The increase in COVID-19 cases in New Mexico in the weeks after easing of restrictions and the Labor Day weekend continued, when the state Department of Health reported 263 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday along with six additional deaths related to the disease.

The rate of spread, one of the state’s key gating criteria, also increased to a level even higher than that of the peak in June and July.

Doña Ana County had 54 new cases of COVID-19, the most in a single day for the county since DOH reported 76 new cases on July 27.

The new cases included 51 new cases in Bernalillo County, the second day in a row with 50 or more cases in the state’s most populous county.

Chaves County, with newly reported cases 33, and Eddy County, with 27, each had their county’s second highest number of newly reported cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic.

Lea County (18), San Juan County (12), Curry County (10) and Santa Fe County (10) were the other counties with double-digit numbers of newly reported cases.

DOH has now found 28,487 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and reported 865 deaths related to the disease.

DOH also provided some details on the six newly reported deaths.

• A 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 female in her 80s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
• A male in his 50s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
• A male in his 80s from Roosevelt County who had underlying conditions.
• A male in his 60s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

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

The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 increased by nine since Thursday to 75. This number could include those from other states who are hospitalized in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized out of state.

The number of those designated as recovered crossed the 16,000 mark, with 16,020 as of Friday. That’s an increase of 195 since Thursday.

Gating criteria

The state updates some key gating criteria numbers each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The latest update on Friday showed the state’s rate of spread at 1.27 as of Sept. 24—when the state aims to keep this at 1.05 or below. The rate of spread is the number of people, on average, that someone with COVID-19 will spread the disease to. The last time the rate of spread was over 1.25 was April 5.

All but one region, the southeast, had rates of spread higher than 1.05. The southeastern region’s spread rate, as of Sept. 24, was 0.97.

The number of daily cases on a seven-day rolling average was 117 as of Sept. 18. The state calculates this by the date that the test is conducted, which lags as some labs take longer to process and report results to the state. The state’s goal is to keep this at under 168.

The test positivity rate, again on a seven-day rolling average, was at 2.4 percent, as of Sept. 24. This is the number of positive tests per total tests, and the state aims to keep this under 5 percent.

The number of tests, on a seven-day rolling average, surged to 6,075 tests per day as of Sept. 24, well above the state’s goal of 5,000 per day. The state reached as low as 4,208 tests per day on Sept. 11 before the increase in tests.

Testing details

The DOH coronavirus information page said that they have processed 893,489 tests so far, an increase of 8,116 since Friday.

The state reported the total number of newly reported cases by county.

• 51 new cases in Bernalillo County
• 33 new cases in Chaves County
• 1 new case in Cibola County
• 1 new case in Colfax County
• 10 new cases in Curry County
• 54 new cases in Doña Ana County
• 27 new cases in Eddy County
• 1 new case in Grant County
• 18 new cases in Lea County
• 9 new cases in Lincoln County
• 1 new case in Los Alamos County
• 2 new cases in Luna County
• 5 new cases in McKinley County
• 6 new cases in Otero County
• 1 new case in Rio Arriba County
• 1 new case in Roosevelt County
• 10 new cases in Sandoval County
• 12 new cases in San Juan County
• 10 new cases in Santa Fe County
• 1 new case in Sierra County
• 1 new case in Socorro County
• 5 new cases in Torrance County
• 3 new cases in Valencia County

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

• Bernalillo County: 6,381
• Catron County: 9
• Chaves County: 1,116
• Cibola County: 415
• Colfax County: 30
• Curry County: 779
• De Baca County: 1
• Doña Ana County: 3,285
• Eddy County: 785
• Grant County: 120
• Guadalupe County: 34
• Harding County: 2
• Hidalgo County: 99
• Lea County: 1,382
• Lincoln County: 208
• Los Alamos County: 33
• Luna County: 418
• McKinley County: 4,316
• Mora County: 7
• Otero County: 260
• Quay County: 74
• Rio Arriba County: 391
• Roosevelt County: 281
• Sandoval County: 1,339
• San Juan County: 3,307
• San Miguel County: 98
• Santa Fe County: 979
• Sierra County: 45
• Socorro County: 102
• Taos County: 139
• Torrance County: 71
• Union County: 31
• Valencia County: 576

OH reported the following numbers of COVID-19 cases among individuals held by federal agencies at the following facilities:

• Cibola County Correctional Center: 324
• Otero County Prison Facility: 282
• Otero County Processing Center: 163
• Torrance County Detention Facility: 44

DOH also reported the following numbers of COVID-19 cases among individuals held by the New Mexico Corrections Department at the following facilities:

• Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County: 33
• Lea County Correctional Facility: 48
• Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 1
• Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 1
• Otero County Prison Facility: 472
• Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 1
• Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County: 1
• Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 4

There are 26 acute care or long-term care facilities with at least one staff or resident who tested positive for the disease within the last 28 days, according to DOH. That’s a decrease of one since Thursday.