CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – Almost 100 Cibola County residents have died from COVID-19 in the past 10 months. The New Mexico Department of Health does not identify deaths by physical address or location. The NMDOH dashboard, https://cv.nmhealth.org/, lists these fatalities by county. The data is updated daily, usually after 4 p.m., seven days a week.
Cibola General Hospital officials recently shared the NMDOH daily statistics. The Feb. 1 data reported 99 community members have passed away since the first cases were identified in the county. The need for hospitalization has increased since March, when two people were the first county residents to test positive, but not everyone who tests positive requires hospitalization.
No patients who had been diagnosed with COVID were admitted to CGH during March; two were hospitalized in April; five in May; three in June and three in July; August recorded two; there were four in September; nine in October. CGH had cared for a total of 31 COVID patients through early November.
Those numbers doubled in the following three months: November reported 25; there were 19 in December; and 19 people required hospitalization between Jan. 1-27 explained Cynthia Tena, CGH marketing director. A total of 91 area residents have been hospitalized for COVID during the past ten months, according to CGH officials on Jan. 27.
Five people, who were hospitalized for COVID at CGH, passed away between March and early November. No deaths were recorded for March, but one each month for April, May, and June. There were no COVID-related fatalities during the following four months; two patients passed away in early November, according to Tena.
Hospital officials were unable to provide the number of COVIDrelated patient deaths for November and December or for last month. The marketing director explained on Jan. 28 that she “did not have those numbers readily available.” The data will be provided at a future date, according to Tena.
Good Sam’s – 18 deaths in five weeks
Good Samaritan-Grants, the nursing home that provides longterm care for the elderly, has been hard hit by the coronavirus. The following statistics were reported by NMDOH between Dec. 25, 2020, and Sunday, Jan. 31: a female in her 80s on Dec. 25; two females in their 80s on Dec. 31, 2020; a male in his 80s on Jan. 9; a female in her 60s on Jan. 17; five residents, one female and one male in their 70s, two females in their 80s and a male in his 80s on Jan. 18; two females, one in her 50s and one in her 80s, plus a male in his 80s on Jan. 20; two females, one in her 70s and one in her 90s, on Jan. 21; a female in her 90s on Jan. 23; a female in her 80s on Jan. 24; a female in her 80s on Jan. 29; no deaths on Jan. 30, Jan. 31 or Feb. 1.
The 18 residents who passed away included one female in her 50s and the oldest were two in their 90s; the male residents were in their 70s to 80s, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.
Editor’s note: The Cibola Citizen was unable to reach Administrator Tangee Robinson, Good Samaritan-Grants, for comment.
Area prisons The number of COVID cases reported in area prisons on Feb. 1
Area prisons included Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, Grants, 74; Northwest New Mexico Correctional Center, Grants, 116; Cibola County Correctional Center, Milan, 425.
Returning students to classrooms The Grants/Cibola County School District is assisting employees with making appointments for vaccination. Superintendent Max Perez noted that 370 of the more than 500 employees plan to be vaccinated. School board members emphasized that the district cannot require employees to be vaccinated.
Superintendent Perez’ Jan. 29 letter to community members included a reminder that the board will not make a decision at the Feb. 2 meeting on returning to hybrid learning even though the New Mexico Public Education Department had announced that districts could opt to implement that option on Feb. 8.
“We want the [G/CCSD] teachers and students to go back safely, and for the teachers to have the opportunity to get vaccinated,” said CGH officials via email last week.
Vaccine distribution in Cibola County
More than 8,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered to county residents including healthcare providers, first responders, essential workers, and elderly residents, according to County Emergency Manager Dustin Middleton.
“As of Friday, we have a cumulative number of 8,291 vaccines administered,” he said in a Feb. 1 email.
Middleton explained that he does not have access to the data identifing the number of Grants and Milan residents who have been vaccinated.
“New Mexico continues to have one of the highest administration rates in the country,” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced on Jan. 31. New Mexico had administered 274, 497 doses by last week; that number includes the 61,116 vaccinations administered in the past seven days. The state had received 278,800 doses by the end of last month.
Visit https://cv.nmhealth.org/ for more information.