November 18, 2020

New Mexico’s COVID-19 cases continue to skyrocket: 2,897 new cases, 26 deaths

New Mexico’s COVID-19 case numbers continued their rapid rise, hitting another new single-day record as of Monday, when the state reported nearly 2,900 new cases of the disease, along with 26 new deaths. New Mexico health officials now have identified over 70,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The 2,897 new […]

Matthew Reichbach

New Mexico’s COVID-19 case numbers continued their rapid rise, hitting another new single-day record as of Monday, when the state reported nearly 2,900 new cases of the disease, along with 26 new deaths.

New Mexico health officials now have identified over 70,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The 2,897 new cases reported by the state Department of Health included 993 from Bernalillo County, far more than reported in a single day in the county and more than reported statewide in a single day until late October. Six other counties had over 100 newly reported cases: Doña Ana County (438), Santa Fe County (197), Chaves County (191), Sandoval County (179), Valencia County (138) and Lea County (123).

On Wednesday, 30 of the state’s 33 counties reported at least one new case of the respiratory disease.

DOH also reported 40 additional cases among inmates held by the state Department of Corrections.

The number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 also increased again, to 776, 22 more than reported on Tuesday. This could include those from out of state who are hospitalized in New Mexico with COVID-19, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized in other locations.

DOH updated its methodology for COVID-19 hospitalizations and, beginning on Monday, began to use data directly from hospitals instead of information from contact tracing. DOH said contact tracing has become more difficult and less reliable as the number of cases has surged, which caused the number of reported hospitalizations to be lower than reality.

Nearly all of those hospitalized are New Mexico residents, according to the latest hospitalization update from DOH.

The department also provided some information on each of the newly reported deaths.

A male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized.
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 50s from Chaves County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 40s from Cibola County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Cibola County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Colfax County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 50s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A second female in her 50s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
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 second female in her 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 90s from Doña Ana County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Casa de Oro Center in Las Cruces.
A male in his 90s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 80s from Guadalupe County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 70s from Luna County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Luna County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 60s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Quay County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Roosevelt County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Taos County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 70s from Taos County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. The individual was a patient at the Rio at Las Estancias in Albuquerque.
A male New Mexico Corrections Department inmate in his 80s at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County who was hospitalized.
A male New Mexico Corrections Department inmate in his 40s at the Roswell Correctional Center who was hospitalized.

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 diabetes, followed by hypertension and cardiovascular disease, according to the state’s latest mortality update. Some of those who died had multiple comorbidities.

The week with the most reported deaths so far was Nov. 2 to Nov. 8, with 102 deaths, far outrstripping two weeks with 71 each (one in late April and early May, and other from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1).

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Watchlist had 244 establishments as of Tuesday. This includes workplaces with two or more rapid responses for positive COVID-19 tests in the workplace in the previous 14 days.

Of those, 23 had four or more cases in the previous 14 days, which required a two-week closure, 10 of which were added on Wednesday.

DOH has now found 70,451 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and reported 1,290 deaths related to the disease.

Testing details

DOH reported that they have processed 1,409,823 COVID-19 tests as of Wednesday, 11,484 more than reported on Tuesday.

The 2,897 new cases represent 25.23 percent of the newly reported test results.

DOH broke down the total cases by county.

993 new cases in Bernalillo County
5 new cases in Catron County
191 new cases in Chaves County
45 new cases in Cibola County
10 new cases in Colfax County
89 new cases in Curry County
2 new cases in De Baca County
438 new cases in Doña Ana County
46 new cases in Eddy County
19 new cases in Grant County
16 new cases in Guadalupe County
123 new cases in Lea County
15 new cases in Lincoln County
5 new cases in Los Alamos County
34 new cases in Luna County
74 new cases in McKinley County
3 new cases in Mora County
50 new cases in Otero County
5 new cases in Quay County
50 new cases in Rio Arriba County
16 new cases in Roosevelt County
179 new cases in Sandoval County
45 new cases in San Juan County
10 new cases in San Miguel County
197 new cases in Santa Fe County
9 new cases in Sierra County
11 new cases in Socorro County
36 new cases in Taos County
3 new cases in Torrance County
138 new cases in Valencia County
36 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility
4 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County

Additionally, DOH provided the total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic by county, including those reported on Wednesday.

DOH said three previously reported cases were identified as duplicates (one in each of Bernalillo, Curry and Santa Fe counties) and that two previously reported cases in Rio Arriba County were identified as out-of-state residents. These have been corrected and removed from the totals.

One case that was previously reported as an inmate at the Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center was determined to be a resident of CIbola County. This also has been corrected.