Official: At least two more weeks before greater reopening

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s top medical official said Friday state officials are putting off for at least two weeks a plan for greater reopening of businesses and other activities.

In recent days, state officials have re-evaluated whether to take the next step in the gradual relaxing of some business restrictions. New Mexico had a “major setback” in a surge of new virus cases recently, and the state’s intensive care beds “were more than 100% full,” said Dr. David Scrase, cabinet secretary for the state Human Services Department.

On June 8, New Mexico had been among 14 states that recorded their highest ever seven-day average of new coronavirus cases. And the state per capita has the lowest number of ICU beds in the country, making it vulnerable if an increase in seriously ill COVID-19 patients occurs, Scrase said.

“So we decided to go another two weeks,” Scrase said during a webinar update in which he fielded questions from the news media.

The good news: in recent days, the state has seen a downward trend in new cases and the June 1 initial reopening of the economy doesn’t appear “to have overwhelmed our system,” he said.

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had dropped to 147 on Friday, down from 179 a week earlier and down from 191 on June 1.

Locally, the number of COVID-19 cases have spiked in Curry, Parmer and Bailey counties over the past week, while Lubbock County is surging again after leveling off for weeks.

Curry went from 71 cases a week ago to 101 as of Friday. Parmer County had 160 cases as of Friday, up from 111 on June 12. Bailey County has gone from 30 cases to 83 the past week.

Lubbock recorded 346 new cases in the past week, increasing its total to 1,136 with 544 cases now considered active.

Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that a bar called Logie’s appears to be ground zero for the recent spread.

Bill Howerton, Lubbock’s deputy city manager, said he doesn’t know if any health precautions were taking place.

Jake Warren, general manager at Logie’s, told the A-J that the establishment wasn’t doing anything wrong and that it was just a popular sports bar that people were coming to.

The bar was closed by week’s end, with signs taped to the doors with Howerton’s name and number for people to call and complain.

Only six recent deaths tied to the virus have been reported within 100 miles of Clovis — one in Portales, two in the Hereford area and three around Amarillo, all in the past week.