Copyright © 2020 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – New Mexico’s coronavirus case count continued to rise Monday, even as the number of individuals hospitalized due to the virus declined.
State health officials reported 255 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 88 new cases in Bernalillo County, which has seen a rapid uptick in infections in recent weeks.
While New Mexico has not seen an explosion of new cases like neighboring Arizona and Texas, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has increased steadily over the past month.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases was 275 as of Monday, according to a Journal analysis, which is more than double the number of average new cases from a month ago.
The COVID-19 spread has prompted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration to reimpose a ban on dine-in restaurants, ramp up enforcement of a face covering mandate for public settings and cancel some high school sports’ seasons for this fall.
Meanwhile, the New Mexico Department of Health announced seven additional deaths related to COVID-19 on Monday. Those deaths brought the state’s death tally from the disease to 578.
Of the seven individuals who died, three were from McKinley County, which has been hit hard by the outbreak and has the state’s highest fatality rate.
Two people also died in Bernalillo County, including one resident of The Rio at Las Estancias senior living home in Albuquerque, while deaths were also reported in Doña Ana and Cibola counties.
The number of individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Mexico was 154 as of Monday – down by 18 from a week ago.
The hospitalization figure includes any out-of-state patients transferred to New Mexico for treatment, though such individuals are not included in the state’s daily case count.
