Seven COVID-19 cases reported in Quay County

The New Mexico Department of Health on Thursday confirmed seven new cases of corornavirus in Quay County, including five in Logan.

That was a record one-day total in the county, bringing the overall total to 58.

The latest cases were four women and three men. The age breakdowns of the latest cases are one person age 80 to 89, two age 70 to 79, two age 60 to 69 and two age 50 to 59.

Logan has seen 21 confirmed cases in nine days, raising its total to 25 since the pandemic began. The other two cases Thursday were in the Tucumcari ZIP code.

This week, the state's COVID-19 rapid-response teams were referred to Ute Lake State Park in Logan for five confirmed cases among employees, Presbyterian Health Services (aka Trigg Memorial Hospital) in Tucumcari for one confirmed case there and to Logan Municipal Schools for a confirmed case there. A rapid-response team also was referred to Logan Municipal Schools for another confirmed case Aug. 13.

Outbreaks prompted a delay in the start of classes at Logan Municipal Schools for three weeks and the closure of Ute Lake State Park through Aug. 25.

A sharp rise in the county's positivity rate prompted Quail Ridge Senior Special Care Center in Tucumcari to halt a short-lived relaxation of visitation rules there. Quay County's positive rate for COVID-19 test had risen to more than 20% (24 of 115) since Aug. 12. Quail Ridge residents had been allowed outdoors, masked and socially distanced visitations beginning Aug. 12 because the county had met the criteria of a low daily case rate and low positivity rate.

Since the pandemic began, 31 cases have been reported in Tucumcari, 25 in Logan and four in San Jon.

A total of 18 people in the county have been designated as recovered from the disease, with one resident who died in April of the disease in Florida.

A total of 1,470 people in the county have been tested for COVID-19.

Statewide, a total of 208 cases were reported Thursday. The state's seven-day average stood at 138, which still was below the gating criteria of 168. A total of 23,951 in the state have been confirmed with the virus.

Five deaths were reported Thursday, bringing the total to 734.

A total of 74 people in New Mexico are hospitalized with COVID-19, a number that has been trending downward for several weeks. A total of 11,145 have been deemed to have recovered from the disease.

In the U.S., more than 5.5 million people have been confirmed with the virus, with more than 174,000 deaths through Thursday afternoon.