New Mexico has 2nd deadliest day of pandemic: Doña Ana, Otero counties see 9 of state’s 22 deaths

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico -- New Mexico on Friday marked its second-highest daily death count since the pandemic began as health officials reported uncontrollable spread and the governor ordered residents to shelter-in-place in an effort to rein in surging rates of coronavirus infections.

Southern New Mexico's Doña Ana and Otero counties were responsible for nine of the state's 22 additional coronavirus deaths on Friday, while Doña Ana also reported 222 new virus cases among New Mexico's 1,237 daily count.

It was the deadliest day to date for Southern New Mexico. The nine latest Covid-19 fatalities in the two southern counties included:

• A woman in her 40s from Doña Ana County who had been hospitalized.
• 3 women in their 50s, one from Doña Ana County and two from Otero County.
• A woman in her 80s from Doña Ana County who had been hospitalized.
• Two men in their 80s, both were residents of the The Arbors of Del Rey nursing home in Las Cruces.
• A woman in her 90s who was a resident of Calibre Sagecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Las Cruces.
• A man in his 90s from Doña Ana County who had been hospitalized.

Health officials said Thursday's deaths took the state's fatality toll just shy of 2,000 at 1,198, with Doña Ana County's toll rising to 128 - with 55 of those occurring over the past 15 days. Otero County's death count has now reached 22.

State officials on Friday noted that the rate of positive tests has surpassed 12% and the number of hospitalizations has risen more than 200% over the last month. There were 455 patients hospitalized due to the virus statewide on Friday, as Las Cruces hospitals brought in mobile morgues as part of their emergency plans.

The total number of infections throughout the pandemic in New Mexico now stands at 62,006 with 9,490 of those being tallied from Doña Ana County.

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. (The Associated Press contributed to this report.)