Indoor dining can return; county lands in yellow zone

Quay County restaurants can host indoor dining again after weeks of restrictions from a surge of coronavirus cases in the late fall.

The county entered the yellow designation of the state’s “Red to Green” reopening plan for the first time Wednesday afternoon, when data was released by the state.

The state, beginning Nov. 30, evaluated counties on two-week periods based on whether they met the metrics of 8 daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and test positivity of 5% or lower. Green counties meet both, yellow counties meet one, and red counties meet neither.

Quay County, for the Jan. 26-Feb. 8 data period, had a 4.17% test positivity rate and 11.9 cases per 100,000 residents.

The county may immediately operate under the relaxed public health orders of the yellow designation, including indoor dining at 25% and outdoor dining at 75%.

Establishments serving alcohol may stay open until 10 p.m. under those guidelines, as well.

Essential retail spaces can go from 25% capacity to 33% capacity, and mass gatherings are defined in yellow counties as 10 people or 80 vehicles, compared to five people and 40 vehicles in red counties.

A total of four counties now are in the green designation — Catron, Sierra, Harding and Union. A total of 15 counties, including Quay and Curry, landed in the yellow.

There are 14 counties that remain in the red, including seven in the state’s southeast region.

De Baca and Socorro counties saw increases in their test positivity rates, though Socorro is on the threshold of the yellow zone at 6.26% of tests returned positive. Socorro County is the only county to regress to a more restrictive level during the two-week period.

Here are the new yellow-zone guidelines for Quay County:

-- Essential businesses (non-retail): No capacity restrictions but operations must be limited to only those absolutely necessary to carry out essential functions;

-- Essential retail spaces: 33% of capacity;

-- Food and drink establishments: 25% of maximum capacity for indoor dining; 75% of maximum capacity for outdoors dining; any establishment serving alcohol must close by 10 p.m. nightly;

-- Close-contact businesses: 25% of maximum capacity or 20 customers at one time, whichever is smaller;

-- Outdoor recreational facilities: 25% of maximum capacity (unless required to have less capacity under the state’s COVID-Safe Practices);

-- Close-contact recreational facilities: Remain closed;

-- All other businesses: 25% of maximum capacity or 125 customers at one time, whichever is smaller;

-- Churches: May hold religious services, indoors or outdoors, or provide services through audiovisual means, but may not exceed 33% of the capacity of any enclosed space on the premises;

-- Places of lodging: 60% of maximum occupancy for those that have completed NM Safe Certified training; 25% of maximum occupancy for all others; five guests maximum for vacation rentals;

-- Mass gatherings limit: 10 persons; 80 vehicles.

The state also announced it no longer will require self-quarantine for visitors or New Mexicans arriving into the state from “high-risk” states, or states with a 5% positivity rate or greater over a seven-day rolling average, or a positive test rate greater than 80 per 1 million residents.

Visitors from anywhere outside of the state instead will be strongly advised to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days and to seek out a COVID-19 test upon their arrival in or return to New Mexico.

(Kevin Wilson at the Eastern New Mexico News contributed to this report.)