Quay likely to remain turquoise

Quay County appeared to be on course to remain in the turquoise zone for the lowest COVID-19 risk level when the state’s newest assessments are announced Wednesday.

The county has recorded only four cases of coronavirus since March 8 and had gone more than a week without one. The county can tolerate up to 10 cases during a two-week period and still be under the criteria of eight daily cases per 100,000 people.

Quay County’s estimated test-positivity rate from March 8 through Sunday was 1.7%, well under that criteria of 5%.

New Mexico Human Services Secretary David Scrase said during a briefing last week he did not anticipate adding a new COVID-19 risk assessment color. The other colors are red, yellow and green.

He said he anticipated New Mexico soon would meet its gating criteria of 168 average cases over a seven-day period. The state then would consult with the mayors council and Economic Recovery Council on its next move.

“That’s assuming we aren’t thrown a curveball with new variants” of the virus, he said.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Quay County since the pandemic began one year ago stood at 425, with eight deaths, through Sunday.

The breakdown of COVID-19 cases by ZIP code was 328 in Tucumcari, 60 in Logan, 10 in House, nine in McAlister, eight in San Jon, four in Nara Visa, three in Grady (part of which extends into Quay County), and two in Bard.

A total of 409 people in Quay County have been deemed to have recovered from the virus through Sunday.

No rapid-response cases in Quay County had been referred to the state in the past week.

In New Mexico, a total of 176 new COVID-19 cases were reported Sunday, bringing the overall total to more than 189,000 since the pandemic began.

The state’s seven-day average of cases trended just below the 200 mark, still above the gating criteria of 168.

No COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state Sunday, keeping that total at 3,889. It was the first time no deaths had been recorded in a single day since Oct. 5.

A total of 122 people were hospitalized with the disease Sunday. That number rose slightly from the previous week but still was drastically lower than the peak of more than 900 this winter.

The Amarillo metro region on Friday totaled 321 active cases of the disease with a 3.95% hospitalization rate. Both numbers have trended downward for weeks.

In the U.S., the total number of coronavirus cases rose to more than 29.8 million, with more than 542,000 deaths, through Sunday.