Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Quay County and New Mexico showed tentative signs the latest surge of coronavirus cases was plateauing or possibly slowing.
Quay County saw 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19 last week, according to the state’s Department of Health, including six on Friday.
That compared to 55 the previous week and 42 the week before that. Most of the cases last week were in the Tucumcari ZIP code.
The county's overall case total rose to 762 since the pandemic began in spring 2020, with 12 deaths.
During the most recent two-week assessment period from Aug. 17 to Aug. 30, the county’s daily case rate was 85.9 per 100,000 — higher than the 53.6 rate from Aug. 10 to Aug. 24. However, the test-positivity rate had declined from 18.48% to 15.1% during that time. The desired benchmarks are 10 daily cases per 100,000 and a 7.5% test positivity rate.
The overall breakdown of COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay County through Friday was 551 in Tucumcari, 130 in Logan, 40 in San Jon, 12 in House, 10 in McAlister, eight in Bard, eight in Nara Visa and five in Grady (part of which extends into Quay County).
A total of 561 people in the county were deemed by the DOH to have recovered from the virus.
These COVID-19 rapid responses were reported by the state in the county last week:
• Fairfield Inn, Tucumcari, one case reported Sept. 1;
• Russell’s Travel Center, Endee, one case reported Sept. 1;
• Boulevard Cleaners, Tucumcari, one case reported Aug. 31;
• Autumn Blessings, Logan, one case reported Aug. 31;
• Tucumcari MVD Field Office, one case reported Aug. 30;
• Family Dollar, Tucumcari, one case reported Aug. 27;
• EPCAA Head Start in Tucumcari, two cases reported Aug. 27;
• Tucumcari Public Schools, one case each reported on Aug, 27 and Sept. 2.
A typical rapid response consists of isolating positive cases, quarantining close contacts, ceasing operations to the extent necessary to isolate affected areas, disinfecting these areas, implementing safety procedures and resuming operations. Typically, operations are ceased for fewer than 24 hours before it is safe to reopen.
In New Mexico, 914 new COVID-19 cases were reported Friday, bringing the overall total to more than 235,000 since the pandemic began.
Christine Ross, the state’s epidemiologist, said in a briefing Wednesday the state was showing a deceleration in new cases and hoped to have more information about that this week.
Eight COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state Friday, raising the total at 4,552.
Ross said about 17.7% of new coronavirus cases, 10.4% of hospitalizations and 6.7% of deaths in recent weeks had occurred in vaccinated people. Ross said many of those so-called “breakout” cases among the vaccinated were with immunocompromised people. She said the vaccine often prevented “bad outcomes” in those cases.
However, she reiterated a vast majority of the current surge in cases in New Mexico have occurred in unvaccinated residents.
Ross also said many cases in recent weeks were among residents age 5 to 34 — many of them school-age children who are not yet eligible for the vaccinate.
Health Secretary David Scrase noted, however, that hospitalizations among children had not risen in children in New Mexico.
A total of 396 people were hospitalized in New Mexico with the disease Friday, an increase of 34 from the previous week.
Ross said the Los Alamos National Laboratory modeling team was projecting up to 770 hospital beds would be needed in New Mexico by mid-September. Health officials previously reported that many hospitals are full because of a shortage of nurses, plus more people in general have been admitted because their health care was deferred earlier during the pandemic.
“We’ll see a really rough next two weeks at our hospitals,” Scrase said.
The Amarillo metro region on Friday totaled 4,433 active cases of the disease, an increase of almost 500 from the previous week. The active-case count was about 300 earlier this summer.
The disease has killed more than 820 people in the Amarillo metro since the pandemic began.
In the U.S., more than 39.8 million people have been confirmed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 647,000 deaths, through Friday.
According to state data Friday, 44.4% of Quay County residents have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. That was an increase of 0.8% from the previous week.
About 50.5% of Quay County residents have received one shot of COVID-19 vaccine through Friday, an increase of 1.1% from the previous week.
Both numbers in the county showed marked increases in vaccinations last week compared to previous weeks during the summer.
According to the DOH, Mesalands Community College will host a Pfizer vaccination event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday.