Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Quay County would have tumbled from the turquoise to the red zone if state COVID-19 risk assessments had occurred in the county in mid-May, New Mexico Human Services Secretary David Scrase said Wednesday during a state health briefing.
Quay County avoided the additional restrictions from such a rating because counties that landed in the turquoise zone in late April are evaluated just monthly instead of every two weeks. Almost all New Mexico counties landed in the turquoise zone by early May.
Scrase’s report may be a harbinger of tighter health restrictions in Quay County when the next assessment occurs June 2, assuming the state doesn’t again relax health standards as it did last month and the county’s case numbers don’t improve dramatically.
From May 3 to May 17, Quay County had a case rate of 40.8 per 100,000 people — well above the benchmark of 10 per 100,000. Its case positivity rate was 13.6%, which was above the benchmark of 7.5%. Its full vaccination rate was 34.3%, below the standard of 45%.
Based on state data in that time period, De Baca County also would have fallen into the red zone if assessments had occurred in mid-May. Curry, Roosevelt and Guadalupe counties would have fallen into the yellow zone.
From May 10 to May 16, Quay County had a case rate of 30.6 per 100,000 people. Only Guadalupe, De Baca and Torrance counties were worse. Quay County also had the state’s highest percentage of emergency department visits for coronavirus-like illnesses from May 3 to May 17.
Scrase said it’s up to the counties with high caseloads to reduce those numbers so they could stay in the turquoise.
“I think this really requires a community effort,” he said. “With autonomy comes accountability.”
Quay County recorded three more confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday — two in the San Jon ZIP code and one in Tucumcari.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Quay County rose to 517 since the pandemic began last spring, with eight deaths. It has recorded more than 80 since mid-April.
The breakdown of COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay County through Friday was 370 in Tucumcari, 94 in Logan, 22 in San Jon, 11 in House, nine in McAlister, four in Nara Visa, five in Grady (part of which extends into Quay County), and three in Bard.
A total of 429 people in the county have been deemed as recovered from the virus.
These recent COVID-19 rapid responses were recorded at Quay County entities, according to the state’s database:
• Tucumcari Federal Savings and Loan Association, one case reported May 18.
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, a total of 175 new COVID-19 cases were reported Friday, bringing the overall total to more than 201,000 since the pandemic began.
Five COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state Friday, raising the total at 4,131.
A total of 144 people were hospitalized in New Mexico with the disease Friday, an increase of about 30 from the previous week.
The Amarillo metro region on Friday totaled 496 active cases of the disease — an increase of 25 in one week. The hospitalization rate was 2.73%, which remained stable.
In the U.S., more than 32.8 million people have been confirmed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 585,000 deaths, through Friday.