COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 710 new COVID-19 cases, a 37% decrease from the last single day of reporting on Feb. 11, bringing the statewide total so far to 504,287; DOH has designated 401,488 of those cases as recovered.
Bernalillo County had 252 cases, followed by Sandoval County with 82 and Santa Fe and Valencia counties with 37.
According to the most recent weekly vaccine report, between Jan. 17-Feb. 14, 51.7% of COVID-19 cases were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 29.9% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 18.4% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 65.3%, 21.3% and 13.4%. The percentages shift to 67.1%, 23.6% and 9.3% for fatalities.
The state also reported 27 additional deaths, 19 of them recent; there have been 6,711 statewide. As of yesterday, 460 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 57 more than the day before.
Currently, 91.6% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 77.7% have completed their primary series. Among the same demographic, 43.4% have had a booster shot. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 70.7% of people have had at least one dose and 60.4% have completed their primary series. Among children ages 5-11, 37.4% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 27.6% have completed their primary series. In Santa Fe County, 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 86.7% have completed their primary series.
New Mexicans can register for a COVID-19 vaccine here, schedule a COVID-19 vaccine booster here and view a public calendar for vaccine availability here. Parents can add dependents to their vaccine profiles here. You can read the guidelines for quarantine and isolation here.
You can order free at-home COVID-19 tests here and find other testing options at findatestnm.org. New Mexicans living in ZIP codes disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 may be eligible for five free tests through Accesscovidtest.org. The health department is offering drive-through PCR testing through Feb. 21; to find an appointment (recommended only for people with symptoms), register here. You can self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department here.
The City of Santa Fe also is distributing free at-home rapid antigen COVID-19 tests; residents and visitors may collect one kit per person (up to four per household) at all three library branches; all three recreation centers; the convention center and tourism office. See locations and times here (except for the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, which isn’t listed, but offers free tests during its operating hours).
For those who test positive for COVID-19, the state advises seeking treatments, such as the oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); as well as monoclonal antibody treatment. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase will deliver a weekly COVID-19 update at 1 pm today, which will stream live on the health department’s Facebook page and with Spanish translation on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s YouTube page.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Obelisk case comes to a close
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said yesterday the cases against participants in the October 2020 destruction of the obelisk on the Plaza are coming to a close. Four of the people criminally charged have completed a restorative justice program Carmack-Altwies spearheaded and the charges against them have been dropped; three are still completing the program and one, downtown gallery owner Stephen Fox, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of criminal destruction of property in exchange for a deferred sentence. The eight defendants participating in the restorative justice program completed 320 hours of combined public service, according to court documents filed yesterday. Carmack-Altwies’ office also released the final report from Common Ground Mediation Services, the company that facilitated the restorative justice program. “The Common Ground report highlights the climate of our community at the time of the incident and how historical traumas were being confronted nationwide during this time,” Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. “The restorative justice program was a plunge into not only the destruction of the Obelisk but also the disputable parts of collective history. The defendants apologized to the greater community, including the local Hispanic and Indigenous groups, whose efforts around the reconciliation of history and historical traumas were disrupted or affected by the destructive event.”
With budget, crime in play, lawmakers race to end
Lawmakers have plenty of high-stakes proposals left with which to grapple before the Legislature closes at noon on Thursday. Chief among those concerns, the Albuquerque Journal reports, are high-profile crime bills; legislation to curb predatory lending; and an $8.5 million spending plan. As the clock ticks, Democratic lawmakers yesterday resurrected Senate Bill 8, a voting rights bill, via a procedural maneuver after Republicans blocked it from receiving a vote last week. The House on Monday passed House Bill 163, which would exempt Social Security from taxation and attempts to reconcile several other tax initiatives. Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, tells SFR that the state’s tax code needs an overall reform “to figure out which [tax rates] are working which are not.” The health department yesterday heralded the Legislature’s passage of HB52, which now heads to the governor. The bill updates the state’s Harm Reduction Act and, among other provisions, allows for distribution of drug testing devices, like fentanyl test strips. “Fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death in New Mexicans ages 18-35 and around the nation,” state Rep. Tara Lujan, D-Santa Fe, said in a statement. “With these changes, we can take a significant step towards preventing many of these unnecessary deaths.”
Husband files wrongful death suit in Rust shooting
Matthew Hutchins filed a wrongful death lawsuit yesterday in Santa Fe’s First Judicial District Court over the Oct. 21 shooting death of his wife, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Rust film set. The suit, brought by Santa Fe attorney Kristina Martinez and filed on behalf of Hutchins and his son, names actor and producer Alec Baldwin; Rust Movie Productions; Eldorado Productions; Assistant Director David Hall; Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed; PDQ Arm and Prop owner Seth Kenney and more than 20 other individuals and businesses. Baldwin, the almost 30-page lawsuit says, “recklessly shot and killed” Halyna Hutchins, and he and the other defendants “failed to perform industry standard safety checks and follow basic gun safety rules…with fatal consequences.” Hutchins, the suit continues, “deserved to live, and the defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violations.”
Santa Fe teachers wins presidential award
Hope Cahill, a sixth and seventh grade teacher at El Dorado Community School, has received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Science Foundation. According to a White House news release, 117 teachers around the country received the awards, including one other in New Mexico: Silvia Miranda at Mesa Elementary School in Clovis for mathematics. According to a news release from Santa Fe Public Schools, Cahill became a full-time teacher in 2012 after serving as a substitute teacher for four years, the last of which as a long-term science substitute. Before substituting, Hope spent eight years raising her sons following four years as a language arts and creative writing teacher at Capshaw Middle School in the late 1990s. Elements of an instructional unit she developed on the Socorro Magma Body are scheduled for publication in The Earth Scientist, a quarterly journal of the National Earth Science Teachers Association. In a statement congratulating Cahill, SFPS Hilario “Larry” Chavez characterized her as “a top educator and incredible role model for teachers and students, inspiring all to reach new heights in learning and science exploration.”
Listen up
Heating It Up podcast host and cookbook author Cheryl Alters Jamison celebrates her show’s six-year anniversary with guest Arroyo Vino Executive Chef Allison Jenkins. Among other topics, Jenkins discusses her approach to cooking, which prioritizes seasonal, fresh ingredients and a “vegetable first” philosophy. “I really let the ingredient do the work,” Jenkins says. “More often I center things around vegetables and then I’ll add a protein…seasonal vegetables are a gift and we’re blessed at the Santa Fe Farmers Market here.”
Trips to the final frontier on sale
Virgin Galactic opens up ticket reservations today to the general public for one of the company’s initial spaceflights. According to a news release, the trip—launching from New Mexico’s Spaceport—will consist of a a “90-minute journey including a signature air launch and Mach-3 boost to space,” and will begin with several days of “spaceflight preparedness activities…bespoke itineraries and world-class amenities.” In a statement, Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said the company plans to have its “first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing an incredibly strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet.” Spaceflight reservations require an initial deposit of $150,000 and cost $450,000 in total, with final payments due before the flight. The company’s stock rose 28% following news of the ticket sales, after reportedly dropping 85% in the last year when it delayed its commercial space flights; Virgin Galactic also unveiled a new logo with a purple color scheme, which replaces founder Richard Branson’s eye with a spaceship, “designed to capture the love, wonder and awe of the experience of viewing Earth from space.” Here’s a 12-second video introducing the new look.
What’s in a name
National Geographic delves into the differences between the terms Hispanic and Latino, noting that their histories are more than complicated, with both connected to controversy and confusion. The story examines each term’s geographic, cultural and political lineage. One main issue, sociologist Nancy López, director and co-founder of the University of New Mexico’s Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice, tells National Geographic, is the difficulty in using just one term to describe such a large group of people—approximately 19% of the country’s population identified as Hispanic on the 2020 US Census. “Hispanic,” she says, is often used as a short-hand for race, with no connection to an individual’s origin, only their appearance. “To pretend that every Latino occupies the same racial status is ignoring the lived realities of a pigmentocracy,” López tells the magazine. “Your self-identity is not a proxy for your social identity.” Lopez and others, the story says, “are working to push the federal government to adopt different ways of categorizing self-identification and assigned race.”
Her future
Writer Daniel Vandever and artist Corey Begay (Diné) talk with Native News Online about their award-winning picture book, Herizon, which last month won the American Indian Youth Literature Award for best picture book. The book tells the story of a Diné girl’s journey through the Navajo Nation to herd her grandmother’s sheep, with Vendever drawing from his personal experiences growing up and spending his summers in Haystack (in McKinley County) helping his grandmother herd sheep. “I remember going out into the pastures with my male cousins, where a lot of the female cousins were left at home to clean the house and do dishes,” Vandever tells Native News Online. “As an uncle with several nieces, I wanted to write something that can serve as a source of inspiration (and) spoke towards that movement away from the kitchen, so to speak.” A former educator, Vandever intentionally wanted a wordless book that could speak to young readers and leave room for their own interpretations. Begay, who began his career as a graphic artist, saw the book as an opportunity to honor generations of Diné women. “A lot of these landscapes are of everything that I’ve seen on Navajo Nation,” he says “They’re not just random colors. They’re colors I’ve seen before in the landscape. I just stare a little longer than most people.”
Rain or shine
The National Weather Service forecasts a mostly sunny day, except for a slight chance of rain and snow showers—20%—between 2 and 5 pm. There will be increasing clouds with a high near 50 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the morning. Tonight, about a 40% chance for precipitation—rain or snow again—with the same likelihood heading into Thursday morning.
Thanks for reading! The Word anticipates needing to watch this new six-minute Aurora Borealis relaxation video several times this week.
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Obelisk Case Comes to a Close | - Santa Fe Reporter
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