Slight drop for New Mexico, Doña Ana County in daily virus cases; fast reports on business cases ordered

SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico state health officials on Saturday announced 155 new cases of coronavirus, with 21 of those coming from Doña Ana County.

Those numbers marked a slight decline in recent daily infections reported both across the state and in southern New Mexico.

The state's cumulative case count was at 22,115 on Saturday, while Doña Ana County stood at 2,417 - which is about 11% of the statewide tally.

New Mexico health officials reported six additional virus deaths Saturday, raising the state's death toll to 681. None of the new deaths occurred in southern New Mexico, which saw a half-dozen fatalities recorded in Doña Ana County over the past few days.

Meantime, New Mexico environmental regulators have ordered employers to promptly report coronavirus cases to the state.

An emergency rule issued by the Environmental Department requires employers to report positive Covid-19 cases to the department within four hours of being notified of the case.

The department said the emergency rule will remain in effect for up to 120 days unless a permanent rule is adopted before the end of the 120 days.

“By requiring employers to report positive cases in a timely manner, the state will be able to more rapidly respond to workplaces, providing immediate guidance and support to employers and preventing the spread of Covid-19 beyond the infected employees," the department said.

The new rule comes after officials indicated that in more than 280 instances, employers were aware of cases at least three days before the department learned of them, the Las Cruces Sun News reported.

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.