Dona Ana County’s state virus ranking improves, allows more business re-openings

SANTA FE, New Mexico -- Dona Ana County moved into the yellow level of restrictions on Wednesday as more counties in the state showed Covid-19 improvement, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

This will allow most non-essential businesses in Dona Ana County to reopen at 25%, which includes indoor dining. It increases the outdoor dining capacity to 75% and removes the capacity limit at businesses deemed essential.

State officials utilize a tiered "red to green" Covid-19 risk system to determine when counties can reopen based on their virus spread rate.

Counties operate under one of the three levels: Red signifies very high risk where average daily cases are 8 or more per 100,000 and test positivity is 5% or greater. Yellow is high risk and green is medium risk.

Dona Ana was among the 15 counties shown in yellow as of Wednesday. Counties are able to shed burdensome public health restrictions as soon as they meet key metrics related to positivity and spread rates within their boundaries.

Yellow level of restrictions allows for the following:

• Essential businesses (non-retail): No capacity restrictions but operations must be limited to only those absolutely necessary to carry out essential functions
• Essential retail spaces: 33% of maximum capacity
• Food and drink establishments: 25% of maximum capacity for indoor dining; 75% of maximum capacity for outdoors dining; any establishment serving alcohol must close by 10 p.m. each night
• Close-contact businesses: 25% of maximum capacity or 20 customers at one time, whichever is smaller
• Outdoor recreational facilities: 25% of maximum capacity (unless required to have less capacity under the state’s COVID-Safe Practices)
• Close-contact recreational facilities: Remain closed
• All other businesses: 25% of maximum capacity or 125 customers at one time, whichever is smaller
• Houses of worship: May hold religious services, indoors or outdoors, or provide services through audiovisual means, but may not exceed 33% of the maximum capacity of any enclosed space on the premises
• Places of lodging: 60% of maximum occupancy for those that have completed NM Safe Certified training; 25% of maximum occupancy for all others; 5 guests maximum for vacation rentals
• Mass gatherings limit: 10 persons, 80 vehicles

Fourteen counties remain in red, including Otero and Luna counties adjacent to Dona Ana in southern New Mexico. Four counties in the state are now listed in the green, according to the latest data.

New Mexico has some of the toughest public health restrictions in place. Under the framework, counties where the virus is more prevalent will operate under more restrictive measures while those where spread is suppressed will face fewer restrictions.

When a county fails to meet the benchmarks for per-capita incidence of new cases and average test positivity for a given level, officials said it will begin operating at the next most restrictive level within 48 hours. When a county’s risk level drops on the map, officials said it can immediately begin operating with fewer restrictions.

Click here to see the breakdown of the tier-system and click here to see the official map displaying each county’s current level.

(The Associated Press contributed background to this report.)