Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
More than 20% of Santa Fe County residents have received partial or full COVID-19 vaccinations, while Bernalillo County has vaccinated 14% of its population, according to an interactive map operated by the state Department of Health.
The new county-by-county breakdown offers details of the number of people vaccinated in each of New Mexico’s 33 counties, and the percentage of the population vaccinated.
“DOH recognizes that New Mexicans want to understand how the vaccine distribution effort is affecting their communities,” said agency spokesman Matt Bieber in an email Friday. You can access the map on the state’s COVID-19 vaccine dashboard at cvvaccine.nmhealth.org.
In the data of population vaccinated, Santa Fe County ranked fourth-highest in the state, with smaller rural counties, including Union and San Miguel, rounding out the top five. Cibola ranked second behind Guadalupe.
Bernalillo County, the most populous county in the state, ranked 10th according to the latest update of the map published Friday.
But the percentage vaccinated in counties neighboring Bernalillo, such as Sandoval and Valencia, were in the single digits.
Only 5% of Sandoval County, which stretches northwest from the Bernalillo County line, but includes Rio Rancho, has been vaccinated, with Valencia County, to the south of Albuquerque, only slightly higher, at 5.7%, according to the DOH map.
The second most populated county in New Mexico was also in the single digits. Doña Ana County ranked 19th in the percent vaccinated, at just under 8%.
“There are a range of variables that affect vaccine distribution, including population, local health care provider capacity, cold storage capacity (for the vaccine), and more,” Bieber told the Journal.
“In any operation this complex, some variation should be expected – but the DOH operations team is examining the data closely and will use them to ensure that vaccine distribution occurs equitably.”
Across the state, the demand for vaccines is outstripping supply. Currently, health care workers, first responders, those 75 and older, and people age 16 and older with underlying medical conditions are eligible for the vaccinations.
Meanwhile, University of New Mexico Health Sciences announced Friday that, after delivering some 28,000 COVID-19 vaccines since the rollout of its new clinic inside the UNM Pit arena in Albuquerque, the clinic will take a “pause” while awaiting additional vaccine supplies.
The clinic, which opened Jan. 19, won’t be administering vaccines next week, but is expected to be running the following week, said UNM Health Sciences public information officer Alex Sanchez.
Bieber said the DOH wasn’t aware of other vaccine providers, which are estimated at about 200 or so statewide, planning to pause operations.
He said New Mexico hopes to receive about 56,000 doses a week for the next three weeks from the federal government and will be distributing the doses to an “ever widening network of providers in every corner of the state.”
The 56,000 per week represents a 16% increase in allocations to New Mexico, Bieber added. “Bottom line: we’ll be doing more overall vaccinations.”
In Santa Fe, Christus St. Vincent president and CEO Lillian Montoya told the Journal, “Santa Feans are very eager to get the vaccine.”
“The hospital continues to be flooded with vaccine-related calls and emails, and we have done our best to communicate that supply is still very limited.”
The hospital is currently vaccinating its 75-and-older patient population, who are selected randomly.
Since the mid-December rollout of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, the state has received 278,800 doses and administered 248,183, according to the most recent data.
Statewide, an estimated 9% of the population has received a vaccine.
In raw numbers, about 96,766 people in Bernalillo County have received a partial or full vaccination, with 31,569 in Santa Fe and 17,179 in Doña Ana County.
Bieber expected additional features to be added to the map in the near future.
Other states, such as Texas, for example, include vaccine data by age, gender and race on their websites.
Meanwhile, New Mexico reported an uptick in new daily COVID-19 cases Friday, with 1,085 people testing positive, and 22 COVID-19-related deaths.
Bernalillo County had 482 new cases. Of the new deaths reported, nine people lived in the northwest New Mexico counties of San Juan or McKinley – a region that has been a “hot spot’ in the pandemic.
