Thursday, April 25, 2024
Fair, 70°Wind: 10.4 mph, S
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.
COVID-19 Statistics (Tuesday, Sep 15, 2020 updates)
pos=positive; rec=recovered; hosp=hospitalized; vents=ventilators; b=billion; m=million; t=thousand
New Mexico 26,923 cases, 831,995 tests (3.236% pos), 830 died, 14,634 rec, 59 hosp. Sep 14: 26,842 cases, 826,619 tests (3.2475%), 823 died, 14,470 rec, 60 hosp.
Doña Ana County 3,038 cases, 74,303 tests (4.088% pos), 51 died, 1,722 rec. Sep 14: 3,031 cases, 73,963 tests (4.1%), 51 died, 1,707 rec.
Regional hospitals (Doña Ana, Luna, Catron, Grant, Sierra, Socorro, Lincoln, Hidalgo, Otero counties) Sep 8: 9 COVID-19 cases; 53 of 112 ICU beds, 17 of 82 vents in use. (ICU/vents are all patients, not just COVID.) Aug 26: 13 cases, 50 ICU, 13 vents. Aug 19: 17 cases; 47 ICU, 17 vents. Aug 12: 21 cases; 55 ICU, 14 vents.
Texas 668,746 cases, 585,912 rec, 3,311 hosp. Sep 14: 663,445 cases, 14,211 died, 581,2044 rec, 3,325 hosp.
El Paso County 21,826 cases, 257,655 tests (8.47% pos), 467 died, 18,468 rec, 115 hosp. Sep 14: 21,731 cases, 465 died, 18,367 rec, 111 hosp. Note: Switched Sep 15from state to city test count/positivity rate.
Mexico 671,716 cases, 71,049 died, 475,795 rec. Sep 14: 668,381 cases, 70,821 died, 471,623 rec.
Estado Chihuahua 13,552 cases, 1,290 died, 6,867 rec. Sep 14: 13,420 cases, 1,287 died, 6,852 rec.
Ciudad Juarez 6,757 cases, 815 died. Sep 14: 6,710 cases, 815 died.
USA 6,585,061 cases, 194,713 died, 3,612,064 rec. Sep 14: 6,545,898 cases, 194,066 died, 3,578,770 rec.
Worldwide 29,365,289 cases (3,776/m), 930,311 died, 19,912,116 rec. Sep 14: 29,075,608 cases (3,739/m), 925,284 died, 19,649,654 rec.
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. announces 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% of capacity; retail stores, malls, houses of worship at 25% Jul 13 N.M. bans indoor dining; limits gyms, close-contact businesses to 25% of capacity. Aug 29 N.M. restores indoor dining at 25% of capacity; increases houses of worship to 40%; museums with static displays can open at 25% of capacity; mass gatherings limited to 10 people. (Current N.M. public health orders in effect thru Friday, Sept. 18.)
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
