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Last weekend, Grant County, New Mexico ranked second highest among all U.S. counties with the highest average daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people.
In the first place: the census area of Nome, Alaska.
The fact that the virus gained so much attention in southwest New Mexico, which has a population of around 29,000, has puzzled many of its residents.
The county has historically had some of the lowest daily case numbers in the state, and 70% of its adult residents were fully vaccinated as of this week – just slightly less than the nationwide rate of 72.8% fully vaccinated adults, according to the state’s Department of Health data.
“The new ranking is surprising,” says Dr. James Skee, an internal medicine specialist who has practiced in Silver City for 41 years.
“It’s very disappointing,” he added. “I’m a little baffled.”
Grant County’s county ranking ranked second on the New York Times COVID-19 tracking system showed that case numbers were averaged over 7 days.
New Mexico DOH County data shows that for the week ending October 31, Grant County had the highest per capita new infections per day, with De Baca County in second place. And Friday marked a continuation of some of the highest reported new daily COVID-19 case numbers in New Mexico since last January.
State health officials reported 1,463 new cases on Friday, bringing the nationwide total since the pandemic started to 282,742. Twelve more COVID-19 deaths have been reported.
Grant County recorded an additional 64 new cases, with 12 new cases reported in De Baca County.
The COVID Act Now website on Friday described New Mexico as “very high risk” with 48.6 daily new cases per 100,000 total people.
What is fueling the rise is still questionable.
As one of the first medical providers to offer COVID-19 testing at the start of the pandemic, Skee said Grant County “did all of this pretty well.”
He said there have been patients who test positive for the virus after being fully vaccinated, but in most cases these cases are not serious.
“I have people yelling to get their booster (shot),” Skee added.
In the past seven days, 39,115 booster doses were administered nationwide, according to DOH data. New Mexico residents can find the closest locations online at https://vaccinenm.org/public-calendar.html.
In addition, there have been 19,265 breakthrough cases nationwide since early February – or about 18.6% of all new cases reported during that period.
The recent outbreak of cases has hit Grant County’s schools, as the superintendent of Silver Consolidated Schools William Hawkins said the district made the “tough choice” last Sunday of the Cliff Schools, which are attended by around 220 students enrolled in the Attending Kindergarten through Grade 12, temporarily closing due to an increase in COVID-19 cases on campus.
“When you look at such a small campus, you lose certain employees either to quarantine or to positive tests,” said Hawkins. “You reach a certain number at which it becomes very difficult to remain functional.”
The weeklong closure “allows individual employees who are either positive or in quarantine to complete the 10-day cycle, and allows parents to pause for a moment and assess their students and household to see if it goes on Week students or individuals become symptomatic, ”he added. “If so, they can take the necessary precautions to get tested or to leave their children at home so the virus does not spread.”
As of the start of the school year this fall, 135 out of 2,300 students attending Silver Schools in Grant County, along with 28 staff, have been reported of COVID-19.
“God willing, the principal is ready to reopen her campus, and I know the ward is, too,” said Hawkins.
In De Baca County’s population of around 1,700, county commission chair Scot Stinnett told the Journal on Friday that even a case or two of the coronavirus could temporarily paralyze certain government functions.
A street crew member tested positive, Stinnett said, and because of the required quarantine, “the entire street department has not worked for 10 days”.
In addition, a vaccinated district official fell ill with COVID-19 before the last election, “and we suspended the (early) voting for two days because we had no one to work”.
In De Baca’s small population, even several new cases may affect the total fall rate per 100,000 people, he added.
Most infections have so far been transmitted within families, said Stinnett. But the Fort Sumner County Jail accepted two prisoners arrested by the no-jail New Mexico State Police in Santa Rosa. It turned out that the inmates were carrying the coronavirus.
“We have a lot of people who actually drive to work because of our isolation. And that tends to expose you. “
Stinnett said the county is following Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s public health regulations, including ensuring that students wear masks at school.
But elsewhere in the rural community there isn’t much masking, he admits.
“Once we took off the masks, we didn’t go back,” he said.
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