Governor orders flags lowered as New Mexico passes 1,000 COVID-19 deaths

This story was updated at 5:34 p.m.

SANTA FE — New Mexico state flags will be lowered to half-staff for a week of mourning after the state set a new record for COVID-19 deaths in a single day and exceeded 1,000 fatalities from the infectious disease. 

On Friday, the eve of Halloween, the New Mexico Department of Health announced 13 new deaths attributed to the disease caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, bringing the total to 1,007.

It was also the second consecutive day that New Mexico confirmed more than a thousand new cases of the disease, with 1,010 reported Friday — a sign that community spread was continuing at an accelerated rate that has seen increases in every region of the state. 

“We cannot allow ourselves to become numb," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wrote in a statement. "These are not numbers, they are not merely data points. They are mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, educators, first responders, nurses, doctors, business-owners, entrepreneurs. Every one of these 1,000 New Mexicans was loved by someone. Every one of these 1,000 lost New Mexicans leaves a hole in a family, a community, our state. I grieve with them. New Mexico grieves with them."

The latest fatalities included four residents of Bernalillo County, which led the state once again with 335 new cases reported Friday. The deceased were females ranging in age from their 20s into their 80s, all of whom had been hospitalized and identified as having underlying medical conditions that can aggravate the effects of COVID-19.

MORE:New Mexico health officials warn 'unsustainable' increase in COVID-19 threatens hospitals

There were also two deaths apiece in Doña Ana and Socorro counties, and the remaining individuals who passed were residents of Cibola, Eddy, Luna, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties. All but one had been hospitalized.

The state has confirmed 45,909 cases of COVID-19 since the first diagnoses were confirmed on March 11. From that total, 21,491 (47 percent) have been designated as recovered. 

The positive cases represent 4 percent of the 1,161,887 COVID-19 tests that have been completed.

New Mexico's seven-day rolling average of new cases rose by 15 percent in the past week, with major metropolitan areas around Albuquerque and Las Cruces the hardest hit.

The pressure on New Mexico's hospital system continued Friday, with 334 individuals hospitalized in New Mexico for COVID-19, filling 78 percent of adult beds and 75 percent of ICU beds in the state. 

MORE:Here are the Doña Ana County businesses investigated for coronavirus

The announcement came one day after health officials announced in a news conference that New Mexico is at a "tipping point" where, without modifications to daily behavior that slows community spread, the state could be weeks away from overwhelming hospitals, leaving patients to be treated in tented mobile facilities and potentially sharing ventilators, with medical personnel already under stress from the volume of patients and their own risks of infection.

Calling on the state to "recommit to the mindset we all had in March and April and May," the governor urged residents to "take the precautions we know work" and follow emergency public health orders to avoid going out except for essential business, avoiding social gatherings of more than five people, wearing a mask in public and keeping physically distant from other people and to wash hands frequently. 

"Please, honor the 1,000 lives we have already lost in our state, honor their grieving loved ones by recommitting to common-sense, life-saving public health practices," she stated. 

On Thursday health officials urged New Mexicans to forego going door-to-door on Halloween and to plan in-home activities with their children instead. 

Per the governor's order, state flags will fly at half-staff from Monday, Nov. 2 until sundown on Friday, Nov. 6.

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.