DoH emphasizes pandemic strain

SANTA FE — The New Mexico Department of Health on Monday announced it was menacing Crisis Standards of Care, citing the strain the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on the state health care system.

Under CSC, facilities statewide will have flexibility to temporarily suspend procedures that aren’t medically necessary, followed by implementing a standardized and equitable procedure for making treatment decisions.

The department will give facilities guidance over the coming days.

“Because of COVID, New Mexico hospitals and health care facilities have carried an unmanageable burden,” Acting Health Secretary David Scrase said in a DOH release. “Today, the state is offering clarity and support as providers seek to make difficult choices about how to allocate scarce - and precious - health care resources. The goals, as always, remain the same: to save as many New Mexican lives as possible, and to help sustain the health care providers who have sustained our communities throughout this entire pandemic.”

During a Monday update on the pandemic, the state reported it has seen 86,465 COVID-19 cases, 5,474 hospitalizations and 983 deaths since Feb. 1. Of those counts, unvaccinated New Mexicans account for 72,261 cases, 4,877 hospitalizations and 917 deaths.

Jennifer Vosburgh, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at University of New Mexico Hospitals, said there is a statewide struggle for facilities dealing with patients who are either sicker with the Delta variant or they’re patients with non-COVID issues that worsened because they held off on care.

“We are often finding ourselves saying, ‘No, we don’t have a bed; I’m so sorry, please call back tomorrow,” Vosburgh said. “We do not go into health care to say no.”

The state reported Deputy Secretary Laura Parajón spoke during the webinar on anticipated approvals for children ages 5-11, and encouraged parents to begin the registration process for children at vaccinenm.org.

Monday case report: The state reported 1,895 new cases of COVID-19 between Saturday and Monday, including 29 cases in Curry County and 20 in Roosevelt County.

Curry County had three of the state’s 12 deaths reported Monday — a female in her 50s, a male in his 50s and a female in her 70s. Of those three, the first two were hospitalized and the last two had underlying conditions.

The deaths bring the county’s total to 112, with eight deaths reported so far in October compared to 10 in September. The highest death counts by month in Curry County came in December (24) and January (16).

Roosevelt County has recorded 65 deaths, with its last reported death Oct. 4.