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.
- The New Mexico Department of Health announced 220 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday and 151 COVID-19 related deaths Sunday.
- The Albuquerque Journal wrote about the state’s preparation for another increase in COVID-19 testing as it prepares for its participation in a federal pilot project.
- The state announced an extension to the lockdown of the City of Gallup through noon on Thursday. Gallup Mayor Louis Bonaguidi asked the state on Sunday to extend the order, which closes all roads into Gallup, limits business hours and restricts how many people can travel in a car at once.
“Only through the extension of the invocation of your authority under the Riot Control Act can our community impose the measures necessary to stem transmission of COVID-19,” wrote Mayor Bonaguidi.- The lockdown of Gallup was coordinated between the state, local and tribal leaders, a McKinley County Commissioner said.
- The weekend-long shutdown of Gallup led to big detours, the Navajo Times reported.
- The person who tested positive for COVID-19 and shut down the federal courthouse in Albuquerque last month was an FBI agent, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers converted a gymnasium at Northwest High School in Shiprock to a health care site to ease the burden on local hospitals. It will house 40 beds, the Farmington Daily Times reported. There is a similar site in operation at Miyamura High School in Gallup.
- The cost of cleaning up bankrupt oil and gas wells could cost the state a lot of money. Read the story here.
- The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on how the child care industry is struggling during the pandemic, even though they’re considered an essential service.
- Tribes are still waiting for federal COVID-19 relief money, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- Someone created a GoFundMe page for the Grants pawn shop that is facing $60,000 in fines for defying the state’s public health emergency order—and used an image of the governor wearing a Nazi-like uniform.
- The state’s congressional delegation wants more federal help for small communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The Las Cruces Sun-News was the latest outlet to report on how immigrants aren’t eligible for stimulus or unemployment benefits as jobs dry up.
- Many shoppers in Santa Fe aren’t using masks, which, officials told the Santa Fe New Mexican, is a dangerous practice.
- And cashiers have found themselves on the front lines, the paper reported.
- The Magistrate Court in McKinley County will be closed this entire week, after a court employee tested positive for COVID-19.
“Because of the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak in McKinley County, it is prudent to keep the Magistrate Court closed for a longer period of time after a thorough cleaning of the building and before it reopens to the public. As the governor and the Navajo Nation president have stressed, it is important that people remain at home when possible to help control the spread of coronavirus,” said Eleventh Judicial District Court Chief Judge Karen Townsend. - New Mexico In Depth wrote about Santa Fe Indian School’s shift to offline schooling during the pandemic.
- KTSM-TV reported on the death in Doña Ana County on Saturday and noted that most of the cases in the county are in zip codes that are El Paso suburbs.
- A former city commissioner in Alamogordo held a rally for reopening businesses, the Alamogordo Daily News reported.
- The Santa Fe New Mexican talked to an Oxford mathematician who produced a paper recently predicting a 17 percent loss of total wage income and a 42 percent job loss for Americans who earn less than $27,180.
- The Las Cruces Sun-News and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s foundation, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, teamed up to bring some relief to colonias in southern Doña Ana County.
- The state will offer free testing Monday and Tuesday for essential workers and others in Shiprock, according to the Farmington Daily Times.
- The Albuquerque Journal considers how the film industry might get back to work in the state.
- Grant County Commissioners opted not to take control as the governing body of struggling Gila Regional Medical Center, the Silver City Daily Press reports.
- New Mexico United and its largest supporters group organized parades around three hospitals in downtown to thank healthcare workers.
