Deadly month: COVID-19 threat remains High-Risk

CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. – COVID-19 reared its ugly head, in one of the deadliest months on record for Cibola County’s battle against the disease. October saw an increase in six confirmed COVID-19 deaths across the county, a number that is projected to be significantly lower than the actual toll. On November 1, the global confirmed death toll of COVID-19 reached over five million – also a number expected to be significantly lower than the actual toll – significantly more than Ebola, Swine Flu, Hong Kong and Asian Flu.

Cibola County is in the Very High-Risk category when it comes to COVID-19 infections, according to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, because the case spread in the county is high; this means that the reported number of active and total COVID-19 infections in Cibola County are significantly undercounted.

Deaths

Through all of October, Cibola County’s COVID-19 fatalities increased by six official deaths, though this is likely undercounted.

On October 1 Cibola added one new death, so the start of the month had 135 deaths, though September ended at 134. By the time October would close, Cibola had a total of 141 official deaths.

Age

Following COVID-19 by age gives Cibola County a general idea of where COVID-19 case spread is high.

With the highest growth in cases, the age group 10-19 increased by 57 – adding more cases than any other age group.

The second highest growth in cases was the age group 20-29, adding 55 new cases over the month.

Third highest growth in positive cases was the 40–49-year-old age group, adding 51 new cases.

The 30–39-year-old group added 47 cases, followed by the 0-9 age group who added 43 cases in October.

Adding 29 cases, the 50–59-year-old demographic grew. The 60-69 age group added 28 new cases. The 70- 79 age group added 22 cases, followed by the 80-89 age group, which added two cases by the end of the month.

The 90+ age group adde no new cases in October.

Vaccines

272 Cibola residents became fully vaccinated in October.

When the month began Cibola had 18,847 resident fully vaccinated, as of November 1 Cibola has 15,11 residents fully vaccinated This data includes the one shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Across the county, 425 residents received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Anomaly

When October began, the 80-89-year-old demographic was at 101 confirmed cases. In the second week of October this number increased by one, and by the third week had increased to 105 cases. In the data reported Oct. 29 by the state, this age group decreased to 103 cases. By November 1, the state had reported a total of 104 cases for this age range.

The state has not, as of press time, offered an explanation for this decrease in cases.

The state has historically adjusted Cibola County’s COVID-19 numbers when a person who caught COVID-19 wasn’t actually living in the county, and is not uncommon. The Cibola Citizen tries to account for these anomalies in data reporting but does not always notice when the state makes these shifts. All data used in the COVID-19 Watch Program comes from NMDOH.

New Mexico does not update COVID-19 data on weekends or on holidays.

On November 1 the state updated Cibola County’s COVID-19 numbers, they reported 3,722. When all age groups COVID-19 totals are added together, however, the sum is 3,721. The reason for this anomaly was not available by press time.