Hospital Officials Report Pediatric Surge

Hospital officials report pediatric surge

Hospital officials from the University of New Mexico, Presbyterian and Lovelace health systems said yesterday they are seeing a concerning rise in pediatric patients amid rising cases of RSV, flu and COVID-19. As noted below, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week reported higher community levels of COVID-19 in several New Mexico counties, including Santa Fe and Bernalillo. This season has thus far been significantly different for children, UNM Children’s Medical Hospital Associate Medical Officer Dr. Anna Duran said yesterday in a news conference, with COVID-19 and parainfluenza adding to the normal start of flu and RSV season. As such, UNM Hospital Associate Chief Nursing Officer Maribeth Thornton said the children’s hospital is over capacity and has created additional spaces to treat its young patients. In Santa Fe, Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center Marketing, Communications & Public Relations Director Arturo Delgado tells SFR there are currently nine COVID-19 patients. Its pediatric unit currently has one COVID-19 patient, six RSV patients and two patients with other winter illnesses. While not feeling the squeeze of other hospitals at this time, Delgado said via email “the rise in cases is concerning and we will continue to monitor the situation very closely.” Duran and other hospital leaders said children’s lack of exposure to RSV and flu for the last few years has likely created an “immunity gap” contributing to the current surge. Duran said many of the illnesses have similar and overlapping issues and not all require emergency care, but advised parents to seek emergency care for children if they show signs of respiratory distress or dehydration.

Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire victims claim process begins

The Federal Emergency Management Agency began accepting applications yesterday from people impacted by the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire. The agency will be overseeing disbursement of $2.5 billion in funding that is part of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act through a local claims office. Yesterday also marked the launch of a 60-day comment period on the regulations that will guide the claims process, which include “necessary documentation, evaluation criteria, available funding, and provide for appeal rights, arbitration and judicial review.” Comments can be submitted via the Federal Register. FEMA also will be holding four public meetings starting this Thursday, Nov. 17 from 5:30 to 7 pm at Old Memorial Middle School in Las Vegas Meetings also will be held Dec. 1, Dec. 15 and Jan. 5. FEMA also will hold a virtual tribal consultation on Dec. 9. Angela Gladwell, director of the claims office, says it will be several months before the office—which will include both fixed and mobile locations—is fully operational, but “we know the urgency around this program and are committed to delivering funds as quickly as possible.”

City hires new airport manager

James Harris began yesterday as the Santa Fe Regional Airport’s new manager, replacing Mark Baca, who resigned in August citing a lack of trust and support from city managers. According to a news release, Harris comes to the position with more than 12 years of airport management experience, including most recently at the Clovis Regional Airport, and is a member of the American Association of Airport Executives. He graduated from Everglade University in Boca Raton, Florida, with a bachelor of science degree in Aviation/Aerospace Operations Management; completed Private Pilot Ground School; and is a former US Marine Corps Aviation Operation Specialist. While in Clovis, Harris “brought the airport up-to-date on security processes and also executed a comprehensive rebranding of the airport,” a news release says. “James is extraordinarily qualified to ensure Santa Fe’s airport provides 21st century customer service, to guide the upgrade of the airport facility and to guarantee that our airport meets the needs of both residents and visitors,” City Manager John Blair said in a statement. Harris in turn said he was “eager to get up and running to help enhance the passenger experience at the Santa Fe Regional Airport.” The city broke ground in March on a $21.5 million terminal and parking lot expansion project. City Clerk and Director of Community Engagement Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic tells SFR the parking lot construction is scheduled to wrap up at the end of January or early February, with Lot 2 slated to open in the “next week or so.” Originally scheduled for completion in January 2023, the terminal construction, she said via email, is now scheduled for completion in June 2023 with “supply delays and procurement of goods” contributing to the delay.

COVID-19 by the numbers

Reported Nov. 14: New cases: 1,902 (includes weekend and is nearly 44% higher than last Monday’s three-day case report); 636,409 total cases. Deaths: two; Santa Fe County has had 363 total deaths; there have been 8,679 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 146. Patients on ventilators: nine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Nov. 10 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, now categorizes eight New Mexico counties as “red” for COVID-19—with high risk—including Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Taos and Rio Arriba counties, along with Bernalillo, Sandoval, McKinley and San Juan (last week, only McKinley County was red). Seven New Mexico counties are “yellow” and the rest of New Mexico’s counties continue to have “green,” aka low, levels. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.

Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Curative testing sites; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Listen up

The mostly New Mexico-based Shadow of Love podcast’s second season continues with its third episode dedicated to love and dating, with hosts Holly and Ernest taking a long irreverent look at dating apps, dating in one’s 40s, ideal dates and more. Shadow of Love also has a contest underway: the Heaux Heaux Heaux holiday contest. Send your best and worst holiday love stories to have the chance to win Shadow of Love merch. Email your sordid tales by Dec. 15 to shadowoflove412@gmail.com.

For the birds

Filmmaker and novelist Priyanka Kumar’s recently published book Conversations with Birds, has been receiving rave reviews for its “outstanding reflections” (Publishers Weekly) and its “elegant and evocative essays” (New York Times). Orion magazine publishes an excerpt from the book focused on New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, which Kumar describes as “the crown jewel” of the National Wildlife Refuge System. While reading about Bosque del Apache can’t replace going, Kumar’s rendering of the experience certainly comes close: “In the evenings, you stare at cranes with serpentine necks flying in over skies streaked rosy pink and clementine. New Mexico’s skies can be striations of color approximating infinity but these numberless flocks of cranes and geese outdo the theatrics of the sky. When the cranes begin their fairylike descent onto milky-blue sheets of water, you find yourself in a place where humans are far outnumbered by birds. You let the primal orchestra of cranes and geese remind you of the place your ancestors came from.” In addition to her lyric descriptions, Kumar also provides significant information about the sandhill cranes who migrate to the fall each fall and early winter. Speaking of which, Friends of the Bosque del Apache will hold a virtual Crane Fiesta Nov. 18-19, and the first in-person Festival of the Cranes (several events for which have already sold out, unfortunately) since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic the weekend of Dec. 1-3. Check out all the events for both festivals here.

Creative recovery

Santa Fe Zine Fest founder Bucket Siler writes a compelling, introspective essay about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on creative Santa Fe millennials for online magazine The Smart Set, published by Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University. For about five years leading up to the 2020 pandemic, Siler writes, “I felt tantalizingly close to—if not drowning inside—the juicy center of Santa Fe’s creative in-crowd. It seemed like everyone I met was neck-deep in some ambitious and very important artistic project: completing a series of illustrations for an upcoming art show; filming a music video for their self-released solo album (on vinyl, of course); organizing a pop-up printmaking exhibition at their newly opened organic soap store (I wish I was joking); or negotiating with the city to fund their public sculpture project—a jumble of welded scrap metal that vaguely resembled a hummingbird, but mostly looked like nothing.” Then the pandemic began and “pushed me, my social life, and Santa Fe’s entire creative class off the edge of a twelve-story building, and none have recovered since.”

Grab your mittens

If you’re out and about before 8 am, you may encounter patchy freezing fog. Otherwise, the National Weather Service forecasts mostly sunny skies today with a high temperature near 32 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the morning. And while yesterday’s snow may not have amounted to much in town, Ski Santa Fe received 10 inches and says the “cold temperatures have allowed snowmaking crews to work around the clock.” As such, it will be opening on Thanksgiving with a 20-inch base of natural and manmade snow.

Thanks for reading! The Word has no particular attachment to Twitter despite having joined (gasp)15 years ago, but she did find the LitHub story about writers’ quandaries about staying vs. leaving in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover interesting.