Camping, practices will be permitted

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced during a Thursday health 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.

Lujan Grisham unveiled the 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.

Lujan Grisham said the state continued to meet most benchmarks for reopening the economy. The spread rate of the virus was 0.89, compared to a goal of 1.05. The average daily case count during a seven-day period was 90, well below the goal of 168. The state’s test positivity rate was 2.16%, well below the 5% benchmark. The state also met its criteria for personal protective equipment supplies, intensive-care bed availability, contact tracing and isolation capacity.

The state didn’t meet its goal of an average of 5,000 COVID-19 tests per day, with an average of 4,617. She expressed confidence the average would rise again.

“We’re trending the way we are hoping to,” the governor said, adding she was “cautiously optimistic.”

Lujan Grisham said she wanted stable, low-coronavirus trends that would give her “room to introduce risk without unintended consequences” before relaxing more restrictions.

Environment Secretary James Kenney the number of COVID-19 rapid responses by his agency had trended downward since late August, with the restaurant sector seeing a substantial drop in such cases. He attributed that to restaurant adhering more to COVID-safe practices and almost 350 such establishments enrolling in the SAFE-certified program.

He said the healthcare sector saw a slight increase in rapid responses during that time.

He said his agency recently implemented a rule that requires businesses to report a coronavirus case with an employee within four hours. He said that helped the agency respond to such cases within 24 hours.