New Mexico COVID-19 news recap

• This morning recap of COVID-19 news from New Mexico is available in a free email every weekday. Sign up here.

See all of our COVID-19 coverage here.

• In mid-March when we started putting together the COVID-19 newsletter, we could never have imagined that we would still be doing this update at the end of the year. In retrospect, we should have seen it coming.

  That said, we’re going on vacation until the start of the year, after publishing hundreds of editions (at one point, seven days a week, now pared back to five days a week). We will keep publishing the daily COVID-19 numbers over the next two weeks.

  Thank you to the thousands of readers every day for subscribing the newsletter.

  In recent days, I received a few emails asking if anyone can help—as a nonprofit news outlet, we keep the lights on through donations. If you want to donate, you can do so here.

  Have a good holiday season and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. We’ll see you again in 2021.

• Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham held a press conference on Thursday to discuss COVID-19 in the state, with a lot of talk about the start of vaccinations in the state. Read more here.
  • If you missed it, you can watch the whole thing here.
  • See also the reports from the Albuquerque Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican and Santa Fe Reporter.
• The state Department of Health reported the most single-day deaths of COVID-19 in New Mexico so far in the pandemic on Thursday—48—along with 1,702 new cases of COVID-19. Read more here.
• Earlier this month, the Las Cruces Sun-News ran a photo of a nurse comforting her father who was in the ICU at Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces. The man died on Tuesday, the paper reported.
• There won’t be enough vaccinations for the general public to get them until early spring, health officials said, KOB-TV reported.
• The vaccine rollout started on the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Times reported. It went to health care workers.
  • The Albuquerque Journal also wrote about the vaccine rollout on the Navajo Nation.
• Hospital workers in Farmington expressed that they were grateful for being able to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the Farmington Daily Times reported.
• The vaccinations began at Roswell hospitals this week, the Roswell Daily Record reported.
• The first vaccines were given to frontline health care workers at Lea County hospitals, the Hobbs News-Sun reported.
• While vaccinations for the general public is still some time away, Valencia County officials held a vaccination drill as Los Lunas High School, KRQE-TV reported.
• The lines at the Walmart in Silver City are much shorter after the state eased capacity restrictions, the Silver City Daily Press reported
• Restaurants are getting support from customers in the form of family-sized, to-go meals for the holidays, KRQE-TV reported.
• Local ski areas said some are not complying with mask-wearing rules, KRQE-TV reported.
• The Los Alamos County Council finalized the distribution of $1.6 million in CARES Act funding according to the Los Alamos Reporter.
• A Silver City historian will give a presentation on the 1918-1919 Spanish Influenza pandemic, the Silver City Daily News reported.