NM moves all counties to 'turquoise' health restrictions

Jun. 2—SANTA FE — New Mexico is now all turquoise all the time.

The Department of Health adjusted its color-coded public health order Wednesday to put every county at turquoise — the least restrictive category — until New Mexico graduates out of the county-level system altogether.

The move will loosen limits on business capacity in Chaves County — the only community not already at turquoise — and ensure no other county backslides into heavier restrictions.

The state plans to abandon the color-coded map and remove most restrictions on commercial activity after 60% of the state's adults are fully vaccinated. The state is now just 4 percentage points away.

Health Secretary Tracie Collins said Wednesday the state remains on track to reach the 60% threshold by the end of the month.

Two weeks after hitting the target — allowing time for full immunity to kick in — the state will likely keep in place an emergency public health order of some kind, she said, but with relaxed restrictions.

"The goal is to open up," Collins told reporters Wednesday.

Until then, the revised health order will put every county on equal footing.

Restaurants, breweries, hair salons and hotels are allowed to operate at 75% capacity at the turquoise level. Movie theaters and bars can operate at 33% capacity indoors.

In a public briefing Wednesday, Collins and Human Services Secretary David Scrase said the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines and the state's falling number of new cases warranted the change.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham authorized the revisions Wednesday after New Mexico's new coronavirus cases dipped below 100 a day over the four-day period ending Tuesday. Scrase said cases are at their lowest level since September.

"We're almost there," Lujan Grisham said in a written announcement. "New Mexicans are making the right choices: Getting vaccinated so we can all safely resume our lives and so our small businesses and economy can roar back to life."

The Department of Health reported just 92 new coronavirus cases Wednesday and four more deaths, including a man in his 60s from Bernalillo County. The state's official virus-related death count stands at 4,268 residents.

New incentives

Bernalillo, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties have already been at turquoise for at least a month.

Before Wednesday's announcement, New Mexico set restrictions in a map that factored in each county's new COVID-19 cases per person, the share of tests that came back positive and the percentage of vaccinated adults.

Without the change, five New Mexico counties — De Baca, Guadalupe, Harding, Roosevelt and Torrance — would have fallen back to the yellow level.

Barring an unexpected outbreak, however, New Mexico now plans to stick with one set of restrictions until it reaches the 60% fully vaccinated targeted.

As it stands now, about 56% of New Mexicans 16 and older are fully vaccinated and 66% have received at least one dose.

Lujan Grisham this week launched a cash lottery to encourage more people to sign up for the shot. Twenty people who have been vaccinated and register for the sweepstakes will get awards of $250,000 a piece this summer, and a grand prize of $5 million is scheduled for August.

Collins said a similar lottery in Ohio succeeded in boosting vaccination rates across all ages and communities.

Scrase said he's particularly hopeful the lottery will encourage younger people and residents of rural areas to get vaccinated.

Vaccination rates in New Mexico range from 79% in Los Alamos in northern New Mexico to 27% in Roosevelt County, the eastern part of the state.

State Epidemiologist Christine Ross said nearly all of New Mexico's new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are among people who aren't vaccinated. The breakthrough case rate among people who are vaccinated is a fraction of a percentage point, she said.

"The vaccines are safe," Ross said, "and they are highly effective."

GOP criticism

Republican legislators, meanwhile, assailed Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, on Wednesday for launching the vaccine lottery without seeking legislative approval.

Funding for the $10 million in cash prizes will come from federal stimulus money. Lawmakers have been at odds with the governor for months over who has authority to allocate the federal funding.

"Giving any Governor the unilateral authority to dole out billions of taxpayer dollars is unconscionable and unconstitutional — it is time for Democratic leaders to stop talking and actually push back," Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, said in a written statement.

Lujan Grisham said this week that she is consulting with legislative leaders about how to spend federal stimulus funding but that allocating the money is an executive function, not up to lawmakers.

After the map

Looking ahead, Collins and Scrase said they expect New Mexico will keep in place an emergency public health order of some kind even after lifting the color-coded system this summer.

Scrase said a mask requirement for unvaccinated individuals may stay in place, and Collins said public health officials will need flexibility to determine what rules are necessary.

"People will be free to go about and do their activities safely," Collins said.

The emergency declaration also has financial benefits, Scrase said, increasing federal aid sent to New Mexico to help low-income families.

But many restrictions would be lifted once the color-coded map goes away. The governor said in April that capacity limits on businesses would be removed and the state would fully reopen.

Lujan Grisham issued her first COVID-19 emergency declaration March 11, 2020, or nearly 15 months ago.

Wednesday's public health order is set to expire June 30, though state officials may extend or revise it.