669 new COVID-19 cases, three additional deaths as health officials sound warning about crowded hospitals

The state Department of Health reported 669 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the eighth time in nine days that the state has reported more than 500 cases. DOH also reported three additional deaths related to the disease.

On the same day, State Human Services Department Secretary Dr. David Scrase held a webinar in which he said the hospitalization numbers include some troubling trends.

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased to 213, 11 more than reported on Wednesday. This is tied for the second-most COVID-19 hospitalizations in a single day in New Mexico. Scrase said that hospitalizations are increasing in Albuquerque.

“We’re particularly vulnerable with all Albuquerque ICUs being as close to full as they’ve been now,” Scrase said.

The trend of hospitalizations in Albuquerque includes people who are bringing themselves to the hospital’s emergency departments, as opposed to being transferred to the state’s “hub” hospitals from around the state as when hospitalizations peaked in the summer.

“All of the Albuquerque facilities are moving into phase 2 or phase 3 of the surge plans,” Scrase said.

The hospitalization numbers could include those from other states who are hospitalized in New Mexico for COVID-19, but would not include New Mexico residents who were hospitalized out of state. Scrase said the number of those from other states is generally low and close to the number of New Mexicans hospitalized in other states.

DOH reported that 85 percent of adult general beds in New Mexico were occupied and that 70 percent of ICU beds statewide were occupied.

Bernalillo County once again had the highest number of newly reported cases, with 185. Doña Ana County had the next most with 97, followed by 53 in Sandoval County and 46 in Eddy County. Seven other counties had 20 or more cases: Lea County (36), Chaves County (31), Valencia County (31), Curry County (30), Luna County (24), Lincoln County (31) and San Juan County (21).

In all, 26 of the state’s 33 counties reported at least one new case on Thursday. Additionally, DOH reported eight cases among those held by the state or by federal agencies at facilities throughout the state.

DOH provided some information on the three newly reported deaths.

A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 30s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Eddy County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

As usual, DOH did not disclose which underlying conditions any of the deceased had, only if one was present. According to the latest state epidemiology report, the most common underlying condition among those who have died in New Mexico so far is cardiovascular disease, followed by diabetes and hypertension. Some who died had multiple conditions.

The total number of cases reached 39,377, with 953 deaths related to the disease.

Of the confirmed cases, 20,562 are considered recovered by DOH, an increase of 230 since Wednesday’s release.

Testing details

The state coronavirus information page said the state has processed 1,089,150 tests, an increase of 11,063 cases since Wednesday’s release. Scrase noted that the number of tests tends to increase when numbers increase, as more people seek tests.

The test positivity rate of the newly reported tests was 6.05 percent. The state uses a different measure—the test positivity rate by the date the specimen is collected—as part of its gating criteria. That can lag for almost a week because of how long some private labs take to process and report results.

Dr. Karissa Culbreath, medical director and infectious disease division chief at TriCore Reference Laboratories, spoke about the state using “pooling” to expand its testing capacity. In some labs, the state is processing four samples together, and if the sample comes back as negative, all four people are told the sample was negative. If the sample tests positive, each individual sample is tested again individually to determine which specimen or specimens were positive.

“Pooling as a method has been suggested and recommended by the White House task force and others to increase our statewide testing capacity,” Culbreath said.

The state is only doing so with a limited number of tests, which increases the capacity by 400 tests per day, but the state is preparing to expand the program when it receives the go-ahead from the federal government.

One problem can be the positivity rate. If the samples are from areas with a high positivity rate, it would mean fewer negative cases, which would make the process less efficient, Culbreath said.

DOH provided the total number of newly reported cases by county:

185 new cases in Bernalillo County
31 new cases in Chaves County
12 new cases in Cibola County
1 new case in Colfax County
30 new cases in Curry County
97 new cases in Doña Ana County
46 new cases in Eddy County
1 new case in Grant County
1 new case in Guadalupe County
36 new cases in Lea County
21 new cases in Lincoln County
24 new cases in Luna County
7 new cases in McKinley County
7 new cases in Otero County
1 new case in Quay County
4 new cases in Rio Arriba County
16 new cases in Roosevelt County
53 new cases in Sandoval County
21 new cases in San Juan County
1 new case in San Miguel County
17 new cases in Santa Fe County
9 new cases in Sierra County
7 new cases in Socorro County
1 new case in Taos County
1 new case in Torrance County
31 new cases in Valencia County
2 new cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the Otero County Prison Facility
3 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County
2 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Lea County Correctional Facility
1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County

DOH also reported the total number of cases by county, including those reported on Thursday.

The department identified six previously reported cases as duplicates (three in Bernalillo County and one in each of Chaves, Quay and Socorro counties) and one case in Valencia County that was not lab confirmed. DOH determined a case previously reported to Lea County was actually among the state inmates at the Lea County Correctional Facility. These cases have all been corrected.

Bernalillo County: 9,685
Catron County: 9
Chaves County: 1,846
Cibola County: 532
Colfax County: 42
Curry County: 1,397
De Baca County: 1
Doña Ana County: 5,170
Eddy County: 1,302
Grant County: 172
Guadalupe County: 39
Harding County: 1
Hidalgo County: 112
Lea County: 1,928
Lincoln County: 336
Los Alamos County: 40
Luna County: 685
McKinley County: 4,509
Mora County: 14
Otero County: 418
Quay County: 95
Rio Arriba County: 464
Roosevelt County: 418
Sandoval County: 1,825
San Juan County: 3,674
San Miguel County: 152
Santa Fe County: 1,491
Sierra County: 89
Socorro County: 197
Taos County: 182
Torrance County: 94
Union County: 39
Valencia County: 833

DOH reported the following numbers of COVID-19 cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the following facilities:

Cibola County Correctional Center: 340
Otero County Prison Facility: 342
Otero County Processing Center: 181
Torrance County Detention Facility: 44

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: 44
Lea County Correctional Facility: 106
Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 5
Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 1
Otero County Prison Facility: 472
Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 1
Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County: 46
Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 4

DOH has identified at least one positive COVID-19 case in residents and/or staff in the past 28 days at 57 long-term care facilities, the same number as reported on Wednesday: