October 14, 2020

577 new COVID-19 cases, as state rockets past previous one-day record

New Mexico far exceeded its previous one-day record of COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, when the state Department of Health reported 577 new cases of the disease and three additional deaths related to the disease. The previous single-day record was 488 cases—set just last week. In the last seven days, the state has reported an average […]

Matthew Reichbach

New Mexico far exceeded its previous one-day record of COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, when the state Department of Health reported 577 new cases of the disease and three additional deaths related to the disease.

The previous single-day record was 488 cases—set just last week.

In the last seven days, the state has reported an average of 421.6 new cases daily—which itself would have been the second-most in a single day before last Wednesday.

The cases included 199 in Bernalillo County and another 108 in Doña Ana County. Both were single-day records for the counties.

Chaves County reported 66 new cases, also a record. Chaves County has about ten percent the population of Bernalillo County and about 31 percent of the population of Doña Ana County. Chaves County now has the fourth-most cases per capita in the state, behind only McKinley, San Juan and Lea counties. McKinley and San Juan counties were those hardest hit by the initial wave of cases in New Mexico, while counties in southeastern New Mexico like Lea and Chaves have been hardest hit by the current wave in the state on a per capita basis.

Other counties also saw significant growth. Sandoval County had 38 new cases, a single-day record for the county, while San Juan County had 25 new cases, the most in several months.

Other counties with ten or more cases were: Curry County (19), Eddy County (18), Santa Fe County (17), Lea County (16), Valencia County (15) and Otero County (10).

Twelve other counties had at least one new case; in all, 23 of the state’s 33 counties reported at least one new case on Wednesday.

DOH also reported four new cases among those held by federal agencies at the Otero County Prison Facility, which is not included in the county’s total numbers.

State health officials have reported 34,290 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 921 deaths related to the disease.

DOH reported some new details on each of the three newly announced deaths.

A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Chaves County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Doña Ana County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Good Samaritan Society facility in Las Cruces.

As usual, DOH did not provide which underlying condition any of the deceased had, only if one was present.

The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 also grew significantly, to 145. This is 20 more than reported on Tuesday and the most in a single day since July 31. This could include those from out of state who are hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized out of state.

The number of those designated as recovered from COVID-19 reached 19,127, an increase of 167 since Tuesday.

Gating criteria

The spread of cases was reflected in the gating criteria set forward by the state. The number of daily cases by specimen collection date, on a seven-day rolling average, hit a new high of 333 as of Oct. 7. This can lag as different labs can take longer to process and report the results of COVID-19 tests.

The state’s goal is to keep this at 168 or below, so the number is nearly double the state’s goal.

The spread rate, which the state aims to keep at 1.05 or below, was 1.26 as of Oct. 11. It has been over 1.2 since mid-September; this is the number of people that, on average, to whom someone with COVID-19 will spread the disease.

The test positivity rate also creeped above the state’s goal of five percent of below, on a seven-day average. The state hopes to keep the percentage of total tests at or below 5 percent; as of Oct. 11, this number reached 5.3 percent.

One area where the state is meeting its goals is on tests per day. As of Oct. 11, the state is conducting 6,901 tests per day on a seven-day average.

Testing details

The state coronavirus information page said the state has processed 1,019,029 tests, an increase of 7,709 since Tuesday.

DOH provided the total number of new cases reported on Wednesday.

199 new cases in Bernalillo County
66 new cases in Chaves County
4 new cases in Cibola County
19 new cases in Curry County
2 new cases in De Baca County
108 new cases in Doña Ana County
18 new cases in Eddy County
4 new cases in Grant County
16 new cases in Lea County
1 new case in Lincoln County
5 new cases in Luna County
6 new cases in McKinley County
1 new case in Mora County
10 new cases in Otero County
2 new cases in Rio Arriba County
9 new cases in Roosevelt County
38 new cases in Sandoval County
25 new cases in San Juan County
2 new cases in San Miguel County
17 new cases in Santa Fe County
4 new cases in Socorro County
2 new cases in Taos County
15 new cases in Valencia County
4 new cases among individuals being held by federal agencies at the Otero County Prison Facility