Nearly 100 new virus cases in New Mexico, a dozen in Doña Ana County, as some restrictions are eased

SANTA FE, New Mexico -- New Mexico health officials confirmed nearly 100 new coronavirus infections on Sunday amid an easing of restrictions - including a dozen in Doña Ana County, while the caseload in neighboring Otero County actually went down due to a data error.

State officials reported 12 additional cases in Doña Ana County, bringing the county's total infections to 294 - just a half-dozen away from the 300 mark. There remained only two county deaths to date.

In Otero County, officials indicated a case that was not lab confirmed had been removed from the county's total, which now dropped to just eight residents testing positive. However, tallied separately, there was now a cumulative count of 78 virus cases reported involving people being held at either the Otero County Prison Facility or the Otero County ICE Processing Center.

Statewide, officials reported six additional deaths from the outbreak and 97 additional Covid-19 cases. The figures released Sunday put the state's death toll at 265 as of Sunday, with the total number of cases statewide at 5,938 as McKinley and San Juan counties still outpaced all other areas.

The additional deaths reported Sunday included three from McKinley County and one each from Bernalillo, San Juan and Sandoval counties.

Only three of the state’s 33 counties haven’t reported any cases so far, with the outbreak being most prevalent in Albuquerque's Bernalillo County, neighboring Sandoval County and northwestern New Mexico’s McKinley and San Juan counties. Northwestern New Mexico include parts of the Navajo Nation, which has become a hot spot in portions of New Mexico and Arizona.

The latest data came amid this weekend's loosening of some restrictions that had been imposed on non-essential businesses by New Mexico’s governor to slow the virus' spread. Under the loosening, retailers and many services along with houses of worship could reopen at limited 25% capacity.

There was also a new edict that people wear masks in public under most circumstances.

Wearing masks is needed to help produce “a safe environment,” but police will not ticket people not wearing some sort of face covering, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham indicated.

“I am not going to go out and try to make examples of individuals and cite them. I don’t think that that wins the day. I think positive re-enforcement wins the day and we don’t have the resources to do it anyway,” the governor said.

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.