Doña Ana County, near hard-hit El Paso, is New Mexico's southern COVID-19 hotspot
Algernon D'AmmassaLAS CRUCES - Through New Mexico's post-Labor Day surge of COVID-19, Doña Ana County has been the southern hotspot with the second highest case total among the state's 33 counties.
A total of 5,817 cases have been identified in Doña Ana County since its first case was identified on March 20, out of 101,067 tests. Of those cases, 2,586 (or 46 percent) have been designated as recovered, while 69 county residents have died.
The latest two deaths in the county were described as a male in his 60s who had been hospitalized and a female in her 70s reported as having unspecified underlying conditions. Certain medical conditions can intensify complications of COVID-19 disease, which is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
Only Bernalillo County, in the state's highly populated metro region, has more. On Monday evening, it had a reported 10,452 cases.
The state has confirmed 42,586 cases out of 1,124,922 tests since New Mexico's first cases were announced on March 11. There have been 976 deaths statewide attributed to the disease since then, and 20,910 recoveries.
The latest:
- Health department to reschedule Tuesday COVID-19 testing in Las Cruces
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Doña Ana County borders hard-hit El Paso, Texas, and commuters cross the state line back and forth every day. Both communities are contending with new surges of the disease.
On Sunday, Doña Ana County shattered its single-day case record for the second time within a week, reporting 206 new cases of the disease. On Monday, it added 194 more.
Over the past eight days, eight cases in the county were identified as duplicates. Daily reporting by the New Mexico Department of Health includes routine adjustments for cases counted twice or individuals identified as residing in other counties or out of state.
El Pasoans under curfew amid surge
Meanwhile, El Paso County confronted the prospect of its hospitals being overwhelmed Monday as it reported a new daily high of 1,443 new cases in addition to 118 cases reported as part of the delayed local results issued by the state of Texas to the city of El Paso Department of Public Health.
With 853 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 there on Monday, up from 786 the day before, the El Paso Times reported the El Paso civic center is being converted into a medical care site while some patients will be flown to other Texas cities.
El Pasoans are also under curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. unless going to work or accessing essential services. Violation of the order is punishable by a $500 fine.
Strain on New Mexico hospitals
Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces declined to comment and referred questions about local capacity to the Doña Ana County Joint Information Center, which reports data on regional hospital capacity.
According to the JIC, 113 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized as of Monday morning in the region comprised of nine southern New Mexico counties: Doña Ana, Catron, Socorro, Grant, Sierra, Luna, Lincoln, Hidalgo and Otero.
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There were 73 out of 127 ICU beds (57 percent) occupied, and 26 out of 75 ventilators were in use.
On Monday, officials of three New Mexico hospital networks — Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Lovelace Health System and the University of New Mexico health system — said available beds and staffing could be overwhelmed in the coming weeks if community spread continues at its present pace or grows, the Associated Press reported.
That means, as Presbyterian chief medical officer Jason Mitchell said Monday, "If you got into a car wreck, there’d be no place for you to go. If you needed to deliver a baby, there may not be a bed in the hospital for you. … If it continued at this current velocity with no rollover, with no tempering back down, it’s hard to describe how catastrophic it is.”
The seven-day rolling average of New Mexico’s positive infection rate has risen from 3.2 percent of those tested at the end of September to 7.5 percent, according to an AP analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. Comparing seven-day averages of newly confirmed cases smooths out anomalies in the data, including delays in test results.
As of Monday, with 289 individuals hospitalized statewide, 76 percent of adult general beds were occupied at hospitals statewide and 70 percent of ICU beds.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.