The New Mexico Department of Health announced 229 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and nine additional deaths related to the disease.
This is the 12th day where the state has reported nine or more deaths in a single day, including the second in the last week.
Bernalillo County narrowly had the most confirmed new cases, with 45, while Doña Ana County had 44 new cases and Lea County had 27 cases.
DOH has now has found 21,566 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state.
The 229 additional COVID-19 cases represent 3.48 percent of the 6,583 tests reported since Tuesday. The state gating criteria looks for the state to be under 5 percent positivity rate on a seven-day average, though Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has pushed for the state to remain under 3 percent.
In other positive news for the state, the state’s r-effective, or spread rate, dropped to 0.9 as calculated by Presbyterian Healthcare Services per the state’s latest modeling update which was updated as of Aug. 3, which means each person with COVID-19 infects, on average, 0.9 other people. Anything under 1 means the cases are trending downwards.
The r-effective remains under 1 in most regions of the state, though it reached 1.1 in the southeast portion of the state and at 1 in the northwest portion.
The number of cases involving bars and restaurants, as found by the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Bureaus’ Epidemiology and Response Division, dropped in recent weeks. The state stopped allowing indoor dining in mid-July. However, travel remains high.
The number of deaths related to COVID-19, which had dropped in recent days, reached 667 after the report of nine deaths. DOH provided some details on each of the cases.
- A male in his 50s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
- A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of Spanish Trails Rehabilitation Suites in Albuquerque.
- A second male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Princeton Place facility.
- A third male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
- A female in her 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
- A female in her 70s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
- A male in his 80s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
- A male in his 80s from Union County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of Clayton Nursing and Rehabilitation.
- A male in his 90s from Union County who was a resident of Clayton Nursing and Rehabilitation.
The state, as usual, did not disclose which underlying condition any of the deceased had, only if one was present.
The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 increased to 138, five more than announced on Tuesday. This could include those with COVID-19 from other locations who are hospitalized in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexico residents who are hospitalized out of state.
The number of those designated as recovered by DOH reached 8,828, an increase of 143 over Tuesday’s announcement.
Testing details
The state coronavirus information page said that, as of Wednesday, the state had processed 597,408 tests. This represented an increase of 6,583 over Tuesday’s announcement.
The state also provided a breakdown of all cases in the state. The number of cases continued to grow in some eastern and southeastern New Mexico counties, like Lea, with 27, Curry, with 13, Chaves, with 12, and Roosevelt, with 8.
- 45 new cases in Bernalillo County
- 12 new cases in Chaves County
- 3 new cases in Cibola County
- 1 new case in Colfax County
- 13 new cases in Curry County
- 44 new cases in Doña Ana County
- 2 new cases in Eddy County
- 2 new cases in Grant County
- 27 new cases in Lea County
- 3 new cases in Lincoln County
- 2 new cases in Luna County
- 16 new cases in McKinley County
- 2 new cases in Otero County
- 8 new cases in Rio Arriba County
- 8 new cases in Roosevelt County
- 7 new cases in Sandoval County
- 10 new cases in San Juan County
- 9 new cases in Santa Fe County
- 1 new case in Sierra County
- 3 new cases in Taos County
- 8 new cases in Valencia County
- 2 new cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the Cibola County Correctional Center
- 1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Otero County Prison Facility
Additionally, the state provided the total number of cases by county.
But the state did announce some changes to previously reported cases. One in Doña Ana County was identified as a duplicate, a case in Chaves County was determined to be an out-of-state resident and one case in Santa Fe County was not lab confirmed, and these cases were removed from the totals.
Other changes included those held for the state Department of Corrections or federal agencies at detention centers. DOH determined a case previously reported as a state inmate at the Otero County Prison Facility to be an inmate for the state at the Lea County Correctional Facility. And seven cases previously reported as residents of counties (three in Bernalillo County, three in Cibola County and one in Sandoval County) were determined to be held by federal agencies as the Cibola County Correctional Facility.
With those corrections, here are the total number of cases reported by county:
- Bernalillo County: 4,989
- Catron County: 4
- Chaves County: 395
- Cibola County: 345
- Colfax County: 15
- Curry County: 506
- Doña Ana County: 2,315
- Eddy County: 269
- Grant County: 70
- Guadalupe County: 31
- Harding County: 1
- Hidalgo County: 88
- Lea County: 706
- Lincoln County: 113
- Los Alamos County: 20
- Luna County: 240
- McKinley County: 4,025
- Mora County: 6
- Otero County: 195
- Quay County: 34
- Rio Arriba County: 306
- Roosevelt County: 152
- Sandoval County: 1,111
- San Juan County: 3,017
- San Miguel County: 42
- Santa Fe County: 610
- Sierra County: 31
- Socorro County: 73
- Taos County: 102
- Torrance County: 60
- Union County: 28
- Valencia County: 389
DOH reported the following numbers of COVID-19 cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the following facilities:
- Cibola County Correctional Center: 291
- Otero County Prison Facility: 279
- Otero County Processing Center: 159
- Torrance County Detention Facility: 43
And DOH 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: 25
- Lea County Correctional Facility: 5
- Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 1
- Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 1
- Otero County Prison Facility: 470
- Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 1
- Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 3
The state has also identified at least one positive COVID-19 case in residents and/or staff in the past 28 days at 50 long-term care and acute care facilities, an increase of three facilities over Tuesday’s total.
