New Mexico & Dona Ana County reach high daily virus deaths as state outlines vaccine plan

SANTA FE, New Mexico -- New Mexico officials announced a record 44 virus-related daily deaths on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 40 that was set just a day earlier.

In Doña Ana County, it was the second deadliest day of the pandemic, with eight new deaths reported. That's just one less than the record of nine set on Nov. 21. The total number of county virus deaths to date rose to 205.

The latest Doña Ana deceased included:

• A man in his 50s who was hospitalized.
• A man in his 60s who was hospitalized.
• A woman in her 70s who was a resident of Calibre Sagecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Las Cruces.
• A man in his 70s who was hospitalized.
• A woman in her 80s who was hospitalized.
• A man in his 80s who was hospitalized.
• A man in his 80s who was a patient at the New Mexico State Veterans Home in Truth or Consequences.
• A man in his 80s who was a resident of the Adobe Assisted Living facility in Las Cruces.

State health officials also reported an additional 1,908 confirmed cases Thursday, bringing the statewide total to more than 102,860. Doña Ana County had 304 of those for a total of 14,095.

Hospitalizations statewide also remained high at 947.

Meantime, New Mexico’s initial batch of 17,500 vaccine doses from drug maker Pfizer is slated to go to medical facilities and long-term care centers with an emphasis on people within those facilities who have high or medium exposure to the virus, the office of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday.

Matt Nerzig, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said exact distribution of the vaccine in the first round is being mapped out through a survey of hospitals and a variety of federal population surveys.

“With regard to who at these hospitals and other facilities will receive priority, it will not be based on specialty but on their exposure level to the virus — those people in the hospital or other facility that have a high or medium exposure to the virus," he said.

State health officials acknowledge that cold storage requirements for the Pfizer vaccine will present logistical challenges in tribal and other remote rural communities. The vaccine is expected to ship with cooling equipment that can help those efforts, according to the governor's office.

Final decisions still were being made Thursday about the first wave of distribution and associated cold storage facilities.

New Mexico's emphasis on exposure to the virus — and not particular job titles — would make a variety of health care workers and volunteers eligible for early vaccination.

“Importantly, the health care workforce in hospitals and long-term care facilities includes all individuals — whether medical staff, contractors or volunteers in hospitals with high or medium exposure to patients or infectious materials,” said Nerzig. “Racial and ethnic minorities also make up a significant portion of the staff in hospitals and long-term care facilities.”

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.