7 more virus deaths in southern New Mexico as residents statewide endure long waits for test results

SANTA FE, New Mexico — New Mexico residents have encountered longer lines for Covid-19 testing and must wait several days or weeks for test results as confirmed coronavirus cases surge throughout the state, health officials said.

Another 2,330 confirmed cases were reported Tuesday, bringing the statewide total to more than 99,400 since the pandemic began. There were 198 new cases in Doña Ana County, for a total of 13,684.

Another 21 deaths also were reported, bringing that tally to nearly 1,590. A third of those deaths (7) occurred in southern New Mexico and included:

• Doña Ana County, 4 victims: A man in his 60s, two men in their 70s and a man in his 80s. All had been hospitalized. Total of 191 deaths to date.
• Luna County, 1 victim: A man in his 60s who was hospitalized. Total of 27 deaths to date.
• Otero County. 2 victims: A man and a woman, each in their 70s, who were hospitalized. Also 27 total deaths to date.

Hospitalizations throughout the state remained high, with more than 900 people being treated as of Tuesday.

Meantime, waits for testing are happening because more daily cases mean more testing, putting strain on laboratories and increasing result delays, state Health Department spokeswoman Marisa Maez said.

The Health Department says the state's seven-day average daily testing number is 12,651 — compared to less than 5,000 tests daily over the summer.

There is a “tremendous influx of tests pouring into the state lab; roughly 3,000 per day," Maez said. “Meantime, other contracted labs both in and outside of New Mexico are equally as overwhelmed.”

There is also a slower process of informing people about results because most are opting out of text message alerts and that forces health workers to make calls directly, she said. Many people don't answer because they are called from numbers they don't know.

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.