172 new cases of COVID-19, including 64 at Otero County Prison Facility

On Saturday, the state Department of Health announced 172 additional cases of COVID-19, including another 64 cases from the Otero County Prison Facility, which is privately run and the site of a major outbreak in southern New Mexico.

In addition to the 172 cases, the state announced two additional deaths related to the disease.

The 64 cases, among those held by both state and federal agencies, means that 792 of the state’s 10,430 confirmed cases have come from the facility and the nearby Otero County Processing Center—7.6 percent of all confirmed cases in the state.

The two newly announced deaths both were among residents from McKinley County, a female in her 60s and a male in his 50s. Both were hospitalized and had underlying conditions, though the state did not disclose which underlying conditions either had.

The state now has reported 466 deaths related to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

DOH also reported that, as of Saturday, 145 people were hospitalized for COVID-19, a decrease of two cases from Friday’s announcement. This number could include those who tested positive for COVID-19 outside of New Mexico but are now hospitalized in-state, but would not include New Mexico residents who tested positive and are now hospitalized elsewhere.

The number of those who are designated as recovered by the state Department of Health reached 4,628, an increase of 116 over Friday’s announcement.

Testing details

The state of New Mexico’s coronavirus information page said they have processed 288,637 COVID-19 cases, an increase of 4,035 over Friday. New Mexico remains third among all states in tests per capita, slightly ahead of New Jersey.

Four counties, plus the Otero County Prison Facility, had ten or more cases of new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The county with the most new cases was McKinley County, one of the hardest-hit areas of the nation.

15 new cases in Bernalillo County
1 new cases in Cibola County
1 new cases in Colfax County
7 new cases in Curry County
10 new cases in Doña Ana County
2 new cases in Eddy County
8 new cases in Lea County
2 new cases in Luna County
30 new cases in McKinley County
7 new cases in Rio Arriba County
10 new cases in Sandoval County
8 new cases in San Juan County
5 new cases in Santa Fe County
1 new case in Torrance County
1 new cases in Valencia County
9 new cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the Otero County Prison Facility
55 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Otero County Prison Facility

The state also provided breakdowns of the numbers of the total number of cases throughout the state.

DOH did remove some previously announced cases: Two cases previously attributed to Doña Ana County residents were determined to be out of state residents and one case in each of Cibola County and Roosevelt County were determined to be duplicates.

DOH added a case that was thought to be an out-of-state resident, but was a resident of McKinley County, while a case that was previously suspected but has since been lab confirmed was added to the total for Torrance County.