New Mexico now has 11 counties with , including Bernalillo and Sandoval. That鈥檚 six fewer counties than last week, but large swaths of red on the state map show the continuing surge driven by the highly transmissible BA.5 variant.
Roosevelt County now (July 14-28). The CDC recommends anyone in such areas wear N95 masks indoors in public settings, but no mandates are in place and the next COVID update from state health officials is not for another week on August 4 at 1 pm.
New Mexico has now lost 8,233 people to COVID-19 and has the in the country. Deputy Secretary of Health, Dr. Laura Paraj贸n, said New Mexico had a pre-existing condition: the highest in the nation. The CDC says , 鈥渞efers to the potential negative effects on communities caused by external stresses on human health. Such stresses include natural or human-caused disasters, or disease outbreaks. Reducing social vulnerability can decrease both human suffering and economic loss.鈥�
According to DOH, one out of three New Mexicans are at risk for severe illness from COVID-19. "I think COVID was like an X-ray that exposed what already existed in New Mexico, what already existed in the poorest states," Paraj贸n said.
New Mexico faces a summer surge in COVID-19 cases amid Department of Health before and after the last briefing on July 14th. Before that update, the last COVID related public message was a that vaccines are available for those 6 months-4 years old. At that time Acting Secretary David Scrase of actual case counts circulating was low because for every reported confirmed test there are up to eight additional people who also have COVID.
That measure would make this summer wave of cases as high as 7,200 to 8,000 daily. That's the largest number of daily cases of the pandemic in terms of shear case load. During the height of the previous Omicron variant surge, the state saw the daily average top out around 5,000.
Inadequate case surveillance compounds risks facing parents and teachers preparing for children to return to school. The DOH announced June 21st that all children from 6 mos and older qualify for COVID19 vaccines. Yet, by its own estimate, as of July 14th, school-age children are undervaccinated, with only 11.5% of those ages 5-11 and 28.5% of those 12-17 years old are (only 2.3% of those under 4 had received a first dose).
If President Biden lived in New Mexico, he鈥檇 be among the minority of fully up-to-date citizens over 65. Only 32.7% are currently fully boosted. Only of all eligible New Mexicans are fully boosted.
At the July 14th DOH briefing, and at past briefings since the CDC changed its COVID metric in February from (a metric combining case incidence and test positivity) to (which triangulates transmission with hospital ICU space and the number of hospitalizations) , Dr. Scrase has advised New Mexicans to pay less attention to daily counts in favor of 7-day averages of cases.
The 7-day average of New Mexicans in the hospital, , is twice as high as the same daily average a year ago (119 on July 26, 2021). This follows a familiar pandemic pattern of increases leading to the Fall. In the last two weeks alone, . While proportionally less patients are ventilated and dying, indicating treatments and vaccines are effective at reducing severe illness and death, the raw numbers of cases and hospitalizations kept 11 counties in high community Levels on July 28.
