New Mexico ... governor unveils plan for vaccine rollout
New Mexico could receive its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines by next week, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday during a virtual news conference. The initial doses of vaccine will be distributed to frontline health care workers across the state. Additional shipments of vaccines will be given to nursing home residents. The state expects to vaccinate all health care workers and people living in congregate care centers by February or March, Lujan Grisham said.
"It will take several weeks of vaccines coming in before we have holistically protected health care workers and long-term care residents," she said. "Once that's done ... then it's essential workers, child care workers, corrections, police officers" who will be vaccinated.
The news about vaccines came on the same day the state reported 1,791 new cases of the novel coronavirus, with 74 additional infections in Santa Fe County. The state also had 23 more deaths.
Since the pandemic started, New Mexico has had 114,731 confirmed cases and 1,846 deaths. On Thursday, 916 people across the state were hospitalized for COVID-19, with 159 patients on ventilators.
The disease continues to strain hospital capacity. On Wednesday, there were 106 available hospital beds statewide. This morning, that number fell to 65, Health and Human Services Secretary David Scrase said.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/coronavirus/new-mexico-reports-1-791-new-virus-cases-as-governor-unveils-plan-for-vaccine-rollout/article_d9ffc00c-3b31-11eb-9f3a-d7caedcd1b4f.html