November 16, 2020

DOH: 1,259 new COVID-19 cases, 21 new deaths

The New Mexico Department of Health reported 1,259 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total number of confirmed cases to over 65,000. The state also reported 21 deaths related to the disease. DOH updated its methodology for COVID-19 hospitalizations and now relies on data directly from hospitals instead of using information from contact tracing. […]

Matthew Reichbach

The New Mexico Department of Health reported 1,259 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total number of confirmed cases to over 65,000.

The state also reported 21 deaths related to the disease.

DOH updated its methodology for COVID-19 hospitalizations and now relies on data directly from hospitals instead of using information from contact tracing. DOH said contact tracing has become more difficult and less reliable as the number of cases has surged, which has caused the number of hospitalizations to be lower than reality.

As of Monday, DOH reported 738 individuals who were hospitalized for COVID-19.

This number may include individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 out of state but are currently hospitalized in New Mexico. This number does not include New Mexicans who tested positive for COVID-19 and may have been transferred to a hospital out of state.

Nearly all of those hospitalized are New Mexico residents, according to the latest hospitalization update from DOH.

DOH provided some information on the 21 newly reported deaths.

A female in her 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Curry County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 40s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Eddy County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from Eddy County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 20s from Luna County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Luna County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second female in her 60s from Luna County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 50s from Roosevelt County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 50s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Santa Fe County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 50s from Socorro County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Socorro County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Taos County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Valencia County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s in Valencia County who was a New Mexico Corrections Department inmate at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County.

DOH does not disclose which underlying condition any of the deceased had, only if one was present before death.

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. Some of those who died had multiple comorbidities.

The county with the most newly reported cases was, once again, Bernalillo County, with 374. Doña Ana County had 203 newly reported cases. Four other counties had more than 50 newly reported cases: Santa Fe County (91); Chaves County (88); Sandoval County (58); and McKinley County (52). On Monday, 29 of the state’s 33 counties had at least one newly reported case of COVID-19.

The state also reported six new cases among inmates held by the state Department of Corrections.

DOH has now found 65,454 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and reported 1,236 deaths related to the disease.

Of the confirmed cases, 25,411 are designated as recovered by the department.

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Watchlist had 217 workplaces listed as having two or more rapid responses for positive tests in the previous 14 days as of Monday. Of those, 12 workplaces had four or more in the previous 14 days, which required a two-week closure.

Gating criteria

While the gating criteria all remain well outside of the state’s goals, they have shown recent improvement. The number of daily cases, which the state tracks by the date the specimens are collected, reached 1,174 on a seven-day average as of Nov. 10, below the peak of 1,315 on Nov. 8. This number lags because some labs take longer to process and report tests to the state.

The rate of spread, or the average number of people someone with COVID-19 will spread the disease to, was 1.12 as of Nov. 15. The state’s goal is 1.05 or below.

The one area where New Mexico exceeds its gating criteria is tests per day, which was at 10,620 as of Nov. 11 on a seven-day rolling average, more than double the goal of 5,000. But the state’s test positivity rate of 12.2 percent as of Nov. 11 on a seven-day rolling average, indicates the state would need significantly more tests to catch enough COVID-19 cases. The state aims to have this at 5 percent or below, and anything higher than this is considered uncontrolled spread.

Testing details

According to the state coronavirus information page, the state has processed 1,386,121 COVID-19 tests, 13,254 more than reported on Sunday.

The 1,259 newly reported cases represented 9.5 percent of all newly reported tests.

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

374 new cases in Bernalillo County
1 new case in Catron County
88 new cases in Chaves County
16 new cases in Cibola County
5 new cases in Colfax County
40 new cases in Curry County
1 new case in De Baca County
203 new cases in Doña Ana County
48 new cases in Eddy County
12 new cases in Grant County
5 new cases in Hidalgo County
40 new cases in Lea County
5 new cases in Lincoln County
14 new cases in Luna County
52 new cases in McKinley County
47 new cases in Otero County
3 new cases in Quay County
18 new cases in Rio Arriba County
10 new cases in Roosevelt County
58 new cases in Sandoval County
40 new cases in San Juan County
6 new cases in San Miguel County
91 new cases in Santa Fe County
4 new cases in Sierra County
13 new cases in Socorro County
11 new cases in Taos County
10 new cases in Torrance County
3 new cases in Union County
35 new cases in Valencia County
4 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County
1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County
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 Monday.

Five previously reported cases were not lab confirmed (one in each of Bernalillo, Cibola, Eddy, Otero and Sandoval counties) and one previously reported case was identified as a duplicate by DOH. These have been corrected and removed from the state’s totals.