Serving the High Plains

Governor warns of 'drastic' restrictions

New Mexico’s governor didn’t sugarcoat the seriousness of a steep rise in coronavirus cases during a press briefing Thursday and said she might impose “drastic” restrictions this week if the state’s pandemic didn’t show signs of slowing.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a Zoom videoconference from the governor’s mansion it was “a hard truth to hear,” but November was shaping up to be “rough on all of us.”

On Thursday, the state broke a daily record with 23 COVID-19 deaths. Hospitalizations from the disease have nearly doubled in two weeks and more than tripled in a month. Intensive-care beds “are running out” in large metro areas of the state.

“It’s too late to dramatically reduce the deaths and hospitalizations,” she said. “We warned New Mexicans it was coming, and it’s here. Too many New Mexicans will die of this disease. Too many healthcare workers will take the virus home and infect their families.”

Lujan Grisham said it was time for residents to “break the chain of spread” of the virus. If the state doesn’t see signs of the disease slowing in the next few days, she said she would have no other option than to impose “dramatic” new restrictions with an amended public health order.

When asked by a reporter to elaborate on those restrictions, she said it may include a stay-at-home order with “very specific” guidelines or even a lockdown. She said she was hoping to avoid a “horrible” December or January and may consider holding the upcoming New Mexico Legislature 60-day session virtually because of the pandemic.

Two doctors — including a medical director for New Mexico’s largest healthcare provider — reiterated the need of residents to wear masks, maintain social distancing and avoid social gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Otherwise, they said the state’s “extremely strained” hospitals are under risk of running out of beds and its staff being overwhelmed by patients suffering from the respiratory disease.

“We are preparing our facilities for an Italy-like situation,” Human Services Secretary David Scrase said.

When asked by a reporter to elaborate, Scrase said Italy in March was forced to treat a flood of COVID-19 patients in parking lots and nursing homes because hospitals ran out of room. He said that country saw higher death rates because hospitals lacked the staff to handle the pandemic. He said Italy at one point used temporary trailers to store the bodies of COVID-19 casualties.

Dr. Denise Gonzales, medical director of Presbyterian Health Services that operates Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, said hospitals across the state might have to resort to demurring health care to coronavirus patients who likely won’t survive.

“If we reach crisis standards, we will have to limit care,” she said.

Dr. Jonathan Marinaro at University of New Mexico Center for Adult Critical Care agreed with Gonzales that he hated to ration healthcare but acknowledged it might be necessary if the pandemic worsened.

Marinaro said the best offense against COVID-19 was not getting it. He said 31% of coronavirus cases placed on ventilators die. He said victims of gunshot wounds and heart attacks have higher survival rates.

Scrase said the state was preparing at least 10 ways to address the likely influx of COVID-19 patients, including adding 400 traveling nurses to the state’s larger hospitals, asking retired or inactive health employees to return to work, having the Department of Workforce Solutions help hire 1,000 unemployed health workers and applying for Federal Emergency Management Agency staffing resources.

“Beds aren’t the issue,” Scrase said. “It’s staff.”

 
 
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