COVID-19 cases continue to rise in New Mexico during June

Algernon D'Ammassa, Las Cruces Sun-News
·3 min read
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New Mexico's known COVID-19 cases continue to trend upward, according to weekly epidemiology reports, while data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show increased transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus over most of the state.

A total of 6,357 cases reported between June 6 and June 13 continues a jump that started the previous week with 6,104 cases reported.

Grant County, which has been a hotspot for transmission in recent weeks, saw the highest number of infections adjusted for population in the state, with 82.5 per 100,000 people, far greater than surrounding southern New Mexico counties.

After Grant County, infections were highest per population in Santa Fe County, at 64.8 per 100,000.

The per-population adjustment is used to compare counties with populations of varying size in a state that includes densely populated metropolitan areas and extensive rural areas.

Reported daily cases are generally accepted as an undercount of the number of infections as residents have come to rely on home-based tests over lab-confirmed PCR tests. Among the latter, New Mexico reported a positivity rate of nearly 12 percent during the last week of May.

A heat map maintained by the CDC showed 30 of New Mexico's 33 counties at substantial to high rates of transmission Wednesday, based on known daily case rates and test positivity.

Besides the known cases, the percentage of emergency department visits with COVID-19 discharge diagnoses has risen sharply since April, topping 5 percent of all ED visits for symptoms consistent with SARS-CoV-2 or influenza infection.

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The state's hospital network reported a slight week-over-week increase to 122 hospitalizations over the past week. During the week of May 30 to June 5, the most recent data reported, hospitalizations for COVID-19 were densest in San Miguel County when adjusted for age and population, at 17.7 per 100,000. In the southern part of the state, Luna County led in hospitalizations at 14.2 per 100,000.

On Wednesday, the state reported 165 hospitalized for COVID-19 statewide, of whom 17 were on ventilators.

The day's reported cases were 1,132. While the majority of positive cases recover with mild to moderate symptoms of disease, 7,869 cases (1.4 percent of the total) had proven fatal as of Wednesday.

Vaccines against COVID-19 continue to be available for free and can be located online at https://vaccinenm.org.

Pharmacist Patrick Lapanne of CVS Pharmacy prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the second day that staff and residents of the Village at Northrise in Las Cruces, N.M. were offered vaccine on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020.
Pharmacist Patrick Lapanne of CVS Pharmacy prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine on the second day that staff and residents of the Village at Northrise in Las Cruces, N.M. were offered vaccine on Monday, Dec. 28, 2020.

According to the state health department's vaccine data portal, as of its last update on June 7 over 1.3 million New Mexico adults had completed a primary course of vaccine, or 78.8 percent of those ages 18 and over. However, despite rising cases being attributed in part to waning immunity, only 60.6 percent had received at least one booster shot.

Want a COVID shot in New Mexico? Here's a refresher on vaccines and boosters.

Among younger residents, over 61 percent of those between ages 12 and 17 had completed a primary course, while 34 percent had received a booster. Among ages 5 to 11, 32.4 percent had completed a primary course and 6.6 percent had received a booster.

Vaccines for children as young as 6 months old took another step toward authorization Wednesday, when a Food and Drug Administration panel voted in favor of authorizing vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for young children.

As reported by USA Today, the votes require approval by the FDA commissioner and then by the CDC. If those approvals come through, vaccine doses would be ready for distribution as soon as next week.

Besides vaccines, health officials have recommended frequent handwashing, physical distance from non-household members and wearing a well-fitting N95 or KN95 mask in public indoor settings as ways to slow community spread and protect others. While recommended, indoor mask mandates were lifted in most public spaces in February.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: COVID-19 cases continue to rise in New Mexico during June