Powerhouse twins of vaccination and boosters derail alarming trend
SANTA FE: The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) has recently identified COVID-19 as the third leading cause of death for New Mexicans in 2020, outpaced only by fatalities attributed to cancer and heart disease. This finding echoes the national trend announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this week, which attributed an overall drop in life expectancy by nearly two years to COVID-19, the largest single-year decline since World War II.
In 2020, there were 2,847 deaths reported in New Mexico where COVID-19 was the leading cause, with record-breaking hospitalizations compounding the toll on exhausted staff throughout the state tasked with administering critical care amidst a shortage of resources.
The devastation ran deepest for racial and ethnic minorities, whose numbers of COVID-19-related severe illness and death were significantly higher.
The age-adjusted death rate for COVID-19 among American Indian or Alaska Natives in New Mexico was 9 times higher than the rate for Whites (457.6 per 100,000 vs. 49.9 per 100,000). The second-highest group at risk were Hispanics - who had an age-adjusted death rate that was 2.4 higher (120.9 per 100,000) compared to Whites.
Despite the surging Omicron variant, death rates associated with COVID-19 have plummeted, thanks to statewide vaccination efforts that have resulted in more than 90% of New Mexicans having received at least one shot.
Staying up to date on vaccination and boosters continues to be our most effective tool to prevent severe illness and death from COVID-19, along with social distancing, proper mask wearing, and following updated isolation and quarantine protocols.
The COVID-19 vaccine is free, does not require identification nor insurance, and is among the safest vaccines in history. Book yours today at vaccinenm.org.
To query all death data from 2020 in NM, please visit our data query site:
https://ibis.health.state.nm.us/query/selection/mort/_MortSelection.html