DOH: Children's vaccines are 'taking off quickly'

Vaccines for children five to 11 years of age “are taking off quickly,” according to the New Mexico Department of Health’s Wednesday update.

To schedule a vaccination for a child, go online to VaccineNM.org/kids.

Children five to 11 require two doses taken three weeks apart and two weeks beyond that for the vaccination to work, according to the DOH. The vaccine for children is 91 percent effective in preventing COVID-19.

As of Wednesday, the percentage of New Mexicans who are fully vaccinated is 61.4%. A total of 274,189 people 18 years of age and older have had their booster vaccinations in New Mexico.

To make an appointment to be vaccinated, go to VaccineNM.org or for those without access to the internet, call 1-855-600-3453 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Sunday.

New Mexico joined six other states this week offering people COVID-19 booster shots, according to Wednesday’s Department of Health update.

The states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Minnesota, West Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island are the other states offering the boosters.

As of Monday, there were 29.3 new daily cases per 100,000 persons in Curry County and Roosevelt County had 29.8 new cases per 100,000, according to the DOH.

Nationally, New Mexico is one of the states that is experiencing rising COVID-19 case rates, according to the state epidemiology report.

The Delta variant, which is highly contagious, is the dominant variant in this surge, according to the report.

The incidence of COVID-19 among children in New Mexico is rising. The total number of pediatric cases is 51,471 (17.3%). Last week, there were 2,488 pediatric cases of COVID in New Mexico.

The case counts in the Northeast region of the state have been increasing, according to the DOH.

Friday case update: The DOH on Friday reported 1,844 new cases of COVID-19, including 46 in Curry County and 66 in Roosevelt County.

Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton told The News she was trying to find out what factors might have led to such a high case count, and that cases did not come from the detention center. She said there may be a case backlog, but that was only speculation. In the three days prior to the Friday report, Roosevelt had recorded 18 total cases.

Curry County accounted for one of the state’s 25 deaths reported Friday. The victim was a female in her 70s who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

Editor Kevin Wilson contributed to this report.