Governor orders employees of restaurants, essential businesses to wear masks

New Mexico's governor on Tuesday ordered all restaurant employees to wear protective masks starting Wednesday and workers at all essential businesses to wear them starting Monday.

Before her orders, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a health briefing Tuesday afternoon urged residents to continue social distancing and wearing masks to slow the spread of coronavirus. She said the additional safety requirements and subsequent signs of COVID-19 mitigation would enable her to order the partial reopening of nonessential businesses by May 15 as part of the planned first phase of the reopening of New Mexico's economy.

Effective Wednesday, workers at restaurants and essential businesses larger than 50,000 square feet would be required to wear facial coverings. No known essential businesses in Quay County are that large. The Lowe's Market in Tucumcari is less than 35,000 square feet, according to the county assessor's office.

Effective Monday, workers at all essential businesses of any size would be required to wear those masks.

Lujan Grisham and Health Services Secretary Richard Scrase said they'd observed not enough residents adhering to social distancing and wearing masks. She said residents' cooperation in the safety recommendations would be crucial to a timely reopening of the state.

“It's up to you,” she said.

Lujan Grisham also announced full-time child-care professionals would receive an additional $700 a month and part-time $350 a month as “hazard pay” for their work during the health emergency. The money would come from the federal coronavirus relief bill.

She also said the state would make available $12 million to child-care providers damaged by the health emergency.

Scrase said the hard-hit northwest part of the state appears to have plateaued in the number of new coronavirus cases after weeks of sharp rises, but the rest of the state also plateaued after weeks of decreases. He said that leaves above the desired gating criteria of case spread.

At New Mexico's current rate of spread, it would see nearly 4,000 additional deaths within a year.

Scrase also said New Mexico also lags in the desired testing capacity of 5,000 a day, but that has been rising in recent days.

The number of cases in New Mexico rose Tuesday by 107 to a total of 4,138. Six additional deaths were reported for a toll of 162.

The total number of COVID-19 case in Quay County remained at four.

A total of 178 people have been hospitalized with the disease. A total of 964 people have recovered from the virus.

In the U.S., a total of 1.2 million people have been confirmed with the virus, with more than 70,000 deaths.