Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Both Curry and Roosevelt counties are in the state’s vaunted turquoise status, and halfway into the latest data collection period they seem likely to stay there.
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.
Curry County made green March 24 and turquoise April 7, while Roosevelt County made green March 10 and turquoise March 24.
Between the last data collection period on March 5 and Monday, Curry County has confirmed seven cases and conducted 916 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 0.076%. Curry County must be at or below 56 new cases over the two-week period to meet the daily case criteria.
During the same period, Roosevelt County has confirmed five cases and conducted 573 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 0.087%. Roosevelt must be at 23 or fewer cases over the two-week period for the daily case criteria.
The state will unveil its next “Red to Green” update April 21.
In other COVID-19 developments:
• Weekend update: Between Friday and Monday, the state announced four new local cases of COVID-19, all in Curry County.
Beginning Easter weekend, the Department of Health stopped providing Saturday and Sunday case count updates in favor of a consolidated update on Mondays. The weekend update included 647 new cases and three deaths over the three-day period.
• Johnson & Johnson paused: The DOH announced Tuesday it would pause distribution of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine following recommendations by the Center for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration.
The CDC and FDA have reported six cases of “rare and severe” blood clots among women between 18 and 48. The six cases are out of 6.8 million doses given.
Health Secretary Dr. Tracie Collins said the state is acting out of an abundance of caution, and the state will either pause pending J&J vaccine appointments or shift those registrants to the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
• School goes back to remote: Albuquerque’s Eldorado High School is the state’s first public school to have four rapid responses inside a 14-day period, triggering a two-week return to remote-only instruction.
Eldorado had rapid responses March 29, April 2, April 6 and Saturday.
The school began the 14-day remote period Tuesday.
Any establishment that records two rapid responses inside a 14-day period goes on the state’s rapid response watchlist, and is subject to a two-week closure if it reaches four within the 14-day period. The state evaluates each establishment on a case-by-case basis.
The watchlist inclues 32 establishments, with none in Curry or Roosevelt counties. A handful of local establishments have crossed the threshold of four rapid responses, but no local establishment has faced a closure requirement as a result.
