The New Mexico Department of Health reported 76 additional COVID-19 cases on Monday, continuing the trend of lower COVID-19 numbers in the state.
DOH also reported two additional deaths related to COVID-19.
New Mexico remained under all of its gating criteria for further reopening in its Monday update, which is based on the day when tests are collected, not the day that tests are reported.
There are now 24,469 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 747 deaths related to the disease.
On Monday, Bernalillo County once again led the state with 19 newly reported cases, while Doña Ana County also reported ten new cases. No other county reported more than ten cases, though Lea and Eddy County each reported 9 additional cases.
Monday was the second-straight day of fewer than 100 reported cases. Last week, the state had two days of under 100 cases, though the state also reported over 200 new cases twice that week as well.
The two deaths were from a male in his 80s from Lea County and a male in his 60s from McKinley County who had underlying conditions. Both were hospitalized.
DOH does not disclose which underlying condition any person had, only if one was present.
The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 increased by four from Sunday to 68. This could include those from outside New Mexico who are hospitalized in the state, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized in other states.
The number of those who are designated as recovered by DOH is now 11,668, an increase of 129 since Sunday’s announcement.
Gating criteria
DOH’s modeling team provides an update on most gating criteria three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
In Monday’s update, the state has a spread rate of 0.91 on a ten-day rolling average as of August 20, below the state’s goal of 1.05. The spread rate is the number of people each person with COVID-19 will infect, on average. Anything under a spread rate of 1 means that the number of cases are decreasing.
The spread rate went up from the 0.7 reported on Friday.
The number of daily cases on a seven-day rolling average is now 128—as of August 15, the latest available full day of data—well below the state’s goal of 168. This is also a decline from Friday, when it stood at 137, with data going back to August 13.
The 128 is the lowest for this measure since mid-June and less than half the state’s peak of 320 on July 22.
The percentage of tests that came back positive dropped to 2.1 percent as of August 19. Not only is that well below the state’s goal of 5 percent, but it is the lowest positivity rate in the state since late March.
The number of tests performed, as of August 18, was 6,333, well ahead of the state’s goal of 5,000 tests per day.
Other gating criteria, which includes contact tracing and healthcare system capacity, updates on Tuesdays.
Testing details
DOH reported 723,801 tests as of Monday according to its coronavirus information page. This is 4,501 more than Sunday’s reported total.
Additionally, the state reports the total number of newly reported cases by county.
- 19 new cases in Bernalillo County
- 4 new cases in Chaves County
- 2 new cases in Curry County
- 10 new cases in Doña Ana County
- 9 new cases in Eddy County
- 9 new cases in Lea County
- 4 new cases in Luna County
- 2 new cases in McKinley County
- 1 new case in Otero County
- 2 new cases in Rio Arriba County
- 5 new cases in Sandoval County
- 4 new cases in San Juan County
- 3 new cases in Santa Fe County
- 1 new case in Taos County
- 1 new case in Valencia County
DOH also reports the total number of cases, including those reported on Monday.
Two previously reported cases (one from Bernalillo County and one from San Juan County) were identified as duplicates, while one previously reported case from Chaves County was identified as an out-of-state resident. They have been removed from the totals.
- Bernalillo County: 5,619
- Catron County: 5
- Chaves County: 625
- Cibola County: 392
- Colfax County: 19
- Curry County: 640
- Doña Ana County: 2,726
- Eddy County: 426
- Grant County: 76
- Guadalupe County: 33
- Harding County: 2
- Hidalgo County: 93
- Lea County: 1,045
- Lincoln County: 164
- Los Alamos County: 24
- Luna County: 273
- McKinley County: 4,159
- Mora County: 6
- Otero County: 216
- Quay County: 60
- Rio Arriba County: 347
- Roosevelt County: 191
- Sandoval County: 1,199
- San Juan County: 3,149
- San Miguel County: 67
- Santa Fe County: 780
- Sierra County: 37
- Socorro County: 76
- Taos County: 116
- Torrance County: 63
- Union County: 31
- Valencia County: 494
DOH 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: 280
- Otero County Processing Center: 159
- 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: 26
- Lea County Correctional Facility: 4
- 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
- Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 4
There are 54 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. This is an increase of four facilities from Sunday’s announcement.
Correction: This story said that the number of hospitalized would include New Mexicans hospitalized in other states, when it should have said it would not include these in the count of hospitalized.
