Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham opened the press conference on Thursday January 14, 2021 with the case update. At this time the case counts are rising. "I don't want to see the case counts going up, but the test positivity rate is not," Grisham said. She said both need to be low to help the gating criteria.

"This is a deadly, highly contagious virus," Grisham said. "We have to keep doing the work to prevent the spread of this virus."

Grisham also shared the updated county red-to-green information. Most of the state is still red, and she said this may be disappointing to most New Mexicans. "We're trying to manage the virus, and introduce risk," Grisham said. "The vast majority of the state is red but eleven counties have positivity rates below 10." Many of those counties previously had positivity rates above 20 during the holiday season. "This is an incredible factor, and it is trending in the right direction."

"When we crush this virus we will be in the yellow and green," Grisham said. "Then we will be able to introduce more risk." Grisham said it will take the effort of every New Mexican to mitigate the spread of the virus, which includes getting tested. Testing helps determine where outbreaks are and helps people quarantine so they expose as few people as possible.

Next, Secretary-Designate Dr. Tracie Collins gave the vaccine update. 153,475 doses have been delivered to New Mexico, and 100,601 administered. "New Mexico has one of the highest administration rates in the country," Collins said. "I'd like to remind you to utilize the vaccine registration website." She said half a million New Mexicans have already registered in the past three weeks. Questions asked by the registration website include employment and health information. The site is secure and the data is only shared with the state and the providers.

"Due to the limited supply, we will adhere to the sequential approach," Collins said. The state is currently in the first part of phase 1B, those 75 years of age and over. The vaccine is still available to those in phase 1A.

Collins reminds New Mexicans to continue practicing COVID-safe behaviors - even after receiving the vaccine. "It keeps you from infection, but we don't know how well it prevents transmission." She also addressed the B117 variant. "The original virus was B1. There have been several variants," she said. "B117 is linked to cases in the UK." She said the B117 variant case here in New Mexico was likely due to international travel and the family is quarantining.

Dr. David Scrase of the Human Services Department spoke about the epidemiological information available at this point, beginning with the antibody treatments available. "There are a couple of antibody treatments," he said. "It can take your body a week to learn and produce antibodies, but with an infusion [of an antibody treatment] you get them early in the disease." He said you don't need to be hospitalized in order to receive antibody treatment, and the only requirements are being over the age of 12 and having a risk factor. "About 60% of New Mexicans have at least one risk factor," Scrase said.

"If you do get a positive COVID testing you do have symptoms, consider this treatment," he said. "It reduces hospitalization by over 70%." Remdesivir is the treatment in this category that is administered at Gila Regional Medical Center.

When it comes to the epidemiological curve, there was a huge spike in November that came down after Thanksgiving. "After the winter holidays we are seeing a sharp uptick that is not slowing down," Scrase said. Hospitals are at capacity and are also reporting staff shortages. "That's even more of a reason to keep up with COVID-safe behaviors."

"We still need to stay vigilant after getting the vaccine. It will take a while to generate herd immunity," Scrase said.

"We absolutely can see the light at the end of this very long, dark tunnel," Grisham said. "It's there. I can see it, and it's brighter and clearer every day." Grisham said she is enthusiastic about the number of New Mexicans that are interested in being vaccinated and are registered at the website.

The vaccine registration website can be found here and the hotline is accessible at 1-855-600-3453.