Serving the High Plains

Sixth case of COVID-19 reported in Quay County

The New Mexico Department of Health reported the sixth confirmed coronavirus case Friday in Quay County since the pandemic began.

The latest case is a person age 10 to 19, the youngest victim of the virus in the county. No other information was available.

After reporting no cases of COVID-19 in Quay County in more than a month, two have been reported in eight days.

All six of the county's cases have been reported in the Tucumcari ZIP code. The agency said three of those COVID-19 cases in the county have recovered.

The latest cases have occurred among an upswing in the spread rate and COVID-19 cases in New Mexico in recent days, including 225 on Friday to a total of 11,408.

Friday's report included four deaths – all from hard-hit McKinley County, which has reported more than 3,200 cases of the virus. The total number of deaths in New Mexico rose to 489.

More than 560 people in Quay County have been tested for COVID-19. A total of 5,149 people in New Mexico have recovered from the disease.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham during her health briefing Thursday said she likely would delay Phase II of the state's economy reopening because of a recent rise in the COVID-19 spread rate in the state and large surges of cases in neighboring Texas and Arizona.