NM Edges Closer to 60% Full Vaccination Rate

State epidemiologist says NM’s number of “variants of concern” tracks with national trends

COVID-19 Map

By Julia Goldberg

State Epidemiologist Dr. Chad Smelser says thus far New Mexico’s proportion of COVID-19 variants of concern “is about what we expect” and following national trends.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have designated three tiers of COVID-19 variants: ones that are of interest, concern and high consequence. The latter category would include variants with a significant reduction of vaccine effectiveness but, thus far, no variants of high consequence have been detected in US.

Variants of concern, however, can have increased transmissibility and, potentially, substantially decreased susceptibility to treatments along with increased severity of illness.

In New Mexico, a report on variants of concern issued this week shows 720 sequenced cases for the B.1.1.7 variant, first detected in the United Kingdom; health investigators have matched those specimens to 52% of cases.

“What the case match really means is that we were able to actually get a hold of that patient, or that individual, and interview them to collect verified demographic disease income and other information,” Smelser tells SFR. “Those are the ones that have been investigated. Unfortunately, the B.1.1.7 because that is dominating and the highest percentage that we’re seeing, we have a lower percent match because there are more people we are trying to contact.”

Variants of Concern NM

Health officials are keeping track of the variants of concern for a variety of reasons, Smelser said: “to make sure we are not different in some way than some parts of the country. We are tracking them to understand the outcomes in the patients, both hospitalizations and worse outcomes, and then we are also when able tying that to vaccines and seeing if there’s any correlation.” So far, he said, there has not been. “It is not a major concern of ours at this point,” he said, but “if we link them to increase severity of disease or link them to...vaccine breakthrough [cases], those are the data points that concern us. So far, we have not seen that.”

The state has had one death connected to a variant of concern—B.1.429—which is such a small number ”that I would not base any conclusion on that at this point and time,” Smelser said.

And while the CDC at the start of May announced it would only be investigating breakthrough cases that involved hospitalization or death, Smelser said New Mexico isn’t following the federal agency’s lead and “is still actively trying to investigate every case.”

The report also shows that demographic groups with the highest rates, by both age and ethnicity, also have high rates of variants of concern. For instance, the 15 to 24-year-old age group has had the highest number of the P1 variant cases. Hispanics and Latinos have had the most cases among all the variants.

Variants of Concern by Race/Ethnicity

“Right now, we’re pleased there are only [variants] in the category of variant of concern and not variants of high consequences,” Smelser said. “But, we’re still in the race against the virus that’s mutating and it’s important people get vaccinated because these vaccines work so well.”

New Mexico health officials today reported 131 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total so far to 202,698. The health department has designated 188,507 of those cases as recovered.

Bernalillo County had 34 new cases, followed by San Juan County with 27 and Doña Ana, Rio Arriba and Torrance counties each with eight new cases. Santa Fe County had seven cases, five from the Southside 87507 ZIP code, which was sixth highest in the state today for new cases.

The state also announced five additional deaths from Bernalillo and San Juan counties, one of which took place more than 30 days prior; COVID-19 deaths are not reported until death certificates are issued, a process that is sometimes delayed, according to the health department.

As of today, 120 people are hospitalized with COVID-19.*

Currently, 65% of New Mexicans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 55.1% are fully vaccinated. State officials have said they will eliminate the current county-level restrictions once 60% of residents 16 years and older are fully vaccinated and remove most pandemic restrictions, and set the end of June as a target.

New cases

  • 34 new cases in Bernalillo County
  • 6 new cases in Chaves County
  • 1 new case in Colfax County
  • 1 new case in Curry County
  • 8 new cases in Doña Ana County
  • 4 new cases in Eddy County
  • 2 new cases in Grant County
  • 2 new cases in Lea County
  • 4 new cases in Lincoln County
  • 5 new cases in Otero County
  • 8 new cases in Rio Arriba County
  • 2 new cases in Roosevelt County
  • 2 new cases in Sandoval County
  • 27 new cases in San Juan County
  • 7 new cases in Santa Fe County
  • 2 new cases in Sierra County
  • 1 new case in Taos County
  • 8 new cases in Torrance County
  • 4 new cases in Valencia County
  • 1 new case among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Guadalupe County Correctional Facility
  • 2 new cases among New Mexico Corrections Department inmates at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County

New fatalities

  • A male in his 40s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions
  • A male in his 70s from Bernalillo County who had underlying conditions and was a resident of the The Rio at Las Estancias facility in Albuquerque
  • A female in her 70s from San Juan County who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions
  • A male in his 70s from San Juan County

Newly reported fatalities from more than 30 days ago

  • A female in her 90s from Bernalillo County who was hospitalized and a resident of the Odelia Healthcare (Camino Healthcare) facility in Albuquerque

Congregate facilities

The Department of Health has identified at least one positive COVID-19 case in residents and/or staff in the past 28 days at the following facilities:

  • The Aristocrat Assisted Living Center in Alamogordo
  • Aztec Healthcare in Aztec
  • Bear Canyon Rehabilitation Center in Albuquerque
  • BeeHive Homes Clovis
  • BeeHive Homes Portales
  • Casa de Oro in Las Cruces
  • Genesis Healthcare Uptown in Albuquerque
  • Genesis Rio Rancho Center
  • Genesis Silver City Care Center in Silver City
  • Good Samaritan Society Grants
  • Good Samaritan Society Las Cruces
  • Homes with a Heart Assisted Living - Raven House in Albuquerque
  • Laguna Rainbow Care Center in Casa Blanca
  • Lakeview Christian Home in Carlsbad
  • The Meadows Home at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas
  • New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences
  • Princeton Place in Albuquerque
  • The Rehabilitation Center of Albuquerque
  • Retirement Ranches in Clovis
  • The Rio at Las Estancias in Albuquerque
  • Sierra Health Care Center in Truth or Consequences
  • Sunset Vista Senior Living Center in Silver City
  • The Village at Alameda in Albuquerque
  • Vista Hermosa in Santa Fe

Statewide cases

According to a health department news release, previously reported numbers included one case in Santa Fe County that was not lab confirmed and two cases in Santa Fe County have been determined to be out-of-state residents—these have now been corrected. County totals are subject to change upon further investigation and determination of residency of individuals positive for COVID-19.

  • Bernalillo County: 58,377
  • Catron County: 95
  • Chaves County: 9,010
  • Cibola County: 2,893
  • Colfax County: 780
  • Curry County: 5,250
  • De Baca County: 172
  • Doña Ana County: 24,855
  • Eddy County: 6,874
  • Grant County: 1,720
  • Guadalupe County: 421
  • Harding County: 12
  • Hidalgo County: 363
  • Lea County: 8,314
  • Lincoln County: 1,740
  • Los Alamos County: 529
  • Luna County: 3,356
  • McKinley County: 12,335
  • Mora County: 171
  • Otero County: 4,023
  • Quay County: 518
  • Rio Arriba County: 3,654
  • Roosevelt County: 2,006
  • Sandoval County: 12,096
  • San Juan County: 15,405
  • San Miguel County: 1,366
  • Santa Fe County: 10,443
  • Sierra County: 778
  • Socorro County: 1,319
  • Taos County: 1,688
  • Torrance County: 823
  • Union County: 254
  • Valencia County: 6,802

Cases among people being held by federal agencies

  • Cibola County Correctional Center: 445
  • Otero County Federal Prison Facility: 446
  • Otero County Processing Center: 222
  • Torrance County Detention Facility: 157

Cases among people being held by the New Mexico Department of Corrections

  • Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Valencia County: 298
  • Guadalupe County Correctional Facility: 253
  • Lea County Correctional Facility: 762
  • Northeast New Mexico Correctional Facility in Union County: 167
  • Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center in Cibola County: 128
  • Otero County Prison Facility: 473
  • Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County: 219
  • Roswell Correctional Center: 229
  • Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Doña Ana County: 231
  • Springer Correctional Center in Colfax County: 151
  • Western New Mexico Correctional Facility in Cibola County: 75

*Per the health department, hospitalization figures include people who were tested elsewhere but are hospitalized in New Mexico, but don’t include people who were tested here but are hospitalized out of state.

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