January 8, 2021

DOH: 1,645 new COVID-19 cases, 30 additional deaths

The state Department of Health reported 1,645 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 30 additional deaths related to the disease. Bernalillo County had the most newly reported cases on Friday, with 430. Two other counties had 100 or more cases, Doña Ana County with 202 and San Juan County with 182. McKinley County was […]

Matthew Reichbach

The state Department of Health reported 1,645 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday and 30 additional deaths related to the disease.

Bernalillo County had the most newly reported cases on Friday, with 430. Two other counties had 100 or more cases, Doña Ana County with 202 and San Juan County with 182. McKinley County was the next highest, with 99.

DOH also reported two new cases among inmates held by the state Department of Corrections.

On Friday, the department reported 703 individuals were hospitalized for COVID-19, a decrease of 19 people since Thursday. This could include those from other states who are hospitalized in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized out of state.

DOH provided some information on each of the 30 newly reported deaths.

A male in his 50s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized.
A second male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A third male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. He was a resident of the Tender Heart Assisted Living facility in Albuquerque.
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 a resident of the Atria Vista del Rio facility in Albuquerque.
A female in her 90s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the South Valley Care Center in Albuquerque.
A male in his 90s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the BeeHive Homes San Pedro facility in Albuquerque.
A male in his 40s from Chaves County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Colfax County.
A male in his 40s from Curry County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 30s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Doña Ana County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Good Samaritan Society facility in Las Cruces.
A female in her 70s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 60s from Lea County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Lea County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Lea County who was hospitalized and was a resident of the Lovington Healthcare facility in Lovington.
A female in her 60s from Lincoln County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 70s from Luna County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 40s from Otero County.
A male in his 60s from Otero County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Quay County.
A female in her 30s from Rio Arriba County.
A male in his 40s from Rio Arriba County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 80s from Roosevelt County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Heartland Continuing Care Center in Portales.
A male in his 60s from San Juan County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 70s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Socorro County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 40s from Torrance County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

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 hypertension, followed by diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to the most recently available mortality update. Some of those who died had multiple comorbidities.

DOH has now found 153,456 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and reported 2,710 deaths related to the disease.

Of the confirmed cases, 75,883 were designated as recovered by the department as of Friday, an increase of 1,648 since Thursday.

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Watchlist had 89 establishments as of Friday, six more than were listed on Thursday. These workplaces had two or more COVID-19 rapid responses in the last 14 days.

Gating criteria

The number of cases on a seven-day rolling average reached 1,138 as of Jan. 1, the last day that full numbers are available. The state uses the date of the specimen collection for its gating criteria calculator, which lags because some labs take longer to process and report test results to the state.

The spread rate, which had been below the state’s goal of 1.05 or lower, reached 1.12 as of Jan. 7. That’s the calculation of how many people each person with COVID-19 will spread the disease to; anything over 1.0 means the cases are increasing.

The positivity rate among tests also continued to rise, reaching 14.2 percent as of Jan. 2. The state’s goal is to keep this at or below 5 percent.

The number of tests also dropped dramatically, to 10,530 on a seven-day rolling average as of Jan. 3, after the number was well over 14,000 in mid-December.

Testing details

The state coronavirus information page says the state has processed 2,061,985 tests as of Friday, 13,649 more than reported on Thursday.

The new positive cases represented 12.05 percent of the total newly processed tests.

DOH provided the number of newly reported cases on Friday, by county.

430 new cases in Bernalillo County
1 new case in Catron County
76 new cases in Chaves County
22 new cases in Cibola County
30 new cases in Colfax County
53 new cases in Curry County
5 new cases in De Baca County
202 new cases in Doña Ana County
57 new cases in Eddy County
20 new cases in Grant County
4 new cases in Guadalupe County
5 new cases in Hidalgo County
55 new cases in Lea County
19 new cases in Lincoln County
7 new cases in Los Alamos County
19 new cases in Luna County
99 new cases in McKinley County
5 new cases in Mora County
19 new cases in Otero County
8 new cases in Quay County
27 new cases in Rio Arriba County
13 new cases in Roosevelt County
95 new cases in Sandoval County
182 new cases in San Juan County
15 new cases in San Miguel County
81 new cases in Santa Fe County
7 new cases in Sierra County
13 new cases in Socorro County
12 new cases in Taos County
4 new cases in Torrance County
1 new case in Union County
57 new cases in Valencia County
1 new case among individuals held by federal agencies at the Otero County Prison Facility
1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Lea County Correctional Facility

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

Seven previously reported cases were identified by DOH as duplicates (four in Bernalillo County and one in each of Doña Ana, San Juan and Sierra counties) and one previously reported case in Bernalillo County was not lab confirmed. These have been corrected.