GALLUP, NM—Senator George Muñoz asked Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to ensure that Gallup and McKinley County residents, as well as area members of the Zuni tribe, Navajo Nation, are provided with equal access to COVID-19 vaccinations that cities like Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Farmington are currently able to access.
“Gallup and the surrounding McKinley County region is one of the hardest hit by COVID-19 in the entire state of New Mexico,” said Senator Muñoz.
“So, I can’t understand why so many other places in New Mexico with much lower rates of infection are getting far more vaccinations made available to their qualified residents.”
Senator Muñoz and area healthcare professionals acknowledge that the mass vaccination roll out across New Mexico is a difficult undertaking. However, McKinley public health officials and local leaders are increasingly frustrated with the disparate volume of vaccinations allotted to different places across the state, seemingly bearing no relationship to actual infection rates. “Governor Lujan Gr
“Governor Lujan Grisham needs to explain to the people of McKinley County why they’re not getting their fair share of COVID-19 vaccinations,” said Senator Muñoz.
“Transparency is critical to an equitable vaccination roll-out plan, and that plan should account for infection rates not just gross population.”
McKinley County currently has one of the infection highest rates in the United States, according to people and news organizations in the region, and 366 people have died from COVID-19 since this pandemic began in McKinley, and 81 people have died in Cibola County since the start of the pandemic.