New Mexico’s governor extends lockdown of her state’s hardest hit virus city
GALLUP, New Mexico — New Mexico's governor, who invoked the state’s Riot Control Act to seal off all roads to non-essential traffic in one of the largest communities bordering the Navajo Nation, said Sunday that she was extending that order due to the surging coronavirus outbreak there.
"An emergency declaration requested by the mayor of Gallup and authorized by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will be extended through noon, Thursday, May 7, per the mayor’s request. The action is intended to continue the aggressive physical distancing in the community and thus mitigate transmission of Covid-19," said a statement issued by the governor's office on Sunday evening.
The order, which was imposed Friday and had been set to expire Monday, also requires that businesses in Gallup close from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m.
Gallup is a hub for basic household supplies, liquor sales and water-container refills for people living in remote stretches of the Navajo Nation — often without full indoor plumbing — and indigenous Zuni Pueblo. The Navajo Nation has imposed its own curfews on the reservation spanning portions of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
Covid-19 infection rates in Gallup and surrounding McKinley County make it one of the worst U.S. hot spots for the pandemic as patients overwhelm intensive care facilities.
McKinley County, as of Sunday afternoon, had reported 1,144 cases of the virus, the most confirmed cases in the entire state, outstripping even far more populous counties.
Federal health officials also have linked the severity of the problem in Gallup to an early outbreak at a detox center that was followed by infections among homeless people and nursing homes.
Homeless residents who contracted Covid-19 were being offered temporary shelter at four motels at the expense of the state to isolate them and slow the spread of the virus, according to Ina Burmeister, a spokeswoman for Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services hospital.
“We’re trying to get them to stay until they’re cleared by physician as no longer infectious,” Burmeister said.
State Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, has applauded the governor's restrictions. “Our numbers just keep shooting up” for infections, he said.
The steep climb in infections in the Gallup area has shown no sign of flattening, according to state health officials. And the chief medical officer for the Indian Health Service in the Navajo area has said a new surge in infections is underway across the reservation.
Violations of the state of emergency under the riot act are punishable as misdemeanors on a first offense and as a felony on the second offense. Emergency declarations under the act expire after three days and can be renewed.
