This morning recap of COVID-19 news from New Mexico is available in a free email every weekday. Sign up here.
See all of our COVID-19 coverage here.
- The newsletter was off last week, but will be back on our usual Monday to Friday schedule.
- This weekend, the state Department of Health announced 520 new cases of COVID-19 (280 on Saturday and 240 on Sunday) in New Mexico, as the virus continues to spread throughout the state, especially in the Albuquerque metro area and southern and eastern portions of the state.
- Bernalillo County now has the most cases in the state, surpassing McKinley County, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. But McKinley County still has by far the highest number of cases per capita in the state.
- Dr. David Scrase said in a COVID-19 update late last week that the disease is now spreading among younger New Mexicans. Read more here.
- While much of the attention on higher education in the state is focused on the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, other four-year universities also have to adapt. Read our story here.
- Republican legislators criticized the state’s guidance on reopening public schools, KOB-TV reported.
- A detainee at the Bernalillo County youth detention center tested positive for COVID-19. Read the story here.
- Police cited three people for carrying guns on Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza during an anti-mask rally and a counterprotest, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- The Daily Lobo said that the policing was not even on both sides.
- A woman in a store in Abiquiu confronted another woman not wearing a mask—the maskless woman then slapped her, KRQE-TV reported.
- A Silver City restaurant that gained attention for defying the state’s orders earlier this year was vandalized, an area resident told KRQE-TV. The TV station also reported that a business owner in Roswell filed a suit against the state for lost revenue due to the pandemic.
- A federal District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit by Legacy Church in Albuquerque over the restrictions put in place by the state, the Albuquerque Journal reported last week.
- The Mayor of Las Cruces wants the state to allow indoor dining at restaurants, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported. The Carlsbad Current-Argus reported that officials in Carlsbad believe restaurants can safely serve customers.
- Restaurants continue to push back against the public health order that does not allow indoor dining, KUNM-FM reported.
- The City of Albuquerque is offering grants for restaurants to build outdoor dining areas, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- The Silver City Town Council voted against enforcement of the state’s public health orders, the Silver City Daily Press reported. Instead, they hope to educate those not wearing masks or otherwise not following public health orders.
- The Town Council in Taos, meanwhile, voted last week to affirm the orders and even passed some more restrictive measures, the Taos News reported.
- Some Navajo residents held a protest over the handling of CARES Act funding by the Navajo Nation government, the Navajo Times reported.
- The Navajo Nation Council will meet this week and attempt to override President Jonathan Nez’s veto of legislation that would have canceled the tribe’s primary elections, the Farmington Daily Times reported.
- With additional unemployment funds expiring at the end of the month, those who are unemployed fear what will happen as jobs remain scarce, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
- Legislators and the governor are sparring over who controls emergency spending during the pandemic, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
- As New Mexico scrambled to get more personal protective equipment, the state may have been scammed, KRQE-TV reported.
- Twelve Sandoval County employees volunteered to be furloughed because of COVID-19, the Rio Rancho Observer reported.
- As tourism dries up, the Village of Ruidoso is hoping to avoid an economic disaster, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
