New Mexico health officials: Coronavirus infections plateauing in state

Sep. 23—Coronavirus infections have begun to plateau across New Mexico, especially in Santa Fe and Los Alamos counties, where the transmission rates are among the lowest in the state, health officials said Wednesday.

A decline in the number of new cases suggests the state might have seen the worst of the delta variant surge.

During an online news conference, Dr. Christine Ross, the state epidemiologist, pointed to a map of New Mexico showing Los Alamos County was yellow, a color code denoting a moderate coronavirus transmission rate.

Santa Fe, Catron and Harding counties were in the orange zone, while the rest of the state was red.

For the past several months, "we've been in a sea of red," Ross said. "Now what you see is we have a few counties that have downgraded to orange, which is still considered a substantial level of transmission. But it's a very welcome sight to have a county with over 100,000 [people] such as Santa Fe has now moved into the orange."

She added, "What we're hoping to see is this entire state turn blue, which would indicate a low level of community transmission."

The state Department of Health reported 719 new cases and 19 more deaths Wednesday. Among the deaths was a Santa Fe County man in his 80s who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions.

While the state's intensive care units are still overcrowded, most hospitals have a little more breathing room than they did a few weeks ago when the delta variant was surging. As of Wednesday, hospitals in New Mexico were treating 359 COVID-19 patients, and there were 30 available ICU beds.

"Things seem to be easing up a little" in terms of hospitalizations," said Dr. David Scrase, the state's human services secretary and acting secretary of the Department of Health. "But remember hospital activity follows case activity. ... We're still worried about our hospitals."

More New Mexicans have been getting tested for the virus in recent weeks.

"If you do go get tested, don't go back to work," Scrase said. "If you're tested because of symptoms or contact or a high-risk situation ... wait until you get the test results before you go back to work because you can infect other people."

Seventy percent of New Mexicans 18 and older are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, and more than 53 percent of children ages 12 to 17 in New Mexico have completed their vaccination series.

"This is exciting news for New Mexico," said Dr. Laura Parajón, deputy secretary of the state Department of Health.

An influential panel of advisers to the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention debated Wednesday whether to dispense a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine to older people or perhaps health care workers, according to the Associated Press. The state will begin giving booster shots after it has been approved by the CDC and the New Mexico Medical Advisory Team.

"We really want to keep on working on helping people get vaccinated because that's our best way out of this pandemic," Parajón said.