New COVID-19 restrictions for New Mexico: Restaurants close at 10 p.m., groups limited to 5
Algernon D'Ammassa- Food or drink establishments throughout the state will be required to close at 10 p.m.
- For places of lodging, maximum occupancy will be reduced to 60 percent
- Mass gatherings will also return to a previous limit of five people indoors or outdoors, in public or private.
- Further details would be announced during a news conference planned for Thursday.
This story was updated at 4:46 p.m. with additional reporting.
SANTA FE - With the number of New Mexicans who have succumbed to COVID-19 approaching 1,000, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signaled Tuesday she may tighten public health orders aiming to slow the increasing spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been on the rise in New Mexico, with 355 new cases identified on Tuesday by the state Department of Health, including 121 in Bernalillo County, 50 in Doña Ana County to the south and 41 in Santa Fe County.
A total of 33,713 cases have been identified out of 1,011,320 tests since New Mexico's first cases were announced on March 11. A total of 918 deaths had been attributed to the disease.
The governor said emergency public health orders currently in place, which expire Friday, will be extended "with amendments" including new restrictions on bars and restaurants serving alcohol, hotels, and mass gatherings. The changes will also extend existing mandatory quarantine rules for travelers.
Lujan Grisham herself is in the middle of self-quarantining after potential exposure to the disease from a staff member at the governor's residence, but has twice tested negative.
After Friday, food or drink establishments throughout the state will be required to close at 10 p.m. if they serve alcohol, on a recommendation from the governor's appointed Economic Recovery Council.
In a news release, hotelier Allan Affeldt, a member of the council, said the move was necessary because "some restaurants and bars … blatantly disregard public safety by operating late and in gross violation of safe practices and common sense."
For places of lodging, maximum occupancy will be reduced to 60 percent from the a previous limit of 75 percent for businesses that have completed the state's "Safe Certified" program for managing COVID-19 disease. For those that have not, the limit will shrink from 50 to 25 percent.
Mass gatherings will also return to a previous limit of five people indoors or outdoors, in public or private, a step back from the current limit of 10.
An exemption to New Mexico's quarantine mandates, which allowed individuals arriving from higher-risk states to forego a required two-week quarantine if they test negative within 72 hours of their arrival, will be eliminated.
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High-risk states are defined as states with test positivity rates exceeding 5 percent and an infection rate of more than 80 per 100,000 residents. A list of those states is maintained online at http://cv.NMHealth.org/travel-recommendations, and includes 42 states plus anyone arriving from outside the United States.
Further details would be announced during a news conference planned for Thursday, the governor's office said.
Data from the state Department of Health Tuesday indicated that the spread rate of COVID-19 infection and average daily cases were exceeding state targets used as criteria for easing public health restrictions.
Residents were urged to be vigilant about wearing cloth face coverings (fitted over the nose and mouth) in public, limiting business outside the home as much as possible and engaging in regular handwashing with soap.
Also on Tuesday, the Center for Public Integrity reported that New Mexico had been added to a list of "red zone" states with more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents by the White House Coronavirus Task Force. The weekly reports are provided to state governors but not to the public. Since July, the Center has obtained the documents and made them available via http://www.PublicIntegrity.org.
Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.