Second Santa Fe Case

State cancels school starting Monday as number of COVID-19 'presumptive positive' test rises to six

Six New Mexico residents have now tested presumptive positive for COVID-19, the state Health Department announced Thursday night.

Shortly thereafter, the state announced all public schools in the state are closed beginning Monday.

"New Mexico K-12 public schools will close for three weeks beginning Monday, March 16, in response to the ongoing international novel coronavirus pandemic. The closure will begin at the end of the school day tomorrow, Friday, March 13," reads a statement from the New Mexico Public Education Department and the New Mexico Department of Health.

The most recent case is the second in Santa Fe, and officials say the woman is in her 50s with known recent international travel to Italy. She is at home in isolation. All six specimens have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation.
The other five presumptive positive tests in New Mexico were: A Socorro County husband and wife both in their 60s with known recent international travel to Egypt; A woman in her 70s in Bernalillo County with known recent travel to the New York City area;  A Santa Fe County woman in her 60s with known recent travel to the New York City area; a Bernalillo County woman in her 40s. The Department of Health is investigating a possible travel link in that case.
State officials say they have “active investigations into each of the presumptive positive patients, which includes contact-tracing and swabs of symptomatic individuals who have had contact with the positive cases.”
Supplies were beginning to dwindle in the city as the sun set, with long lines at grocery stores and emptying shelves—a vibe that hits all kinds of local businesses.
“The corona virus is impacting us in unexpected ways,” says Avery Pearson, general manager at Vinaigrette restaurant. “We can’t get our regular shipment of sanitizing wipes on time. They are not going to get here when they’re supposed to and you know at a restaurant everything is super sanitized, I mean we are sterilizing everything all the time because that’s what you have to do to keep a restaurant running.”
Secretary of Health Kathy Kunkel earlier in the day issued a public health order temporarily suspending all public gatherings of 100 or more individuals with certain exceptions. Read SFR’s list of cancelled and postponed events here.
Meow Wolf will beginning Friday through March 31, its leaders announced late in the day.
Earlier in the day the Center for Contemporary Arts, Amara Nash, associate director of the cinema tech tells SFR so far the theater had no plans to stop shows yet.
“We haven’t had the need thus far to reduce capacity on our end. It’s a self-selecting process so far. If it seems like our shows are selling out then that is a definitely a conversation to have,” she tells SFR.
The theater is wiping everything down between shows, she adds. “We normally do cleaning before every show but we’re leaving twice as much per show now to make sure were wiping down every handle and every door knob. We’re just starting earlier and going a little later.”
State health officials also announced Thursday that TriCore Reference Laboratories now has the ability to test for COVID-19, significantly increasing COVID-19 testing capacity in New Mexico.
Meanwhile, the city of Santa Fe rolled out new information late Thursday cancelling meals at senior centers, classes at rec centers and other group activities through March 27, 2020. Rec centers and libraries remain open.  The announcement also said city-sponsored events and camps including, but not limited to:  Spring Break Camps at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center and the Monica Roybal Center, the after school program, Easter egg hunt and all City league sponsored tournaments (volleyball, basketball tournament, etc.).
The state Department of Health is updating its dedicated COVID-19 webpage, viewable here: cv.nmhealth.org.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong dates for Meow Wolf’s planned closure. We’ve corrected the mistake. 
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