PRMC confirms COVID-19 death

CLOVIS — Plains Regional Medical Center last week confirmed its first death related to COVID-19 and positive tests for the virus spiked across the region.

Presbyterian Healthcare Services spokeswoman Amanda Schoenberg said the death occurred on Tuesday.

State health officials said the victim was a man in his 70s who lived in Curry County.

No additional information was provided.

PRMC officials said three COVID-19 patients were hospitalized last week, including one admitted on Friday.

Roosevelt General Hospital officials on Friday reported no one had been hospitalized in the past week for coronavirus in the Portales hospital.

The number of confirmed cases in Curry County has more than tripled in the past month. The county had 64 confirmed cases on June 8, and 235 on Friday.

State Health Department records show 68 COVID-19 patients in the county have recovered.

Curry County has reported at least one positive COVID-19 case every day since June 12.

Tuesday’s death was the 11th in the region related to the virus — eight in Parmer County, and one each in Bailey, Roosevelt and now Curry.

Most of the deaths in Parmer County involved patients in a Friona nursing home.

Statewide, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was at 151 on Friday, up from 119 last Sunday. Just 114 New Mexico patients were hospitalized on June 28.

About 250 cases of COVID-19 have been reported per day in New Mexico over the past week. New Mexico averaged 145 cases per day in June, though testing has also increased — 4,702 per day last month to 5,940 per day so far in July.

Forty-two of the state’s 539 deaths have occurred in July.

Numbers across the High Plains of Texas have also surged in the past week. Lubbock County went from 2,620 positive cases on July 3 to 3,376 on Friday. Lubbock County recorded seven COVID-19-related deaths in the past week.