COVID-19 Update: Curry sees 100th death related to COVID-19

Curry County reached an unwanted milestone Wednesday, with the Department of Health reporting the county's 100th death related to COVID-19.

DOH reported 18 new deaths in its Wednesday briefing, including four residents of Curry County.

All four Curry deaths reported Wednesday were men, including

• A man in his 50s who had been hospitalized.

• A man in his 70s who was hospitalized with underlying conditions.

• A man in his 80s who was hospitalized.

• A man in his 70s whose death occurred more than 30 days ago but not confirmed as COVID-related until Wednesday.

The county's 101st COVID-19 death was reported Friday, a male in his 60s who was hospitalized with underlying conditions.

Since the pandemic began last year, DOH has reported COVID-related deaths of 66 men and 31 women from Curry County; the gender of four Curry County residents were not provided by the state.

The average age of those deceased has been 71 years.

The county's first COVID-related death was a man in his 70s reported July 7, 2020. The county has recorded 15 COVID-related deaths since August of this year after recording zero the month before.

The state has reported 4,675 COVID-related deaths overall, including 65 in Roosevelt County and 13 in Quay County.

The state has reported 244,720 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with 212,750 recoveries as of Friday. DOH officials said 354 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday, down from 375 on Wednesday.

Plains Regional Medical Center for the past month has been reporting 20-25 people are hospitalized daily with COVID-19; about five of those, on average, are in intensive care. Roosevelt General Hospital in Portales had five patients hospitalized with COVID late last week.

In other COVID-19 developments:

•The state on Wednesday renewed a public health order requiring facemarks for all New Mexicans inside public buildings, regardless of vaccination status. The order will remain in effect through Oct. 15.

During the state's Wednesday virtual update on COVID-19, Acting Health Secretary David Scrase said transmission rates remain high across the state, with only two of New Mexico's 33 counties below the mark of 10 daily cases per 100,000 residents.

Scrase said the state has frequently discussed what mandates the state could go in an out of with ease. Masks are one of the easier mandates to enact, but “remote learning is not something we can live with for the long haul.”

• In response to a question about women making up a higher percentage of the state's COVID cases past age 15, Scrase said it was a great question that has the state somewhat stumped.

He said since the beginning of the pandemic, the difference is about 8% between the genders, but because men tend to get more severe cases hospitalization data tends to even out.

“This is not data at all,” Scrase said, “but I wonder if the … social networks (that) research shows women have versus (social networks) men have lead to more (in-person) contact.”

Scrase did counter that statistically speaking, women tend to be more willing to follow public health orders.