Curry may remain in yellow; Roosevelt headed for turquoise

SANTA FE — Curry County seemed primed to join surrounding counties in the green zone, and its more relaxed public health orders, with room to spare.

But then Sunday happened. And a 16-case day has Curry teetering a fine line between reaching green status and staying in yellow.

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 Monday, Curry County has confirmed 57 cases and conducted 2,271 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 2.51%. Curry County must be at or below 56 new cases over the two-week period to meet the daily case criteria.

Roosevelt County is on pace to move into the turquoise designation today, after making green on March 10. During the data collection period, Roosevelt has confirmed 14 cases and conducted 781 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 1.79%. Roosevelt must be at 23 or fewer cases over the two-week period for the daily case criteria.

Outside calculation is not an exact science, and Curry may land into the green zone despite the raw numbers that show it will miss the daily case threshold.

The state calculates test positivity by eliminating duplicate tests and compiles case counts based on the date of testing, but the public dashboard does not account for those changes in data.

In other COVID-19 developments:

• Plains Regional Medical Center announced no COVID-19 patients on Tuesday, marking the second time this month that has happened.

March 11, the one-year anniversary of the pandemic, marked the first time in 300 days the hospital reported no COVID-19 patients. The hospital has averaged fewer than three patients a day throughout March.

• Monday saw the state confirm 167 new COVID-19 infections, with one case each in Curry and Roosevelt counties. Three deaths were reported statewide, none local.

• The state’s rapid response watchlist on Monday had 45 establishments that have had multiple rapid responses in a 14-day period.

A rapid response is initiated upon a positive employee COVID-19 test, and is followed up with various state measures that include testing of other staff and location sanitation.

Entities that have four rapid responses inside a 14-day period are subject to 14-day closure periods, but the state handles each establishment on a case-by-case basis and no local establishments have been closed under such directives.