This morning recap of COVID-19 news from New Mexico is available in a free email every weekday. Sign up here.
See all of our COVID-19 coverage here.
- Note: The daily COVID-19 newsletter will take a vacation from Dec. 21 until Jan. 4.
- The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines started to make their way to health care professionals who will be on the first batch. Read more here.
- The first to receive the vaccine were 112 front-line health workers at Christus St. Vincent in Santa Fe, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
- See also stories from the Associated Press,
- Doses of the vaccine also arrived on the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Times reported.
- Dr. Tracie Collins, the Secretary-Designate of the state Department of Health, will hold a remote press conference on the COVID-19 vaccine at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. It will be streamed on the state DOH Facebook page.
- On Monday, the state reported 1,507 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 additional deaths. Read more details here.
- The 21 deaths made the last seven days the deadliest seven-day period since the start of the pandemic, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- While the data was only preliminary, the Legislative Finance Council heard there is no apparent increase in suicides in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- The legislative session that begins in January will likely be a hybrid online/in-person model, the Albuquerque Journal reported. The House could restrict each member to introducing five bills to ease the strain on legislative analysts.
- The Silver City Daily Press announced that it sued under a state open records law to find out the occupancy numbers at the Gila Regional Medical Center.
- As hospitals remain bursting at the seams with COVID-19 patients, KRQE-TV looked at the expansion of at-home COVID-19 treatments.
- The City of Santa Fe unveiled an app to measure where COVID-19 is spreading in the city, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
- A COVID-19 testing site at Doña Ana Community College now has oral swab testing, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.
- The University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University, both of which have moved to online courses, have seen low numbers of COVID-19 cases, KRQE-TV reported.
- Former members of Calvary Church in Albuquerque say the church is guilting people to attend services in person, KOB-TV reported.
- Jury trials in New Mexico will restart in February, the state Supreme Court said in an order on Monday.
- The state Legislature may move money from some capital outlay projects to the state unemployment fund or general reservse, KOB-TV reported.
- Albuquerque Fire Rescue said that most businesses in the city are following the occupancy limits in the current public health order, KRQE-TV reported.
- Two members of the New Mexico State University basketball program’s “tier 1” group of players, coaches, trainers and others tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days, the Albuquerque Journal reported.