Doña Ana County has 64 of state’s 324 new cases as New Mexico lags in mask wearing
SANTA FE, New Mexico -- New Mexico state health officials on Saturday announced 324 new Covid-19 cases, with 64 of those coming in Doña Ana County. It was second again only to the Albuquerque area, which posted 93 new cases.
The statewide case total now stands at 18,788, with Doña Ana County's tally reaching 1,968. New Mexico's death toll grew by six to 607 total, but none of those fatalities reported Saturday occurred in the southern portion of the state.
Elsewhere in southern New Mexico, infections grew by five to 142 total in Otero County. At the county's detention facilities, which are tallied separately, there were ten new cases at the ICE Otero County Processing Center and one new case at the adjacent Otero County Prison. The two federally-run detention facilities now have a combined 903 infections during the pandemic.
Saturday's numbers brought to a close a week of significantly increasing cases in which New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said still not enough people are wearing masks. She indicated that is the key way to get the state’s Covid-19 cases under control.
Health officials can track the movements of residents to see how many are complying with the state’s stay-at-home order, but there’s only anecdotal evidence when it comes to mask wearing. Based on what she’s seeing and hearing, the governor believes only 40% to 50% of people in the state are abiding by the mandate calling for everyone to wear face coverings when out in public.
“We’ve got to get to 80% or 90%," the governor said. "Otherwise we’re not going to be able to get the positivity rates and the case rates down to a safe, manageable place so that we can return so more normalized daily activities.”
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.)
