Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

CORONAVIRUS

COVID-19 update: Tuesday, Oct. 6

Posted

COVID-19 Statistics (Tuesday, Oct 6, 2020 updates; Monday, Oct 5 updates)

pos=positive; rec=recovered; hosp=hospitalized; b=billion; m=million; t=thousand

New Mexico 30,632 cases, 954,596 tests (3.209% pos), 894 died, 17,330 rec, 97 hosp. Oct 4: 30,477 cases, 947,945 tests (3.215%), 892 died, 17,270 rec, 91 hosp.

Doña Ana County 3,678 cases, 84,414 tests (4.357% pos), 59 died, 2,049 rec. Oct 4: 3,634 cases, 83,574 tests (4.348%), 59 died, 2,042 rec.

Regional hospitals (Doña Ana, Luna, Catron, Grant, Sierra, Socorro, Lincoln, Hidalgo, Otero counties) Sep 30: 22 cases, 56 of 112 ICU beds, 17 of 82 ventilators in use. Sep 16: 7 cases; 52 ICU, 17 vents. Sep 8: 9 cases; 53 ICU, 17 vents. Aug 26: 13 cases, 50 ICU, 13 vents. Aug 19: 17 cases; 47 ICU, 17 vents. (ICU beds and ventilators are all patients, not just COVID-19.)

Texas 769,303 cases, 16,033 died, 683,700 rec, 3,318 hosp. Oct 4: 765,894 cases, 16,025 died, 680,083 rec, 3,192 hosp.  (Lab test positivity rate:  Oct 4: 7.97%, Oct 3: 7.57%, Sep 29: 8.74%, Sep 28: 9%, Sep 27: 8.66%, Sep 26: 9.46%, Sep 24: 9.25%, Sep 23: 8.63%, Sep 22: 7.75%, Sep 20: 7.9%)

El Paso County 26,030 cases, 304,650 tests (8.54% pos; 7-day aver: 10.03%), 534 died, 20,991 rec, 196 hosp. Oct 5: 25,793 cases, 302,462 tests (8.53% pos; 7-day aver: 10.14%), 534 died, 20,756 rec, 186 hosp.

Mexico 789,780 cases, 81,877 died. Oct 2: 748,315 cases, 78,078 died.

Estado Chihuahua 16,325 cases, 1,457 died, 9,280 rec. Oct 4: 16,220 cases, 1,454 died, 9,137 rec.

Ciudad Juarez 7,864 cases, 885 died. Oct 4: 7,814 cases, 884 died.

United States 7,486,928 cases, 210,029 died. Oct 5: 7,444,705 cases, 209,603 died.

Worldwide 35,511,291 cases (4,567/m), 1,044,490 died. Oct 5: 35,274,475 cases (4,536/m), 1,038,423 died.

Population Worldwide 7.8b; United States 330m, New Mexico 2.1m, Doña Ana County 218t; Texas 30m, El Paso County 841t; Mexico 129m, Estado de Chihuahua 3.77m, Ciudad Juarez 1.5m; Canada 38m.

COVID-19 Timeline 

Dec 31, 2019 First cases confirmed in Wuhan, China Jan 21, 2020 First U.S. case confirmed, in Washington State Jan 30 World Health Organization declares global health emergency Feb 29 First U.S. death reported, in Washington State Mar 11 N.M. reports first cases, declares public health emergency Mar 13 U.S. declares national health emergency Mar 23 N.M. closes nonessential businesses, prohibits mass gatherings June 1 N.M. allows indoor dining, gyms at 50% capacity; retail stores, malls, houses of worship at 25% Jul 13 N.M. bans indoor dining; limits gyms, close-contact businesses to 25% capacity. Aug 29 N.M. restores indoor dining at 25% capacity; increases houses of worship to 40%; museums with static displays can open at 25% capacity; mass gatherings limited to 10 people. Sep 18 N.M. permits youth sports conditioning and state park overnight camping (effective Oct. 1), each in groups up to 10; swimming pools may open, up to 10 people at a time.

What is COVID-19?  

Coronaviruses cause diseases in mammals and birds. They were discovered in 1931 in domesticated chickens in North Dakota. The first human coronavirus was isolated in in the U.S. and UK in 1965. At least seven strains of human coronavirus are known. Coronaviruses cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The name comes from the Latin corona (“crown”) because of protein spikes on the virus’ surface that resemble crowns.

The newest coronavirus causes COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease 2019), first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The most common symptoms are fever, dry cough and tiredness; less common are aches and pains, nasal congestion, headache, sore throat, conjunctivitis, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell, skin rash or discoloration of fingers or toes. Symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. 80% of infections are mild or asymptomatic, 20% are more serious, with difficulty breathing; about 40% are asymptomatic.

H1N1 influenza A (a different virus) caused two global pandemics: 1) Spanish Flu: Feb 1918-Apr 1920, up to 500m cases, 50m died, world pop: 1.8b; 2) Swine Flu: Jan 2009-Aug 2010; 491,382 known/700m-1.4b estimated cases, 150-575t died, world pop: 6.8b. Influenza (flu) is a virus that attacks the respiratory system.

Other flu pandemics. 1957-58: 2m died worldwide, 70k in U.S.; 1968-69: 1m died worldwide, 34t in U.S.

Seasonal flu. U.S.: Oct 1, 2019-Apr 4, 2020 (flu season): 39-56m cases, 410-740t hosp, 24-62t died. Annually since 2010: 9-45m cases, 140-810t hosp, 12-61t died. Worldwide: 250-500t annual flu deaths.

COVID-19 Information Online

World Health Organization www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Global COVID-19 statistics https://news.google.com/covid19/map?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention www.cdc.gov

New Mexico Department of Health https://cvprovider.nmhealth.org/public-dashboard.html

New Mexico public health orders https://cv.nmhealth.org/public-health-orders-and-executive-orders/

NMDOH additional resources https://cv.nmhealth.org/

Doña Ana County/Joint Information Center www.donaanacounty.org

City of Las Cruces www.las-cruces.org/AlertCenter.aspx and covid19lascruces.com

Texas Department of State Health Services www.dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus

El Paso County COVID-19 statistics http://epstrong.org/results.php

COVID-19, Coronavirus

X