July 2022 COVID-19 in Cibola Update

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  • This chart shows the gradual progression of COVID-19 in Cibola County since the disease first started in March. Some months are no longer visible because the amount of data being pugged in now drastically larger than the data when COVID was first reported in Cibola back in March of 2020 Courtesy Photo
    This chart shows the gradual progression of COVID-19 in Cibola County since the disease first started in March. Some months are no longer visible because the amount of data being pugged in now drastically larger than the data when COVID was first reported in Cibola back in March of 2020 Courtesy Photo
  • The 40-49-year-old age group added the most new cases in the month of July, while the 90+ age group added the fewest new cases by adding exactly zero to the total through July. Courtesy Photo
    The 40-49-year-old age group added the most new cases in the month of July, while the 90+ age group added the fewest new cases by adding exactly zero to the total through July. Courtesy Photo
  • COVID-19 cases remain high in Cibola County. This chart shows the buildup of active cases over the month of July. Courtesy Photo
    COVID-19 cases remain high in Cibola County. This chart shows the buildup of active cases over the month of July. Courtesy Photo
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COVID-19 has claimed the lives of at least 201 residents of Cibola County, New Mexico. The disease continues to make its way through Cibola County, at a time where mask wearing and social distancing is rare to find. As of August 1, Cibola County has 491 active cases of COVID-19 – this is only confirmed cases, unconfirmed cases likely exist.

As COVID-19 cases remain high, vaccinations against the disease have stagnated. July saw an increase in deaths through the county attributed to the disease.

Cases among young kids have fallen since school let out for the summer, instead Cibola saw an increase in cases among the 40-year-old population.

COVID-19 in July

At least one in three Cibola County residents has contracted COVID-19. The US Centers for Disease Control have said that community spread in Cibola is high and that residents should take precautions like mask wearing and social distancing.

The county currently has a test positivity rate of 24 percent – the percentage of COVID-19 test that are coming back positive – meaning that one in five COVID-19 tests are coming back positive. This data only includes tests which have been officially reported, there is no way to track how many tests are actually showing positive results due to the popularity of home tests and no easy way to report COVID-19 positives.

Vaccinations

Receiving the COVID-19 vaccination is a surefire way to reduce the risk of catching the disease, and weakens the affect of cases that breakthrough the immunity of the vaccination. In the month of July, vaccinations in Cibola County stagnated, this could be due to a lag in data reporting from the New Mexico Department of Health. The first second and third week of July saw no change in COVID-19 vaccination data, fully vaccinated numbers remained at 16,350 until July 25 when the number increased to 16,421, and has once again stagnated, remaining the same in August.

Consult a physician or visit a local pharmacy to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination.

Deaths in July

Cibola County passed 200 deaths from COVID-19 in July, a month which saw four deaths attributed to the disease. July doubled the number of deaths due to COVID-19 that occurred in June, but still came in below the month of May which had five deaths attributed to the disease.

Receiving a COVID-19 vaccination greatly reduces the risk of dying from an infection of this disease. COVID-19 by Age

The 40-49-year-old age group saw the greatest increase of COVID-19 cases in July, seeing an increase of 48 cases over the month.

The 50-59-year-old demographic added 44 new cases of the disease, for a total of 1133 cases since March of 2020.

The 20-29-year-old group had the third highest increase of COVID-19 cases, adding 41 new cases over the month.

The 90+ demographic did not increase COVID-19 cases in July.

The 80-89-year-old group added only six cases in the month of July.

The 70-79-year-old demographic added 24 cases. Age groups 70-90+ only added 30 cases cumulatively this month.

Data Disparities

There were a number of data disparities through the month of July. The Cibola Citizen gathers information about Cibola County’s COVID-19 situation from a wide variety of US Government operated health sites and the NMDOH.

Vaccination Numbers

The State of New Mexico carries data about vaccinations in and infections across the state, and reported that Cibola County ended June with 16,421 fully vaccinated residents, then on the first week of July, that number dropped to 16,350.

Similarly, the number of residents with only one COVID-19 vaccination went from 19,803 at the end of June to 19,589 in July.

The state has offered no explanation to this wild swing in data.

Positive Infections

The true number of COVID-19 infections in Cibola County at any given time will likely never be accurate. The rise of at-home COVID-19 tests has eliminated the need to go through an official testing facility that can properly record a positive test result.

COVID-19 data on positive infections is also inaccurate, the official NMDOH tracker shows 8,213 positive cases, but this is sharply lower than the Cibola Citizen’s COVID-Watch Program, which pull the new cases every day and adds them to a total. The COVID-Watch Program shows a total of 9,063 cases, much higher than the state estimate. The state has explained that this number disparity occurs when the state accidentally adds a positive case to the wrong county and they need to adjust, the state does not release an alert for any of their adjustments to the data.