Officials: Counties overall maintaining, improving

CLOVIS — During a regular COVID-19 and vaccine update, state officials said that overall, the majority of counties in New Mexico either stayed the same, or improved as far as coronavirus cases are concerned. However, some counties have regressed.

New Mexico Department of Health Secretary Tracie Collins, and Human Services Department Secretary David Scrase both spoke on the pandemic situation in the state during the health department’s meeting on Wednesday.

State data showed that 24 counties either maintained their previous positivity rates or have improved. Among them were Curry and Roosevelt counties, which maintained their turquoise status under the “Red to Green” guidelines.

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, and remained there with 3.0 daily cases per 100,000 and 1.1% test positivity.

Roosevelt County made green March 10 and turquoise March 24, and most recently had 2.9 daily cases with 1.37% test positivity.

Nine counties have regressed, the data showed, but the state is confident they will be able to get the spike in cases under control.

“You know, we have nine counties that went backwards to yellow,” Scrase said. “Now we have a red county again (Colfax) which means they were over both the test positivity target and the case target, even though they’ve got about 10,000 people in the county.

“This is the report for today; I’m sad to see less turquoise. I believe that every time we vaccinate another 5 percent of individuals, we are closer to defeating this virus,” Scrase added.

The five-county region — Curry, Roosevelt, Quay, Bailey and Parmer counties — has reported two local deaths attributed to COVID-19 this month. Both victims lived in Curry County.

Curry County has reported 49 positive cases of coronavirus this month, though Friday, an average of 2.1 cases per day.

Curry County recorded 117 cases in March, an average of 3.8 cases per day.

Roosevelt county has reported 12 positive cases of COVID-19 this month through Friday, an average of 0.5 cases per day. Roosevelt County recorded 27 cases in March, an average of 0.9 cases per day.

In other COVID-19 developments:

• Curry County confirmed four new cases of COVID-19 Friday, while Roosevelt County confirmed one. That follows a Thursday with nine cases reported in Curry County and none in Roosevelt.

Since Tuesday, the beginning of data collection for the next “Red to Green” grading period, Curry County has confirmed 13 cases and Roosevelt one.

• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommending lifting the pause on the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Federal officials recommended a pause on April 13 following six cases of a rare blood clot in combination with low platelet counts. A total of 15 such cases have been identified now, all among women with 13 of the 15 in women ages 18 to 49. The 15 cases represent one incident for every 500,000 doses.

None of the cases were in New Mexico.

Editor Kevin Wilson contributed to this report.