3 Doña Ana County women among latest virus deaths; New Mexico touts vaccinations

SANTA FE, New Mexico -- Confirmed Covid-19 cases in New Mexico since the pandemic began last year have topped 174,550, with an additional 487 cases reported Monday.

The New Mexico Department of Health also reported 12 additional Covid-related deaths on Monday, raising the state's death toll to 3,295.

Of those latest fatalities, three involved women in Doña Ana County - one each in her 70s, 80s and 90s.

The state's seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has been dropping in recent weeks while the rolling average of daily deaths was nearly flat.

Meanwhile, state officials on Monday touted "successful early distribution efforts" of virus vaccinations.

New Mexico is receiving about 56,000 doses per week. That's expected to continue over the next three weeks, representing a 16% increase in allocations, said Matt Bieber, a spokesman with the state Health Department.

Those doses are being distributed to an ever-expanding network of providers around the state, he said.

“We’re getting vaccine into arms faster than 47 states — we’ve learned that our state can handle a far bigger allocation from the federal government, and we’re advocating for it,” he said.

Data from the health department shows that 99% of the 278,800 doses that have been shipped to New Mexico so far have been administered. That includes more than 62,000 in the last seven days.

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.