Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Quay County's coronavirus numbers improved during the first half of September, but not enough to expand in-person classes in the region's public schools next week.
Also, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced during a Thursday briefing that overnight camping would be allowed for New Mexico residents in state parks starting Oct. 1 and that youth sports practices in groups of 10 athletes or fewer would be permitted.
Quay County also reported one new case of COVID-19 on Thursday in the Tucumcari ZIP code.
Regarding the school-reopening coronavirus criteria, Quay County improved from the red zone in late August to the yellow zone this month – short of the desired green zone.
To be in the green zone, the county needed its daily COVID-19 cases to drop to 8 per 100,000 people and below a 5% test-positivity rate from Sept. 2 to Sept. 15. Quay County met the criteria in its case rate at 6 per 100,000 but just missed the test-positivity rate at 5.4%.
That means public schools in Quay County will retain remote-learning methods for most students except those in prekindergarten through third grade who started in-person classes weeks ago. The state will evaluate the county's COVID-19 numbers again in two weeks.
Quay County missed on both benchmarks earlier this month, with a caseload of 9.4 per 100,000 people and a test positivity rate of 7.3%.
Several counties in southeast New Mexico remained in the red zone, including Roosevelt, Chavez, Lea and Eddy. Catron and Luna counties in the southwest part of the state also were in the red zone.
Curry County, in the yellow zone two weeks ago, landed in the green zone Thursday, as did all the other counties surrounding Quay County.
During her briefing, Lujan Grisham unveiled new guidelines to the public health order that would remain in effect until mid-October. They are:
– Youth sports conditioning and skills development, with no more than 10 people in any one group, in accordance with COVID-Safe Practices, will be permitted. Competitive contact play remains off-limits.
– New Mexicans may overnight camp at most state parks in groups of no more than 10. That change is effective Oct. 1.
– Pick-your-own pumpkin patches will be permitted to operate in accordance with COVID-Safe Practices for agri-tourism businesses.
– Ice skating rinks may operate for athletic training and practice by reservation only.
– Swimming pools may open with no more than 10 individuals in a pool at any one time; previously swimming pools were permitted only to provide lane swimming.
Masks are required for all of the above activities except swimming.
The latest coronavirus case in Quay County reported Thursday was a male age 40 to 49 in the Tucumcari ZIP code, according to the DOH website.
The breakdown by ZIP codes in the county is 33 cases each in Tucumcari and Logan and five in San Jon.
A total of 70 cases have been reported in the county since the pandemic began, with two deaths. The total by ZIP code is 71; the DOH did not explain the discrepancy.
Forty-three people in the county have recovered from the disease. A total of 1,789 tests have been administered.
In the state, 159 new cases were reported Thursday. That brought the total to almost 27,200 since the pandemic began.
Four deaths were reported Thursday, bringing the overall total to 836.
A total of 69 people in New Mexico remain hospitalized with COVID-19. A total of 15,106 people have been deemed as recovered from the virus.
In the U.S., 6.6 million people have been confirmed with the virus as of Thursday, with 197,000 deaths.