FARMINGTON — New Mexico reported far fewer coronavirus cases in the week ended Sunday, adding 3,492 new cases. That’s down 28.1% from the previous week’s 4,859 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
New Mexico ranked 31st among the states with the fastest spread of the coronavirus per person, according to a USA TODAY Network analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. Last week added 817,934 reported cases of coronavirus in the United States, down -21.3% from the previous week. Across the country, 3 states had more cases in the last week than the week before.
In New Mexico, 116 people were reported to have died from COVID-19 in the week ended Sunday. The week before, 138 people were reported dead.
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The proportion of test results from New Mexico that came back positive was 4% last week, compared to 4.9% the week before, according to a USA TODAY Network analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project. 86,872 tests were conducted in the last week; a week earlier it was 98,347. Experts say it’s important to look at the proportion of tests that come back positive, rather than just the number of cases, to get a better idea of whether the rate of new infections is changing or whether differences in testing matter.
The World Health Organization says places should do enough testing so less than 5% come back positive. Places where the percentage is higher might struggle to complete contact tracing early enough to prevent the virus from spreading.
In New Mexico, the worst weekly outbreaks per person were in McKinley, Hidalgo, and Luna counties. Most new cases overall came from Bernalillo County with 1,013 cases; Dona Ana County with 470 cases; and Sandoval County, with 255. Weekly case counts increased in seven counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the previous week’s pace were in Grant, Cibola and Roosevelt counties.
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