State officials forecast tough November for COVID-19

SANTA FE — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the state is behind the virus as iCOVID-19 nfection counts, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise.

Lujan Grisham asked New Mexicans to not spend time with non-household members, wear a mask whenever outside of the home and keeping at least six feet of distance from others regardless of mask wearing. No changes were announced to current public health orders.

The state announced 862 new cases Thursday, with Lujan Grisham noting a record 23 deaths made it the toughest data to announce. She noted two of the deaths were in their 40s, and it is anticipated the state will see more people without underlying conditions succumbing to the virus.

Human Services Secretary David Scrase said the state expects to see an average of 13 daily deaths over the next two weeks and that modeling indicates that state would reach its ICU bed capacity by mid-November.

“November is going to be really rough on us,” Lujan Grisham said. “There is nothing we can do, nothing, to change that trajectory.”

Later, she countered that New Mexicans can still commit to lowering infection rates to make December more tenable.

The state reported 400 current hospitalizations — a 95% increase from two weeks ago — with 59 on ventilators.

In local COVID-19 developments.

• Clovis Municipal Schools has established a web page to give public updates on new COVID-19 cases within its school populations at clovis-schools.org/COVID-19/COVID-19-Cases.html.

With the website implemented, the district will discontinue its process of media alerts, email announcements and social media posts of individual cases. However, the district will continue to notify staff or family of a student identified as a close contact with somebody who tested positive for COVID-19.

The data will be posted by 4 p.m. each day. Any data received after 4 p.m. will be posted the following day with the date of results noted.

• Additional testing sites have been set up at the Clovis Community College Gym and Eastern New Mexico University’s Greyhound Stadium.

Registration is required at doineedacovid19test.com. Testing is 3 p.m.-7 p.m. daily through Tuesday, according to the website.