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 this week.
It was the second time the county failed to meet state benchmarks.
Quay County improved from the red zone in the latter half of August to yellow this month — short of the desired green zone.
To be in the green zone, the county needed its daily COVID-19 cases to drop below 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. It just missed the test-positivity benchmark, with a rate of 5.4%.
During that time period, the Logan ZIP code saw at least five of the seven cases recorded in the county, according to New Mexico Department of Health data. The village suffered an outbreak in mid-August.
Missing the state criteria 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 in small groups several 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 also 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 other counties surrounding Quay County.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, observing high coronavirus counts in the southeast quadrant of the state that included Quay County, during a briefing Thursday encouraged residents to be tested for COVID-19 if they show any symptoms of the disease or think that may have been exposed with someone who contracted the virus.
Lujan Grisham said the state has the capacity to do more testing, and such tests are free of charge.
The governor surmised the high coronavirus counts in the southeast were caused by traffic in and out of neighboring Texas.