February 12, 2021

State hits most COVID-19 gating criteria goals

In the last two days, the state of New Mexico reported 948 new cases of COVID-19 and 41 additional deaths related to the disease. This was with 541 new cases and 18 additional deaths on Thursday and 407 new cases and 23 additional deaths on Friday. As of Friday, 365 individuals were hospitalized for the […]

Matthew Reichbach

In the last two days, the state of New Mexico reported 948 new cases of COVID-19 and 41 additional deaths related to the disease.

This was with 541 new cases and 18 additional deaths on Thursday and 407 new cases and 23 additional deaths on Friday.

As of Friday, 365 individuals were hospitalized for the disease, fourteen fewer than on Wednesday and the fewest since Nov. 1. This could include those from other states who are hospitalized in New Mexico, but would not include New Mexicans who are hospitalized in other states.

DOH has now found 179,724 cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and reported 3,502 deaths related to the disease. Of the confirmed cases, 117,635 are designated as recovered by DOH.

DOH provided some information on each of the 23 newly reported deaths Friday.

A female in her 40s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized.
A male in his 50s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and was a resident of the Belen Meadows Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in Belen.
A female in her 60s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A second male in his 80s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 30s from Chaves County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from Chaves County who had underlying conditions.
A male in his 90s from Chaves County.
A second male in his 90s from Chaves County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Casa Maria Health Care Center in Roswell.
A female in her 100s from Cibola County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Good Samaritan Society facility in Grants.
A male in his 60s from Doña Ana County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Eddy County who was a resident of the Good Life Senior Living facility in Carlsbad.
A male in his 80s from Lea County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Los Alamos County who was a resident of the Sombrillo Nursing Home facility in Los Alamos.
A female in her 80s from Luna County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Mimbres Memorial Nursing Home in Deming.
A female in her 90s from Luna County who had underlying conditions.
A female in her 50s from Sandoval County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from Sandoval County.
A male in his 70s from San Juan County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 80s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 40s from Socorro County.

And the 19 additional deaths reported on Thursday:

A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who was a resident of the Vista Sandia Assisted Living facility in Albuquerque.
A male in his 80s from Bernalillo County.
A male in his 90s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 80s from Chaves County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Mission Arch Center in Roswell.
A female in her 80s from Colfax County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the Colfax Long-Term Care Center in Springer.
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 was hospitalized.
A male in his 50s from Eddy County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 60s from Eddy County.
A male in his 50s from Grant County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 40s from Luna County who was hospitalized.
A female in her 60s from Luna County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 70s from Luna County who was hospitalized and was a resident of the Mimbres Memorial Nursing Home in Deming.
A female in her 40s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A female in her 60s from McKinley County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 60s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.
A male in his 80s from San Juan County.
A male in his 80s from Union County 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 hypertension, followed by diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to the most recently available mortality update. Some of those who died had multiple comorbidities.

The New Mexico Environment Department’s Rapid Response COVID-19 Watchlist had 45 establishments as of Friday. These workplaces had two or more COVID-19 rapid responses in the last 14 days.

Gating criteria

The number of tests conducted each day reached a new high, on a seven-day rolling average, reaching 15,671 as of Feb. 11. And the test positivity rate dropped below the state’s goal of 5 percent on a seven-day rolling average, dropping to 4.1 percent as of Feb. 11.

The one piece of gating criteria that remains above the state’s goal is daily cases, which is at 448 as of Feb. 5 on a seven-day rolling average, well above the state’s target of 168.

The rate of spread was 0.88 as of Feb. 11. Anything under 1.0 means the number of cases in the state is falling.

The number of occupied adult ICU beds dropped to 276 as of Feb. 12, under the state’s baseline capacity of 290.

Testing details

The state coronavirus information page says the state has processed 2,458,248 tests as of Friday, 28,354 more than reported on Wednesday. The 948 positive cases on Thursday and Friday represented 3.34 percent of the newly reported tests, though this calculation is not the same as the one used by the state for its gating criteria.

DOH identified two previously reported cases as duplicates (one in Cibola County and one in Otero County). These have been corrected.

The total number of cases per county, as of Friday, are as follows: