Curry, Roosevelt likely to remain in turquoise

Both Curry and Roosevelt counties are expected to stay in the state’s vaunted turquoise status under the “Red to Green” COVID-19 public health guidelines when the new county ratings are unveiled today.

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.

Clovis Mayor Mike Morris — a member of a mayor’s advisory council on COVID-19 matters — said during Thursday’s Clovis city commission meeting he anticipates the state will make an announcement regarding a change in its criteria for the “Red to Green” plan. Human Services Secretary David Scrase has said during each of the previous two updates that the state was exploring how it could de-emphasize test positivity as a metric because more vaccinations mean fewer tests.

Curry County made green March 24 and turquoise April 7, while Roosevelt County made green March 10 and turquoise March 24.

During the data collection period between April 5 and Monday, Curry County has confirmed 26 cases and conducted 2,173 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 1.2%. 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 seven cases and conducted 971 tests, a raw test positivity rate of 0.72%. Roosevelt must be at 23 or fewer cases over the two-week period for the daily case criteria.

Outside data calculation is not an exact science because the state calculates slightly different data than what it makes publicly available each day. Duplicate tests and positives are eliminated, and positive cases are reassigned to the date of the test.

In other COVID-19 developments:

• Vaccine eligibility expands: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Department reported Monday all Americans 16 and older are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Registration for New Mexicans is available at cvvaccine.nmhealth.org.

According to the state’s vaccine dashboard on Tuesday morning, 56.4% of New Mexicans have received at least one vaccine dose and 38.3% are fully vaccinated.

Local counties are lagging behind the statewide numbers. Curry County has 28.2% of residents with at least one dose and 21.7% fully vaccinated. In Roosevelt County, 27.3% have received at least one dose and 20.2% are fully vaccinated.