January 27, 2021

Seven counties move to yellow restrictions from red, as drop in cases continues around the state

Seven counties moved from “red” to “yellow” in the state’s reopening criteria, while one county, Harding, remained green. This came on the same day that the state reported 755 new cases of COVID-19, and 27 additional deaths related to the disease. On Tuesday, the state reported 602 new cases and fourteen additional deaths. DOH has […]

Matthew Reichbach

Seven counties moved from “red” to “yellow” in the state’s reopening criteria, while one county, Harding, remained green.

This came on the same day that the state reported 755 new cases of COVID-19, and 27 additional deaths related to the disease.

On Tuesday, the state reported 602 new cases and fourteen additional deaths.

DOH has now reported fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for ten straight days.

State data showed that nearly all counties have improved and some, including the state’s most populous county, appear poised to move into the yellow framework if the current trajectory continues.

The map updates every two weeks to avoid counties yoyoing from one criteria to another.

At the yellow level, where counties have either a case rate of new COVID-19 cases below 8 per 100,000 residents or an average percent of positive COVID-19 tests at 5 percent or lower in the preceding two weeks, counties can open limited indoor dining and other businesses can have more customers indoors.

Colfax, Grant, Los Alamos, San Miguel, Sierra, Socorro and Union counties moved to the yellow restrictions thanks to low test positivity rates.

Mora County was the closest among the counties in red restrictions to reaching a 5 percent or lower positivity rate, at 5.08 percent. Nine other counties in New Mexico had positivity rates below 7 percent, including Bernalillo County at 6.68 percent.

Catron County, at 10.1 cases per 100,000, was the closest to the 8 cases per 100,000 target.

Bernalillo County had the most new cases reported on Monday with 143 cases. Doña Ana County had the next-most number of cases with 68.

The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 reached 586 on Wednesday, 25 more people than the months-long low on Tuesday. This could include those from other states who are hospitalized in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized in other states.

The state has identified a total of 171,047 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and 3,198 deaths related to the disease. DOH has designated 98,042 COVID-19 cases recovered.

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

A female in her 30s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Skies Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque.
A female in her 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 90s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the BeeHive Homes Volcano Cliffs facility in Albuquerque.
A female in her 60s from Chaves County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Chaves County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 50s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 70s from Eddy County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Roosevelt County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. He was a resident of the Heartland Continuing Care Center in Portales.
A male in his 70s from Sandoval County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 40s from San Juan 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 50s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Torrance County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

And Wednesday:

A female in her 60s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 40s from Cibola County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Curry County who was a resident of the Wheatfields Senior Living Community facility in Clovis.
A male in his 80s from Curry County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Wheatfields Senior Living Community facility in Clovis.
A male in his 50s from Doña Ana County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Doña Ana County who had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
A third male in his 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Grant County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Grant County.
A female in her 80s from Grant County who was a resident of the Silver City Care Center in Silver City.
A male in his 30s from Lea County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 40s from Lea County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Lea County who was a resident of the White Sands Healthcare facility in Hobbs.
A male in his 70s from McKinley County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 80s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from Otero County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Roosevelt County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 50s from Sandoval County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Sandoval County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions who was a resident of the The Neighborhood in Rio Rancho Assisted Living facility in Rio Rancho.
A male in his 20s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 50s from Valencia 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.

Gating criteria

The number of new cases on a seven-day rolling average reached 743 as of Jan. 21, the lowest number since Oct. 20. This number lags behind since some labs take longer to process and report results to the state.

The positivity rate also continued to fall, dropping to 7.1 percent on a seven-day rolling average as of Jan. 26, the lowest number since the state reported an identical rate on Oct. 21.

The state aims to keep this metric at or below 5 percent.

The number of tests conducted on a seven-day rolling average was 12,334 as of Jan. 26.

The rate of spread dropped to 0.64 as of Jan. 26, the lowest this metric has been since the beginning of the pandemic. The rate of spread is the number of people someone with COVID-19 will spread the disease to, on average. This means the number of cases is dropping at a faster rate than at any time since the start of the pandemic.

Testing details

The state coronavirus information page said the state has processed 2,271,257 COVID-19 tests as of Wednesday, 16,191 more than reported on Monday. The 1,357 new cases in the past two days represent 8.38 percent of the total number of cases.

DOH said four previously reported cases were identified as duplicates (two in San Juan County, one in Lea County and one in Luna County) and two previously reported cases (one in Bernalillo County and one in Sandoval County) were not lab confirmed. These have now been corrected.

Additionally, one case previously reported among Otero County residents was determined to be among the New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Otero County Prison Facility, and one case previously reported as a New Mexico Corrections Department inmate at the Cibola County Correctional Center was determined to be a resident of McKinley County. These have also been corrected.

The total number of cases per county, as of Monday, are as follows: