CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. — The Cibola Senior Citizens Center, Grants, helped 200 elderly community members participate in the Jan. 29 vaccine pod. The inoculation provides protection against COVID-19.
The Center collaborated with the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department, the New Mexico Department of Health-Grants office, area public safety entities, and Uri Bassan, a licensed pharmacist, according to Suzette DeArmond, center director.
She acknowledged that volunteers included First Responders: Grants Fire and Rescue, Cibola Emergency Management Office, Milan Fire Department, Superior Ambulance along with senior center staff and one elected official, City of Grants Councilor Erik Garcia.
The Center continues to assist older Cibola County residents with the NMDOH vaccine program.
“We are in the process of registering as many seniors as we can with DOH. Seniors can call the Center and we will register them so that they will get their vaccines during the next few weeks,” said the director earlier this month.
“We have been tasked by [New Mexico] ALTSD to contact all the seniors on our services’ list, past and present. This list contains all seniors in Cibola County who have ever participated in our services. We are also taking calls from the community, whether they are registered for our services or not,” added Director DeArmond.
The CSCC will not be hosting future vaccination events except for the booster vaccine POD at the end of February explained Director DeArmond.
The Center offers older community members a variety of services, but the building remains closed to public access during the pandemic, according to the Center director.
County data
Cibola has consistently ranked third of the state’s 33 counties for the number of doses administered per 100 residents since the Feb. 1. The county maintained this ranking on Feb. 7 when the NMDOH reported doses administered per 100 residents: Union, 42; Guadalupe, 40.5; Cibola, 31.5; and San Miguel, 30.5.
“As of Friday, we have a cumulative number of 8,291 vaccines administered,” commented County Emergency Manager Dustin Middleton on Feb. 1.
The number of vaccinations rose to 8,549 this past weekend and Cibola ranked ninth in the state on Sunday for the number of individuals partially or fully vaccinated. Only 6,999 community members had been partially or fully vaccinated by Feb. 1, which resulted in the county ranking number seven in the state at the start of this month.
Cibola General Hospital, Grants, has vaccinated more than 1,500 people, according to hospital officials. (County residents were scheduled for vaccinations at various locations this past weekend.)
COVID-19 has resulted in 100 deaths in the county since last March and Cibola has recorded a total of 2,643 positive tests in the past 11 months. The correctional facilities have reported a total of 616 cases; a total of 54,085 tests had been administered in Cibola as of Feb. 7.
Good Sam’s update
The Good SamaritanGrants, a long-term residential care facility, has lost several residents in the past two months due to COVID-19. The most recent death was female in her 80s on Jan. 29. No residents passed away from COVID between Jan. 30 and Feb. 7, according to NMDOH.
Statewide
The number of cumulative doses administered in the state was 340,047 as of Feb. 7, which included 251,990 who had received a primary dose and 88,027 who have received the booster dose. New Mexico had administered 61,193 doses since Feb. 1. More than a half million people, 590,422, had registered for the vaccine as of Feb. 7. This was an increase from Feb. 6 data, which reported 586,876 registrants.
Nearly 41 percent of people in the 75-and-older age group had received one or both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to NMDOH on Feb. 5. The state’s vaccine dashboard does not identify the number of elderly people that have been vaccinated to date in each county.
Call 505-285-3922 or visit https://cvvaccine.nmhealth.org/publicdashboard.html and cityofgrants.net/senior-center for more information.