Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Counties report increased COVID-19 cases

Curry and Roosevelt counties, like many others across the state and the nation, are reporting increased numbers of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.

Through Friday, Curry County had reported 81 new cases in July, three more than it recorded in all of June. Sixty-eight new cases had been reported since July 9.

In Roosevelt County, 29 new cases had been reported in July through Friday. Roosevelt recorded 19 new cases in June.

Amarillo and Lubbock health officials last week also reported an increase in COVID-19 cases as well as in hospitalizations.

Lubbock’s Covenant Health reported 22 patients were hospitalized with the virus on Thursday; the hospital had just “one or two” COVID patients a month ago, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.

Amarillo reported it had 554 active cases of the virus on Thursday, up from 275 on July 15. Amarillo’s Public Health District raised its COVID awareness level from yellow to orange on Thursday, meaning the area’s hospital capacity is limited.

Casie Stoughton, Amarillo’s public health director, said some of the more recent cases are from COVID-19 variants. Officials have previously confirmed there are United Kingdom and Delta variants in the region. However, because of the ways the variants are identified, Stoughton did not have information about specific numbers of variant cases within the community.

“Our response doesn’t change with that information,” she said. “The tools in our tool belt are vaccination and masking, especially if you are unvaccinated. Those are our tools that we have, even with the variants.”

In Clovis, Plains Regional Medical Center Director Jorge Cruz said late last week that the hospital’s patient count “remains low.”

“We have two COVID-19 patients in the (Intensive Care Unit) right now,” he wrote in an email on Thursday. “We are definitely seeing more individuals test positive in the last week, but so far few are requiring hospitalization. We continue to ask our community to get vaccinated to prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19.”

State health officials report Curry and Roosevelt counties remain among the lowest for vaccinated individuals.

The state shows Roosevelt County’s vaccination rate is at 32.2 percent, the lowest among the state’s 33 counties. Curry County’s rate is at 40 percent, 31st in the state. Los Alamos County leads the state in vaccination rate at 84.4 percent.

New Mexico’s hospitalization rates are increasing for COVID-19 patients, according to statistics released on Friday.

The state had 106 people in hospitals with COVID , up from 64 on June 30, and the most on a single day since June 28 when 109 were hospitalized.

The Amarillo Globe-News and Lubbock Avalanche-Journal contributed to this report.

 
 
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