12th death reported in Quay County

The state’s Department of Health last week reported the 12th death from coronavirus in Quay County as the region continued to see a high caseload of the pathogen.

The latest death in the county, reported Wednesday, was a man in his 90s who was hospitalized. The DOH typically does not identify COVID-19 fatalities.

It was the first coronavirus death in the county since June 18.

The DOH on Friday also reported the first COVID-19 death in neighboring Harding County. According to the agency, the fatality that occurred more than 30 days ago was a hospitalized woman in her 60s with underlying conditions.

Quay County last week saw 42 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 12 on Friday.

That compared to 40 cases during the previous week and 31 the week before that.

Last week, cases were reported in these ZIP codes: 32 in Tucumcari, three in San Jon, two in Logan, two in Bard and one in Nara Visa.

The county's overall case total rose to 670 since the pandemic began in spring 2020.

The overall breakdown of COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay County through Friday was 467 in Tucumcari, 124 in Logan, 38 in San Jon, 11 in House, 10 in McAlister, eight in Bard, seven in Nara Visa and five in Grady (part of which extends into Quay County).

A total of 532 people in the county were deemed by the DOH to have recovered from the virus.

These COVID-19 rapid responses were reported by the state last week:

• City of Tucumcari, three cases reported Aug. 13;

• Super 8 motel in Tucumcari, one case reported Aug. 16;

• Sunrise Medical Group in Tucumcari, one case reported Aug. 16;

• Lowe’s Market in Tucumcari, one case reported Aug. 17;

• Tucumcari Public Schools, one case reported Aug. 19;

• Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari, one case reported Aug. 19.

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, 871 new COVID-19 cases were reported Friday, bringing the overall total to more than 223,000 since the pandemic began.

The seven-day daily case average in the state has risen from a low of 60 in late June to nearly 700 last week — an indication of the Delta variant’s surge.

Nine COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state Friday, raising the total at 4,472.

A total of 385 people were hospitalized in New Mexico with the disease Friday, an increase of 89 from the previous week. It was the seventh straight week the state had seen an increase in its COVID-19 hospitalization numbers.

More than 900 people were hospitalized with the disease during the pandemic’s peak last winter.

The Amarillo metro region on Friday totaled 3,342 active cases of the disease, an increase of more than 600 from the previous week. The active-case count was about 300 just a few weeks ago.

The disease has killed more than 800 people in the Amarillo metro since the pandemic began. The hospitalization rate in the Amarillo area has risen from 3% to more than 15% in just a few weeks.

In the U.S., more than 37.6 million people have been confirmed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 627,000 deaths, through Friday.

According to state data Friday, 43.3% of Quay County residents have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. That was an increase of 0.2% from the previous week.

About 48.6% of Quay County residents have received one shot of COVID-19 vaccine through Friday, an increase of 0.7% from the previous week.

New Mexico’s full vaccination rate rose to 66.2% as of Friday, and 75.6% had received at least one dose of vaccine.