One COVID-19 case reported in county

Just one COVID-19 case was reported in Quay County last week, according to data kept by the New Mexico Department of Health.

That continued a downward trend in February — from three cases last week and six cases two weeks ago.

That brought the total number of coronavirus cases in Quay County since the pandemic began in spring 2020 to 2,553 by Friday.

According to the COVID Act Now website that tracks the disease, the county’s rate of new cases plummeted to 18.2 cases per 100,000 people last week, compared to 72.7 the previous week.

Quay County’s risk of community spread of COVID-19 remained in the “low” level last week after a spike in late January. All New Mexico counties also were low risk.

The breakdown of total COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay County through Friday was 1,938 in Tucumcari, 376 in Logan, 119 in San Jon, 46 in House, 30 in McAlister, 21 in Nara Visa and 20 in Bard since the pandemic began almost three years ago.

The lone case last week was reported in the Tucumcari ZIP code.

No confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Quay County were reported last week, keeping the death toll at 70 since the pandemic began nearly three years ago. The last death was reported in late December.

A total of 171 new cases of coronavirus were reported Friday in New Mexico. That raised the total since the pandemic began to more than 668,000.

New Mexico’s seven-day daily case rate rose from 121 to 152 on Friday.

A total of 71 people were hospitalized in New Mexico with the disease Friday, an increase of three from the previous week.

Five COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state Friday. The pandemic’s overall toll rose to 9,012.

In the Amarillo metro region, the total number of active cases increased slightly. The total Friday rose to 1,365, compared to 1,291 a week ago.

The disease has killed 1,325 people in the Amarillo metro since the pandemic began.

In the U.S., about 103 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed since the pandemic began, with more than 1.12 million deaths, through Saturday.

The New Mexico Department of Health’s vaccination helpline is available at 855-600-3453, option 3, or by going to vaccinenm.org.

The DOH recommends COVID-19 drugs for those who have contracted the disease in its early stages and are at risk for serious illness. These drugs are effective at preventing hospitalization and death but must be taken within days of the first symptom.

More information on finding these treatments can be found at FindATreatmentNM.com.