Otero County has 2nd virus death; more testing to happen at infected Doña Ana County meat plant

(Editor's note: The Otero County victim was identified Tuesday night as a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, which has now locked down its community. Details here.)

SANTA FE, New Mexico -- An Otero County woman was among five new coronavirus deaths reported by New Mexico state health officials on Tuesday.

It was just the second virus-related death to occur in Otero County, but marked 325 deaths now across the state.

The Otero victim was in her 80s and had been hospitalized with underlying conditions, state officials said.

Health department leaders also reported three new cases among Otero County residents, for a total of 17, and one new case at the Otero County Prison. That brought the number of cases to date in the county's two federally-run detention facilities to 186.

In southern New Mexico's neighboring Doña Ana County, there were just four new cases reported Tuesday to raise the total there to 428. But more coronavirus testing planned for this week at a meat plant in Santa Teresa could raise that number.

Already, Stampede Meat has been responsible for 57 confirmed infections among employees at that facility.

The state health agency conducted two rounds of testing at the plant over earlier this month at the invitation of the company, and a third round of testing results was expected this week.

The employees who previously tested positive were reported to be self-isolating, and health officials say they’ve been working with the company on protocols for disinfecting the facility and providing personal protective equipment to staff.

Illinois-based Stampede Meat opened the plant in the former Tyson Foods location along the Santa Teresa/Sunland Park border in 2018. It began operations with 300 employees with plans to expand to a workforce of nearly 1,300 by 2024.

Stampede CEO Brock Furlong said in a statement that the company in early March adopted more safety measures to limit spread and continues to add initiatives based on federal guidelines and recommendations. The first case at the plant was reported in early May.

Stampede said its processing facilities are cleaned and sanitized daily, with high-touch areas sanitized every half hour. Employees and visitors are screened and have their temperatures taken before entering. Employees also are instructed to wear layered protection including face masks, neck warmers and face shields.

According to Stampede, 7.5% of the plant’s employees tested positive in the first round. Of those, most were reportedly asymptomatic. The company said 90% of those first cases have recovered.

In the second round, less than 5% of the staff tested positive. The company said those workers were still recovering and would be re-tested and cleared by a medical professional before returning to work.

Statewide, New Mexico has now had a total of 7,130 confirmed virus cases.

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.