Only 1 new virus death in Doña Ana County as New Mexico sees cases decline, more vaccines arrive
SANTA FE, New Mexico -- More than 130,800 confirmed Covid-19 cases have now been reported in New Mexico since the pandemic began. That includes an additional 826 cases reported Monday, marking one of the lowest daily totals since the beginning of November.
There were 72 of those new cases in Doña Ana County on Monday, to take the county's pandemic total to 16,235.
Meanwhile, the state’s death toll inched closer to 2,200, with an additional nine deaths reported Monday. Just one of those latest deaths came from Doña Ana County, a man in his 80s who had been hospitalized with underlying conditions.
State health officials said during a briefing Monday that the statewide death tally is reflective of the high incidence among New Mexicans of underlying conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
While the number of confirmed cases reported each day has decreased, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday reiterated her call for people to be cautious during the holidays and not give the virus an opportunity to spread by gathering with others and not wearing masks. She said a post-holiday surge would derail the state's progress.
"It’s clear that New Mexicans are working hard to protect one another and slow the spread of the virus, for which I am so grateful,” she said in a statement to The Associated Press. “The progress we’re making in our fight against Covid-19 is promising — but we can’t let up now.”
Thousands of front-line health care workers in New Mexico have received the Covid-19 vaccine, and officials with some of the state's hospitals said Monday that they expect to finish vaccinating their workforces in the next two to three weeks as more doses arrive.
Like other states, New Mexico learned last week it would be getting about one-third fewer doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech in a second shipment. Those 12,675 vaccines arrived Monday and will be distributed to nearly two dozen hospitals Tuesday.
Initial shipments of Moderna's vaccine, the second greenlit by the federal government, began arriving Monday, state health officials said. Those will be funneled to staff and residents at long-term care facilities and nursing homes.
While some politicians have received their shots, Lujan Grisham and members of her Cabinet have not. She called the vaccine a “bright light of hope" but said it's not the silver bullet.
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.
