February 3, 2021

Health officials express optimism as vaccinations grow, cases shrink

“This feels like the beginning of a fourth-quarter comeback.” That’s what Human Services Department Secretary Dr. David Scrase said during a press conference on Wednesday, about New Mexico’s improving COVID-19 situation. Scrase also said that he is hopeful that more counties will move from red to yellow restrictions next Wednesday, when the state releases the […]

Matthew Reichbach

“This feels like the beginning of a fourth-quarter comeback.”

That’s what Human Services Department Secretary Dr. David Scrase said during a press conference on Wednesday, about New Mexico’s improving COVID-19 situation.

Scrase also said that he is hopeful that more counties will move from red to yellow restrictions next Wednesday, when the state releases the new calculations for which counties qualify for which level of restrictions.

The level of vaccinations per day was also encouraging to Scrase.

Dr. Tracie Collins, the secretary of the state Department of Health, said the state was administering 9,000 tests each day, which she said doubled its pace from six weeks ago.

Additionally, she said the state would receive a six percent increase in COVID-19 vaccine doses from the federal government, which would allow the state to administer more vaccines.

As of Wednesday, the state had administered 291,742 of the 316,150 doses it received from the federal government, or 92.3 percent, which was one of the best rates in the nation.

Scrase noted that there has been a “profound dropoff” in not only cases, but also hospitalizations and deaths.

He said this could be because of the vaccinations.

“We believe now enough people have been vaccinated, even though it’s ten percent, that we’re starting to see the benefit there,” Scrase said.

The ten percent refers to those who received the first shot, while 67,106 have received the second, booster shot. The first shot confers some benefits, but the full benefits come weeks after the second shot.

Cases

Later on Wednesday, the state Department of Health reported 670 new cases of COVID-19 and 29 deaths related to the disease.

On Tuesday, the state had reported 434 new COVID-19 cases and fifteen additional deaths.

The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 reached 476 on, one fewer than reported on Monday. 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 175,652 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and 3,338 deaths related to the disease. DOH has designated 107,645 COVID-19 cases recovered.

DOH provided some information on each of the newly reported deaths on Wednesday:

A male in his 40s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second female in her 70s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Odelia Healthcare (Camino Healthcare) facility in Albuquerque.
A female in her 80s from Bernalillo County who was a resident of the Casa Palo Duro facility in Albuquerque.
A male in his 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Colfax County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Colfax Long-Term Care Center in Springer.
A second female in her 80s from Colfax County who was a resident of the Colfax Long-Term Care Center in Springer.
A male in his 80s from Colfax County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Colfax Long-Term Care Center in Springer.
A male in his 50s from Doña Ana 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 female in her 80s from Doña Ana County.
A female in her 70s from Grant County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Lea County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Lincoln County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Luna County.
A male in his 80s from Luna County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 50s from McKinley 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 a resident of the Cedar Ridge Inn facility in Farmington.
A female in her 70s from San Juan County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from San Juan County who was a resident of the Aztec Healthcare facility in Aztec.
A female in her 80s from Santa Fe County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 90s from Santa Fe County who was a resident of the Pacifica Senior Living facility in Santa Fe.
A female in her 80s from Taos County who was hospitalized and was a resident of the Taos Living Center in Taos.
A female in her 80s from Valencia County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

And those from Tuesday:

A male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. He was a resident of the Vecinos Santos Assisted Living facility in Santa Rosa.
A male in his 50s from Chaves County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Chaves County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 70s from Chaves County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. He was a resident of the Casa Maria Health Care Center in Roswell.
A male in his 80s from Cibola County who was a resident of the Laguna Rainbow Care Center in Casa Blanca.
A male in his 30s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 70s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Lea County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the White Sands Healthcare facility in Hobbs.
A male in his 60s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 40s from Otero County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 50s from San Juan County who was hospitalized.
A second male in his 50s from San Juan County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 60s from Taos 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 584 as of Jan. 28, the lowest number since Oct. 14. This number lags by six days because some labs take longer to process and report results to the state.

The number of tests conducted on a seven-day rolling average was 15,507 as of Feb. 2. This is the highest average number of COVID-19 tests reported by the state.

The test positivity rate continued its swift downward trend, reaching 6.1 percent on a seven-day rolling average as of Feb. 1. This is approaching the state’s gating criteria of 5 percent or below.

The rate of spread was 0.81 as of Feb. 2, The rate of spread is the number of people someone with COVID-19 will spread the disease to, on average. Anything under 1.0 means the number of cases is dropping.

Testing details

DOH provided the total number of cases by county. Two previously reported cases in Santa Fe County were identified as duplicates. These have been corrected.