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- In a press conference, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the new public health emergency order will allow some businesses to reopen and will require people to wear masks while in public. See the details here.
- In the same press conference, the state announced 12 additional COVID-19 deaths and 155 new cases. See the breakdown here.
- The Navajo Nation announced 147 new COVID-19 cases and 16 additional deaths. That’s a total of 3,392 confirmed positive cases and 119 deaths since as of Wednesday. Of the total cases, 1,414 are in New Mexico.
- New Mexico has a higher-than-average rate of children with confirmed cases of COVID-19.
- A Metropolitan Detention Center sergeant tested positive for COVID-19, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- KRQE-TV reported on the nursing home patients who were evicted from an Albuquerque nursing home that has become where COVID-19-positive patients are housed.
- The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on the response from area businesses to the governor’s partial reopening.
- San Juan, McKinley and Cibola counties will not open with the rest of the state but they will be in the “preparation” phase. The Farmington Daily Times looked at what that means.
- Salons and bars weren’t part of the businesses that will be able to reopen. KOB-TV reported on how they bracing for longer waits.
- Inmates at the Cibola County Correctional Center, a private detention center, said they had to sign a waiver to receive face masks, the Santa Fe Reporter reported.
- According to data provided to New Mexico In Depth by the state Department of Health, most New Mexico tribes and pueblos have had members test positive for COVID-19.
- The Albuquerque Journal reported on what state workers are doing to help seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- House Republicans say the governor is abusing her power. House Minority Leader Jim Townsend said in a letter that she exceeded her legal authority to spend no more than $750,000 per emergency declaration. Townsend also asked for bipartisan consultation on how a remote or virtual session would take place and that tapping the Land Grant Permanent Fund would be off the table in a special session.
- The Albuquerque International Sunport will lose $31 million in revenue due to the pandemic, City of Albuquerque officials said.
- Earlier this week, the Taos town council extended the town’s curfew, the Taos News reported.
- Native Women Lead is partnering with Nusenda Credit Union to offer emergency $5,000, no-interest loans to indigenous women-owned businesses in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
- A Republican state senator asked the governor how the state is classifying deaths as related to COVID-19; he said that a constituent told him had a family member die from a heart attack but the cause of death was listed as COVID-19. The state said the vast majority of COVID-19-related deaths have come after the deceased tested positive before they died, though tests are not required if COVID-19 is listed as an underlying cause of death on the death certificate.
- State police issued a cease-and-desist order to a Sierra County church that violated the state’s public health order.
- El Paso, Texas had five additional COVID-19-related deaths as of Wednesday. That brought the total to 41 COVID-19-related deaths and 1,456 total cases in the city, which is just across the border from New Mexico.
- Parmer County in West Texas, which borders New Mexico, has a higher per-capita rate of COVID-19 than Texas as a whole; the meat-processing plant in the county isn’t a significant source, the county judge said, according to The Eastern New Mexico News.
- The Carlsbad Current-Argus wrote about how the country could be facing an oil storage problem thanks to reduced demand worldwide, largely because of COVID-19.