San Juan County's COVID cases fall 9.1%; New Mexico cases up 8.5%

Mike Stucka USA TODAY NETWORK
·3 min read

FARMINGTON — New coronavirus cases increased 8.5% in New Mexico in the week ending Sunday as the state added 6,717 cases. The previous week had 6,188 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

New Mexico ranked seventh among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

San Juan County reported 520 cases and seven deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 572 cases and two deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 44,505 cases and 792 deaths.​

Within New Mexico, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Grant County with 511 cases per 100,000 per week; Lincoln County with 450; and San Juan County with 419. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Bernalillo County, with 2,216 cases; Doña Ana County, with 703 cases; and San Juan County, with 520. Weekly case counts rose in 19 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Bernalillo, Doña Ana and Sandoval counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

​ Across New Mexico, cases fell in 12 counties, with the best declines in Los Alamos County, with 70 cases from 132 a week earlier; in San Juan County, with 520 cases from 572; and in Valencia County, with 205 cases from 245. ​

In New Mexico, ​ 93 ​ people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 17 people were reported dead. The Fourth of July holiday disrupted who got tested, when people got tested and when both test results and deaths were reported. This may significantly skew week-to-week comparisons.

A total of 577,583 people in New Mexico have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 8,056 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 89,542,107 people have tested positive and 1,023,799 people have died.

In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 29% from the week before, with 947,862 cases reported. With 0.63% of the country's population, New Mexico had 0.71% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 42 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

New Mexico's COVID-19 hospital admissions rising

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, July 17. Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

  • Last week: 422

  • The week before that: 405

  • Four weeks ago: 395

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

  • Last week: 73,328

  • The week before that: 67,692

  • Four weeks ago: 57,602

Hospitals in 36 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 27 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 40 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: San Juan County reported 520 additional COVID-19 cases last week