PRMC admin: COVID-19 challenging staff still

CLOVIS — During a routine update to the Curry County Commission on Monday, Plains Regional Medical Center Administrator Jorge Cruz said the battle against COVID-19 is continuing to challenge staff.

In his Monday report, Cruz said the hospital had 22 COVID-19 patients, with four in intensive care and one on a ventilator. Staffing issues have led to Cruz putting on scrubs himself from time to time.

“I’m a nurse by background,” said Cruz, who first came to PRMC as a travel nurse. “I will always be a nurse whatever position I am in.”

What does concern Cruz about the more transmissible Delta variant is the age of people affected. Cruz said during his last shift as a nurse he treated three patients, and all were between ages 30 and 50. He advised residents to do their best to stay safe, whether that was with vaccination or social distancing.

Cruz said that while PRMC is finding itself without the ability to transfer patients out because other hospitals are also full, the facility is not turning people away.

Cruz said impacts are still to be fully seen from the recent Curry County fair and the opening of the school year.

“I’m hoping we’re at the tail end of this,” Cruz said. “But outside looking in, I don’t think we’ve peaked yet.”

Cruz was asked by Commissioner Seth Martin what impact a state vaccination mandate on healthcare workers had. Cruz said the hospital was still sorting out a number of exemption requests but, “unfortunately, there’s going to be a small percentage of people we do lose.”

Presbyterian Healthcare Services, which operates PRMC, implemented its own vaccine mandate beyond the state’s to include all of its employees.

Of the more than 13,000 employees at Presbyterian Healthcare Services, which runs Clovis, Tucumcari and seven other hospitals around the state, at least 97% were either vaccinated or had qualified for an allowable exemption as of Monday, a spokeswoman told the Albuquerque Journal.

Roosevelt General reported Monday to The News that it had six COVID-19 patients.

Later Monday afternoon, the New Mexico Department of Health reported 2,286 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, with Curry County the seventh-highest county in the state with 137 new cases.

The 88101 ZIP code accounted for 133 of those infections — one of only two ZIP codes with triple-digit cases, along with Carlsbad’s 137.

Roosevelt County reported 31 new cases.

The state reported seven new COVID-19 deaths over the weekend, with none from Curry or Roosevelt counties, though PRMC reported two virus-related deaths over the weekend.

In other COVID-19 developments:

• The New Mexico Rapid Response Watchlist, which includes entities with multiple rapid responses in a 14-day period, had 347 establishments — 13 in Curry County and six in Roosevelt County.

Among the Curry County schools on the list were Clovis High and Mesa Elementary with four, Marshall Middle School and CHS Freshman Academy with three and four with two — Gattis Middle School, the Arts Academy at Bella Vista, and La Casita and Highland elementary schools.

Non-schools on the Curry list included Southwest Cheese with five rapid responses, St. Anthony Healthcare and Rehabilitation with four, and three locations with two — the Ninth Judicial District Court, BNSF Railway and Lowe’s Home Improvement.

The Roosevelt County establishments, all at two rapid responses, are Portales Junior High, Dora High, Floyd Middle School, Lindsey-Steiner Elementary, Wal-Mart and Sonic Drive-In.

Establishments with four or more rapid responses are subject to consideration for a 14-day closure. The Public Education Department has decided against forcing schools into remote learning for now, choosing to treat rapid response data as community information. No local establishment has been closed as a result of reaching the rapid response threshold.

• From Friday through Monday, Clovis Municipal Schools reported 16 COVID-positive individuals at seven school buildings, resulting in 184 close contacts requiring a 10-day quarantine. Marshall Middle School had two separate reports of three positive cases, with each requiring 23 quarantines.

Outside of a positive case at the G.C. Ross Administration Office that resulted in no quarantines, each reported positive resulted in between eight and 27 people requiring a quarantine.

Other buildings with positive cases were CHSFA, the Arts Academy at Bella Vista and Highland, Mesa and Sandia elementary schools.

Vaccinated and symptom-free individuals who have close contact with a COVID-positive individual are not required to quarantine if they do not show symptoms.