Serving the High Plains

Quay sets case record Saturday

Quay County set a record Saturday with eight confirmed cases of coronavirus in one day — all in the Tucumcari ZIP code.

It was the most since Aug. 20, when the county saw seven cases.

Three more cases were reported Monday in the county, all in the Tucumcari ZIP code. Two men and one woman were confirmed with the virus. One was age 50 to 59, one was 60 to 69 and one was 80 to 89.

A total of 46 cases have been reported in the county in November.

The total number of cases in the county since the pandemic began rose Monday to 153, with two deaths. Sixty-nine have recovered, according to the DOH.

The breakdown by ZIP code is 103 in Tucumcari, 38 in Logan, five in San Jon, three in House, three in McAlister and one in Grady (part of which extends into the county).

The state last week also gave its latest evaluations for counties on additional school reopenings. Quay County remained in the red zone with a COVID-19 daily rate of 28.9 cases per 100,000 people and a test-positivity rate of 12.5% for the period from Oct. 27 to Nov. 9. Both were well above the benchmarks of 8 cases per 100,000 and a 5% positivity rate.

One three counties in the state — Catron, Harding and Mora — landed in the coveted green zone. All the other counties flunked at least one of the criteria.

In the state, the DOH on Monday reported 1,259 cases. The total number since the pandemic began surpassed 65,000.

A total of 374 cases were reported that day in Bernalillo County, with 203 in Dona Ana County.

A total of 21 deaths were reported Monday, raising the overall total to more than 1,200.

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 stood at a record-high 738 on Monday. The DOH changed the criteria for the count, basing it on near-real-time data directly from the hospitals.

In Amarillo, the metro area on Monday was near a record high with more than 6,200 active cases of the disease, with a hospitalization rate of over 35%.

In the U.S., more than 11.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported through Monday since the pandemic began, with more than 247,000 deaths.