New Mexico has record virus cases & hospitalizations: Doña Ana County reports death for 3rd day in row

SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico on Saturday reported record numbers of additional Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, breaking daily records set in recent days as the state’s coronavirus outbreak continues to flare.

Officials reported 875 new cases and five additional deaths, increasing the state’s totals to 41,040 cases and 965 deaths.

Saturday's case count topped the 827 cases newly reported on Wednesday. New Mexico reported 669 cases Thursday and 797 on Friday.

Of the additional cases reported Saturday, 251 were in Bernalillo County (Albuquerque) and 125 in Dona Ana County (Las Cruces) - which saw its case count rise to 5,421.

Of the additional deaths, one was a woman in her 80s from Doña Ana County, taking its death toll to 67. It was the third straight day the county recorded a death. There were also two fatalities from Bernalillo County and one each from Chavez and Socorro counties.

The number of Covid-19 hospitalizations reported increased to 264. up from a record 229 on Friday that topped the previous high of 223 from mid-May.

As of Saturday, patients hospitalized for Covid-19 and other reasons filled 80% of the state’s general hospital beds and 76% of intensive care beds, officials said.

“Hospitalizations are at a record high because Covid-19 is at record levels throughout New Mexico and record numbers of New Mexicans are becoming ill due to the virus,” Governor’s Office spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett told the Albuquerque Journal.

Rolling seven-day averages for testing positivity, daily new cases and daily deaths all ticked up in the past two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins University data analyzed by The Associated Press.

The rolling average of new cases more than doubled from 299 per day on Oct. 9 to 631 on Friday as the positivity average rose from 4.6 percent to 7.2 percent and the daily deaths average rose from 2.4 to 4.4.

Below you can see county-by-county data for virus cases and deaths across New Mexico. The data comes from Johns Hopkins University, so the numbers may sometimes vary a bit from what's reported by the state health department.