Curry sees second triple-digit day

CLOVIS — Curry County saw its second day of triple-digit COVID-19 case confirmations Monday, and Clovis' 88101 ZIP code had the state's third-highest count according to data provided by the New Mexico Department of Health.

The county confirmed 100 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, part of a day that saw the state confirm 2,259 cases for a total of 84,148 since the pandemic began in March.

Curry confirmed a record 104 cases Friday, along with 85 on Saturday and 45 on Sunday. Plains Regional Medical Center confirmed 28 total patients Tuesday morning, with eight in the ICU. Sunday saw the hospital with 32 COVID-19 patients.

The county has, through Monday, 1,302 confirmed new COVID-19 cases in November and a total 2,935 cases since the pandemic began.

Assuming Curry has another 334 new cases over November's final seven days — the daily average for the month is just over 56 — November will see more new cases in the county than the previous eight months combined.

October saw the county record 782, less than half of the total 1,633 through Oct. 31.

Roosevelt County recorded 72 cases between Saturday and Monday — 20 Saturday, 27 Sunday and 25 Monday. The county has 433 confirmed cases in November, and 914 cases through the entire pandemic. Another 49 cases over the rest of the month would mean November accounted for more than half of the county's total cases since March.

Roosevelt General Hospital reported five COVID-19 patients Tuesday, with none in ICU.

In other COVID-19 developments:

• A total of 10 Curry and Roosevelt establishments, five of them school sites, were on the state's 14-day watchlist for multiple rapid responses. Any establishment with more than two rapid responses in a 14-day period is placed on the list, and any that reaches four rapid responses inside a 14-day period is a consideration for closure for 14 days.

Curry County establishments were Southwest Cheese with four (down from a prior high of five), Albertsons Market with three and another six with two each — BNSF Railway, the Human Services Department, the UPS Customer Center on Brady Avenue, and La Casita, Parkview and Zia elementary schools. Portales had two school sites on the watchlist, Portales High School and Brown Early Childhood Center.

If a public school is required to close because it has four or more rapid responses in a 14-day period, it must remain in remote-only learning mode until its county is in the green zone — fewer than eight daily cases per 100,000 residents and test positivity below 5%. Schools that voluntarily go to remote-only learning can return to hybrid learning at their own discretion, regardless of the county's gating criteria.

Clovis Municipal Schools has already made that decision, and all sites will be in remote-only mode Monday when the holiday break concludes. Roosevelt County had not yet been cleared for hybrid learning.

• The state reported 17 new COVID-19 deaths Monday to put the total at 1,400. No death cases reported Monday were Curry or Roosevelt residents, and the same was true for the 25 reported deaths Saturday or 33 reported Sunday.

A total of 846 people were hospitalized Monday, and 29,183 cases are designated as recovered in New Mexico.

• Five local long-term care facilities are on the DOH's list of facilities reporting at least one positive staff or resident test in the last 28 days — Clovis Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, Retirement Ranch in Clovis, St. Anthony Healthcare and Rehabilitation in Clovis, Wheatfields Senior Living in Clovis and Heartland Continuing Care in Portales.

• The Environment Department on Tuesday announced a voluntary surveillance testing and contact tracing agreement to enable businesses to prevent mandatory 14-day closures triggered by state rapid responses to COVID-19 cases.

The agreement requires essential businesses to conduct regular COVID-19 testing among staff, as well as assist the Department of Health in contact tracing efforts. If positive cases are discovered as a result of this testing, the resulting rapid response will not count toward the mandatory 14-day closure requirement in the current public health order.

“We're empowering businesses to stay open by contributing to critical public health efforts,” said Environment Department Cabinet Secretary James Kenney. “By incentivizing businesses to participate in a regular surveillance testing program, we are keeping New Mexicans safe, slowing the spread of COVID-19, and preventing additional closures of essential businesses.”

To participate in the program, a business must submit to the state environment and health departments a plan that details surveillance testing and contact tracing efforts the establishment will undertake at a business location. A plan must be submitted for each business location.

The agreements not only help essential businesses avoid a 14-day mandatory closure, but also help businesses currently closed a chance at an earlier reopening.