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 update: Wednesday, Sept. 30

Posted

COVID-19 Statistics (Wednesday, Sep 30, 2020 updates)

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

New Mexico 29,435 cases, 921,009 tests (3.196% pos), 877 died, 16,671 rec, 85 hosp. Sep 29: 29,157 cases, 914,986 tests (3.1866%), 875 died, 16,565 rec, 80 hosp.

Doña Ana County 3,427 cases, 81,116 tests (4.225% pos), 55 died, 1,960 rec. Sep 29: 3,387 cases, 80,605 tests (4.202%), 55 died, 1,937 rec.

Texas Sep 30: 748,967 cases, 15,711 died, 664,883 rec, 3,344 hosp. Sep 29: 743,284 cases, 15,604 died, 661,038 rec, 3,251 hosp. (Lab test positivity rate:  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%, Sep 19: 7.98%.)

El Paso County 24,446 cases, 288,657 tests (8.47% pos; 7-day aver: 8.78%), 521 died, 20,027 rec, 173 hosp. Sep 29: 24,170 cases, 286,642 tests (8.43% pos; 7-day aver: 7.76%), 519 died, 19,875 rec, 166 hosp.

Mexico 738,163 cases, 77,163 died. Sep 29: 733,717 cases, 76,603 died.

Estado Chihuahua Sep 29: 15,301 cases, 1,388 died, 8,395 rec.

Ciudad Juarez Sep 29: 7,489 cases, 863 died.

USA 7,229,071 cases, 206,221 died. Sep 29: 7,188,169 cases, 205,208 died.

Worldwide 33,768,721 cases (4,343/m), 1,009,894 died. Sep 29: 33,431,133 cases (4,299/m), 1,003,168 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


X