Gov. Lujan Grisham tests positive for COVID-19

Aug. 25—Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has tested positive for COVID-19 — joining the more than 600,000 other cases in New Mexico since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Lujan Grisham, who was in Colorado earlier this week on campaign-related travel, received a positive test result Thursday morning, according to the Governor's Office.

It is the first time the governor has tested positive for the illness.

"I am very grateful to be experiencing only mild symptoms after being fully vaccinated and twice boosted against COVID-19," Lujan Grisham said in a statement. "Per medical guidance, I have also started a course of the antiviral Paxlovid. I am thankful for the support of my family and staff and will continue my work on behalf of New Mexicans while working remotely."

Lujan Grisham, who is 62 years old, is isolating at the governor's residence and will continue her official schedule remotely per state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and protocol, her office said.

News of the governor's positive test generated both well wishes and nasty comments on social media.

After the pandemic landed in New Mexico in 2020, the governor mandated some of the strictest public health orders in the nation, including business lockdowns, vaccine requirements for government employees and face mask mandates in public settings. Her rules generated both praise and contempt from the public.

"Lol," one Twitter user wrote. "You caught Covid when you went to Aspen to hang out [with] your DC friends."

The governor was attending political events Monday and Tuesday in Aspen and Denver with the Democratic Governors Association, which she used to chair, and returned to New Mexico on Wednesday. That's when she last tested negative for COVID-19, her office said.

"The governor was testing regularly due to her travel and tested negative every day this week until this morning," her press secretary, Nora Meyers Sackett, wrote in an email.

Asked whether her reelection campaign was concerned Lujan Grisham might have spread the virus, spokeswoman Delaney Corcoran said it wasn't.

"The governor tested negative every day this week until this morning," she said in a statement. "The governor has been isolating at her residence since her positive test."

The Governor's Office said all those defined as close contacts have been notified following standard protocol.

A reporter who interviewed Lujan Grisham in person Sunday at a campaign event with former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords said he didn't receive any type of notification.

Sackett said the Sunday event "falls outside of the window in which folks would be close contacts."

"To reiterate," she wrote, "the governor tested negative for several days following Sunday. The governor is very grateful for the robust protections offered to her and others by vaccines and boosters, and for the ready availability of additional effective treatment like Paxlovid."

In her statement, the governor encouraged "New Mexicans who have yet to be vaccinated or boosted against COVID-19 to do so."

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.