More eligible to receive vaccine doses

SANTA FE — New Mexico has moved to phases 1B and 1C of its COVID-19 vaccination plan, meaning more than 96% of New Mexicans 16 and older are now eligible to receive vaccine doses.

The state also passed the 1 million dose mark Friday. As of Friday, 37.4% of New Mexicans 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose and 22.4% are fully vaccinated.

Previously, four groups were eligible for vaccine doses in the state — Phase 1A (health care workers and residents and staff of long-term care facilities), New Mexicans 75 and older, educational employees and New Mexicans with a chronic health condition.

Now eligible are frontline essential workers, residents of congregate care facilities, New Mexicans 60 and older and other essential workers.

Phases 1A through 1A account for about 1.62 million of 1.68 million New Mexicans 16 and older.

Phase 2, which includes members of the general public not included in other categories, will likely become eligible in mid- to late April.

New Mexicans can sign up at cvvaccine.nmhealth.org.

Vaccinations, Human Services Secretary David Scrase said Wednesday, have lowered the daily incidence of COVID-19 cases by more than 60%.

“We tend to think about it as something we get for ourselves,” Scrase said of vaccination, “but there’s a much bigger community we’re getting it for.”

Regarding New Mexicans going to Texas for vaccinations, Health Secretary Tracie Collins said the state’s focus is on reducing morbidity

In other COVID-19 developments:

• Friday saw the state confirm 226 new COVID-19 infections, with no cases in Curry or Roosevelt County.

Friday was the first day Curry County went without a new case since Aug. 20 of last year, when the county stood pat at 740 infections. Curry stood at 4,988 infections on Friday, while Roosevelt was at 1,853.

Five deaths were reported statewide, none local.

• Through Friday, Roosevelt County is on pace to remain in the green designation and be joined by Curry County when the state unveils its newest “Red to Green” designations Wednesday.

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, red counties meet neither and turquoise counties make green for two consecutive data collection periods.

Between the last data collection period on March 8 and Friday, Curry County has confirmed 36 cases and conducted 2,050 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 1.76%. Curry County must be at or below 56 new cases over the two-week period to meet the daily case criteria.

In the same period, Roosevelt County has confirmed 10 cases and conducted 740 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 1.35%. Roosevelt must stay at 23 or fewer cases over the two-week period.

Outside calculation is not an exact science. The state calculates test positivity by eliminating duplicate tests and case counts by the date of testing, but the public dashboard does not account for that data.

• Clovis Municipal Schools, citing efficiency, is changing its procedure for notifying families when a student is identified as a close contact to a COVID-19 positive individual.

The district will now provide automated phone calls, text messages and emails through Skyward. Previously, district staff personally contacted families. Families are asked to make sure contact information is updated at clovis-schools.org/skyward.html.

Individuals identified as close contacts are required to quarantine for 10 days from the date of possible exposure.