This is my second diary tracking the rate of new infections in New Mexico, using their coronavirus front page as the final word. Over the course of the past week we saw this rate bounce around quite a bit in unnerving ways.
Of course we know the number of new detected infections is going to go up every day for the foreseeable future. But the more useful number is the rate of positives reported by NMDOH. That had held steady between 1-2% the previous week, but got as high as 5% this weekend, thanks to 55 new positives found Saturday. At that point the local media got somewhat sensationalist, with headlines saying the cases were "sykrocketing" or "exploding." But the next day the rate of new positives was 0.8% and that's the latest I have.
Based on my work experience this week, I would say these spikes may be due to lab processing and technical adjustments. Also, as NMDOH says in the link, they are now counting presumptives as positives, not just confirmed ones. Another factor to bear in mind is the number of recoveries, which stood at 24, which is not reported on this page and may also be underestimated. Either the newspapers aren't picking up on these nuances or the state authorities aren't communicating it to them. It’s like reporting of the recent stock market swan dive: the number of points the Dow lost when it was already insanely overbought before the pandemic hit, is not what matters. When exponential growth is involved then rates, e.g., percentage change, are where it's at.
Nonetheless NM does have challenges. Aside from major cities like New York and New Orleans, other hotspots are mountain resort towns in the West (especially in CO) and oh yes, you know we have our share of those here. The skiers descending on Santa Fe, Taos, Angel Fire, Ruidoso et. al. from Texas and the coasts did not help. While the ski season is effectively done, this influx will continue to keep us on guard as we get more health refugees from those places. Below are some of the county counts from the NMDOH page and I can tell you right now, on a per capita basis those counts in Santa Fe and Taos are well above the state average.
But my optimism of the Land of Enchantment getting through this much better than the rest of the country continues. As we all know here, the federal response is still a nightmare, to the point where the man-baby occupying the White House is actually favoring critical life-supplies to be shipped to states with governors from his own party. If they're not, he's then insisting they smooch his butt as he did with Michigan.
That is sickening. I’ve told my social media contacts, if they still support that kind of vile, amoral approach to government then I would just advise them cállate el hocico (shut your snout, as we Mexicans like to say) or I will socially isolate them here like you've never seen. Best thing is to take advice from your state local authorities and tune out the lies and misinformation coming from there. Stay safe people, love y'all.