highest amount of positive COVID-19 cases per capita in the state, will consider a curfew, the Navajo Times reported.
  • The Albuquerque Journal wrote about the support that frontline health care workers are receiving from around the city.
  • The Associated Press and the Albuquerque Journal wrote about churches, including the Catholic Church, holding Easter services online and in other non-traditional ways.
  • Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” show Sunday morning with Jake Tapper. Lujan Grisham said she’ll do “what’s right” for her state to slow coronavirus spread, as President Donald Trump has suggested easing guidelines on social distancing by May. Lujan Grisham said she expects the state’s peak of COVID-19 cases to hit in late May. 
  • KOB-TV also spoke to Lujan Grisham, and said New Mexicans should expect the public health emergency orders to remain in place at least through early May.
  • The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on how farms are connecting with food banks. Farms are impacted by restaurants closing and food banks are being hurt by grocery stores’ thin supplies.
  • The U.S. Internal Revenue Service deposited the first wave of stimulus checks on Saturday, CNN reported.
  • Farmington artists will participate in a virtual spring art walk April 17, in lieu of the annual event that usually includes groups of spectators moving from gallery to gallery, the Farmington Daily Times reported. The event is being put on by the Farmington Convention & Visitors Bureau. 
  • The President of the Immigrant and Refugee Resource Village of Albuquerque told KUNM that a property owner attempted to evict an African family despite a Supreme Court order that paused evictions for inability to pay during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
  • U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall signed on to a letter to Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought Friday, calling on OMB to extend existing public comment periods and hearings until social distancing and stay at home orders have been lifted. 
  • The City of Santa Fe closed all drop-off recycling sites because of strained resources and concerns about sanitation, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory posted links to some of the research LANL employees have conducted related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to the Los Alamos Reporter.
  • Food trucks will be able to operate at New Mexico rest areas, the state Department of Transportation announced this weekend, after approval from federal officials.

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