Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A consistent string of single-digit case days for COVID-19 has created some sense of optimism that Curry County will remain in the yellow zone when “Red to Green” results are announced today and that — fingers crossed — Roosevelt County will emerge from the red zone after just missing it Feb. 10.
The state has, since Nov. 30, graded counties every two weeks on meeting gating criteria of 8 daily cases per 100,000 residents and test positivity at or below 5%. Green counties meet both, yellow counties meet one and red counties meet neither. A three-tier public health order applies to each county, with relaxed restrictions for yellow and green levels.
Curry County made the yellow designation Feb. 10 on test positivity (3.99%), while Roosevelt missed the mark at 5.3% and remained in the red.
Between the last data collection period and Monday:
• Curry County has confirmed 93 cases and conducted 2,906 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 3.2%.
• Roosevelt County has confirmed 33 cases and conducted 1,259 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 2.62%.
The state calculates test positivity by eliminating duplicate tests from data collection, but those numbers are not provided on the public dashboard.
Neither county can make the green designation due to the daily case rates. Curry County must be below 56 and Roosevelt 23 over a two-week period to meet that criteria.
Monday’s report from the Department of Health confirmed 237 new cases of COVID-19 statewide, including five in Curry County and one in Roosevelt County.
Curry County did record its 66th COVID-19 death on Sunday — a man in his 50s who was hospitalized. It is only the second virus-related death reported in Curry County since Feb. 10. Roosevelt County has reported 50 deaths throughout the pandemic, but has not reported one since a local record of five on Feb. 9.
In other COVID-19 developments:
• As of Tuesday morning, the state’s vaccine dashboard reports 501,436 vaccine doses have been administered — 329,054 first doses and 172,382 second doses. That represents a little more than 8% of the state’s 2.1 million residents.
The state reports Curry County has 18.2% of its population partially vaccinated and 7.6% fully vaccinated. In Roosevelt County, those numbers are 16.6% partially vaccinated and 5% fully vaccinated.
Guadalupe County is tops in the state at 41.9% partially vaccinated, while Curry is 25th and Roosevelt is 27th.
• Establishments on the state’s rapid response watchlist dropped over the weekend, with 34 establishments reporting multiple rapid responses in a 14-day timeframe. That’s down from 46 on Friday.
The state initiates a rapid response when it learns of a positive COVID-19 case in a workplace. The state agency initiating the rapid response will offer direction to establishments regarding testing, quarantining and isolating, disinfecting, and COVID-safe practices.
No local entity has been on the list for the last two weeks.
An establishment that reaches four rapid responses inside 14 days is under consideration for a 14-day closure, but no local establishment has been closed under such a directive.
