SANTE FE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico’s governor on Thursday reported a record-setting 48 daily deaths statewide linked to the coronavirus pandemic, as the state delivers economic relief payments to the unemployed and small businesses.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she is concerned that daily deaths could grow even higher over the year-end holidays.
“We are still in a dramatic set of circumstances,” she said from the governor’s mansion in a remote, online news conference.
She urged residents of New Mexico to “have a Zoom Christmas” online with extended family as a precaution against virus transmission. She said it’s impossible to gather amid holiday food treats and also wear protective masks.
“You can’t wear a mask and eat a bizcochito,” she said, referring to a popular holiday cookie in New Mexico tradition.
Health officials confirmed that the state has received 17,550 vaccines for distribution to hospitals and clinics since the federal approval of a vaccine from drug maker Pfizer and German pharmaceutical company BioNTech.
The vast majority of those doses are going to health workers. The state expects to receive a new shipment of the Pfizer vaccine next week.
Tight restrictions on public gatherings and nonessential business are in place in all 33 counties across the state, under a color-coded system for relaxing stay-at-home restrictions and rates of infection and positive testing for COVID-19 improve.
Lujan Grisham provided an update on the $320 million economic relief package approved in late November by the governor and lawmakers.
Direct payments of $1,200 have gone out to 120,000 people as a supplement to unemployment insurance.
In another development, more than 50 inmates have sued the Penitentiary of New Mexico claiming the facility near Santa Fe did not protect its inmates from the coronavirus.
The New Mexico Supreme Court was asked to intervene after 56 inmates submitted a handwritten petition alleging safety regulations intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 were too lax and caused an outbreak in late October.
The lawsuit said prison officials did not conduct enough tests, did not separate inmates from those possibly infected and continued to have crews work outside in violation of state prison guidelines.
The New Mexico Corrections Department had no immediate comment.
The lawsuit asks that the state corrections secretary enforce coronavirus guidelines, reform internal prison practices, provide proper medical care and release eligible inmates to community detention centers to reduce overcrowding. The lawsuit also requests monetary damages.
Christopher Martinez, an inmate who wrote the petition, said in the lawsuit that an outside employee who showed COVID-19 symptoms was repeatedly allowed into a prison kitchen Oct. 23 despite being continuously asked to leave.
Martinez said eight people tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after and more than 45 inmates tested positive by early November. The facility had 141 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March, the lawsuit said.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some - especially older adults and people with existing health problems - it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
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