13th COVID-19 death reported in county

Quay County saw its 13th confirmed death from coronavirus last week, and Tucumcari’s mayor fears more deaths will be reported in the coming days.

According to an email Thursday from the New Mexico Department of Health, Quay County’s latest COVID-19 casualty was a man in his 70s who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

Tucumcari Mayor Ruth Ann Litchfield said in a phone interview Friday she knew of three coronavirus-related deaths in the area in the past two weeks and more infections. She said several of those cases occurred in unvaccinated people.

“It’s just scary right now,” she said. “I just want everyone to be careful and take care of each other.”

Litchfield said one area business she didn’t name had a sign on its door, stating that masks were required. She said all the employees — including its general manager — and several employees were unmasked when she went inside.

“Why aren’t they enforcing it?” she said. “I’m very frustrated.”

Quay County saw 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19 last week, which was up compared to the 35 cases the previous week and 37 the week before that. Most of last week’s cases were in the Tucumcari ZIP code.

The county's case total rose to 837 since the pandemic began in spring 2020.

During the most recent two-week assessment period from Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, the county’s daily case rate was 60.4 per 100,000 — lower than the 70.6 recorded during the previous two-week period. The test-positivity rate also fell from 10.58% to 9.7.%.

The desired benchmarks are 10 daily cases per 100,000 and a 7.5% test positivity rate.

According to data given by Health Secretary David Scrase on Wednesday, Quay County has the sixth-worst case rate in the state, and community transmission remains high in most parts of New Mexico.

The breakdown of COVID-19 cases by ZIP code in Quay County through Friday was 621 in Tucumcari, 134 in Logan, 42 in San Jon, 12 in House, 10 in McAlister, eight in Bard, eight in Nara Visa and five in Grady (part of which extends into Quay County).

A total of 642 people in the county were deemed by the DOH to have recovered from the virus.

These COVID-19 rapid responses were reported in the county last week:

• Wells Fargo Bank, Tucumcari, one case reported Sept. 10;

• Autumn Blessings, Logan, one case reported Sept. 13;

• Highway Department, Tucumcari, one case reported Sept. 15;

• New Mexico Department of Transportation, Tucumcari, one case reported on Sept. 15 and Sept. 16;

• New Mexico Department of Transportation, San Jon, one case reported Sept. 16.

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, 762 new COVID-19 cases were reported Friday, bringing the overall total to more than 244,000 since the pandemic began. Cases in the state continued a slow downward trend.

Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus in a briefing Wednesday said school-based infections had dropped 37% in early September, possibly due to new protocols that included more testing, tougher COVID-safe practices, vaccination clinics and other efforts.

Thirteen COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state Friday, raising the total to 4,675. Scrase said he anticipates daily death rates in the 20s in New Mexico for the next four weeks.

A total of 354 people were hospitalized in New Mexico with the disease Friday, a decline of 16 from the previous week.

Scrase said the state’s hospital contingency level had barely dropped to Level 1 in recent days, considerably lower than the worst-case Level 3 it had experienced, where healthcare would be rationed because a surge of COVID-19 patients were straining the system.

Scrase said from Aug. 16 to Sept. 13, 19.7% of the cases, 11.6% of hospitalizations and 2.4% of deaths had occurred in vaccinated people. He said unvaccinated people were 40 times more likely to die of the disease.

The Amarillo metro region on Friday totaled 4,555 active cases of the disease, an increase of about 100 from the previous week. The active-case count was about 300 earlier this summer.

The disease has killed more than 860 people in the Amarillo metro since the pandemic began.

In the U.S., more than 42 million people have been confirmed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 673,000 deaths, through Friday.

According to state data Friday, 45.5% of Quay County residents have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. That was an increase of 0.3% from the previous week.

About 51.8% of Quay County residents have received one shot of COVID-19 vaccine through Friday, an increase of 0.3% from the previous week.

In New Mexico, 69.5% of residents had been fully vaccinated by Friday, with 79.2% receiving one dose of vaccine.

In addition to vaccinations being available at area clinics, the state has set up several mobile vaccination events this week, including at Mesalands Community College from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. The Pfizer vaccine will be administered, for which children age 12 and up are eligible.

Scrase said he said vaccine usage for children ages 5 to 11 would be eligible might be approved before Halloween.