November 4, 2020

Most deaths related to COVID-19 in a single day, more than a thousand new cases

State health officials reported more than a thousand new cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row this week. The state Department of Health confirmed 1,022 new cases of the disease were identified on the day after the election, bringing the state’s total number of cases of COVID-19 to 50,251. The most recent […]

Kendra Chamberlain

State health officials reported more than a thousand new cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row this week. The state Department of Health confirmed 1,022 new cases of the disease were identified on the day after the election, bringing the state’s total number of cases of COVID-19 to 50,251. The most recent 10,000 cases were added in the last 12 days.

Bernalillo County saw the most new cases, with 266, while Doña Ana County had 197 new cases. Eddy and Lea counties each had 53 new cases, while DOH reported 52 new cases in San Juan County. Ten other counties reported more than 20 new cases. Another 28 cases were identified among individuals held at detention centers across the state.

DOH also reported 14 new deaths related to COVID-19, the most deaths reported in a single day so far in the pandemic. The number of deaths in the state related to COVID-19 is now at 1,059.

DOH provided some details on the newest deaths:

A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 50s from Cibola County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Doña Ana County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Casa de Oro Center facility in Las Cruces.
A male in his 80s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 80s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Luna County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Sandoval County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. The individual was a resident of the Aztec Healthcare facility in Aztec.
A female in her 80s from Socorro County who was hospitalized.

The most common underlying condition for those who died with COVID-19 was cardiovascular disease, followed by diabetes and hypertension, according to the state’s latest mortality update.

As of Wednesday, there are 393 individuals hospitalized in New Mexico for COVID-19, a decrease of eight since Tuesday. The numbers could include those from other states who were hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized in other states. State health officials have said the numbers generally balance out.

Eighty-two percent of general hospital beds in the state are occupied, and 75 percent of ICU beds across New Mexico hospitals are occupied. This includes those hospitalized for all reasons, not just COVID-19.

DOH has designated 22,274 COVID-19 cases as recovered, an increase of 332 since Tuesday.

Gating criteria

DOH provided updates to some of the state’s gating criteria. As of Nov. 3, the state’s average testing capacity on a seven-day rolling average has increased to 10,974, double the state’s goal of 5,000 tests conducted per day. The state’s test positivity rate has decreased from 9.1 percent to 8.2 percent, as of Nov. 3.

The state’s contact-tracing averages have slowed, too. It’s now taking the state an average of 53 hours to isolate a case once a positive test result is found, as of Oct. 29. The state’s goal for case isolation is 24 hours or less. Similarly, the state is averaging 92 hours between a positive COVID-19 test result and contact tracers reaching all of the individual’s contacts and alerting them to quarantine, as of Oct. 29. The state’s gating criteria goal for that is 36 hours.

Testing details

The state coronavirus information page showed 1,218,805 tests have been processed as of Monday, an increase of 16,458 tests since Tuesday. That is the most tests the state has ever announced processed in one day.

The newly reported cases by county are:

266 new cases in Bernalillo County
37 new cases in Chaves County
36 new cases in Cibola County
1 new case in Colfax County
24 new cases in Curry County
197 new cases in Doña Ana County
53 new cases in Eddy County
5 new cases in Grant County
2 new cases in Hidalgo County
53 new cases in Lea County
5 new cases in Lincoln County
5 new cases in Los Alamos County
35 new cases in Luna County
38 new cases in McKinley County
25 new cases in Otero County
3 new cases in Quay County
16 new cases in Rio Arriba County
9 new cases in Roosevelt County
36 new cases in Sandoval County
52 new cases in San Juan County
6 new cases in San Miguel County
39 new cases in Santa Fe County
3 new cases in Sierra County
7 new cases in Socorro County
19 new cases in Taos County
1 new case in Torrance County
21 new cases in Valencia County
1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County
7 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County
7 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County
12 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Roswell Correctional Center
1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County

DOH also provided the total number of cases by county, including those reported on Tuesday. Ten previously reported cases were identified as duplicates (one in Bernalillo County, one in De Baca County, four in Doña Ana County, one in San Juan County, two in Sandoval County and one in Santa Fe County) and one case in San Juan County was not lab confirmed. Those have all been removed from the totals.

Bernalillo County: 12,627
Catron County: 10
Chaves County: 2,324
Cibola County: 730
Colfax County: 49
Curry County: 1,754
De Baca County: 2
Doña Ana County: 7,492
Eddy County: 1,663
Grant County: 220
Guadalupe County: 47
Harding County: 1
Hidalgo County: 129
Lea County: 2,371
Lincoln County: 410
Los Alamos County: 58
Luna County: 1,250
McKinley County: 4,860
Mora County: 15
Otero County: 614
Quay County: 117
Rio Arriba County: 574
Roosevelt County: 541
Sandoval County: 2,236
San Juan County: 3,964
San Miguel County: 209
Santa Fe County: 2,096
Sierra County: 141
Socorro County: 289
Taos County: 292
Torrance County: 121
Union County: 46
Valencia County: 1,141

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

Cibola County Correctional Center: 348
Otero County Prison Facility: 396
Otero County Processing Center: 191
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: 155
Guadalupe County Correctional Facility: 1
Lea County Correctional Facility: 112
Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 10
Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 8
Otero County Prison Facility: 472
Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 48
Roswell Correctional Center: 13
Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County: 55
Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 5

DOH has identified at least one positive COVID-19 case in residents and/or staff in the past 28 days in 80 long-term care facilities, an increase of two since Tuesday.