Eddy County experienced the largest accumulation of COVID-19 cases in line with Thursday since the pandemic first arrived in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.
Thirty-two new instances of COVID-19 increased the number of inflamed from 513 to 545.
Construction meant that Eddy County remained a “red” county, one of five counties that were still eligible to bring students back into the classroom.
Lea, Chavez, Quay, Hidalgo, and Roosevelt counties also failed to meet the re-entry criteria, with average instances of 8 or more consistent with 100,000 COVID-19 citizens and a check positivity rate of 5% or more.
Carlsbad Public Schools reported their first case of COVID-19 on July 1, according to state immediate reaction data, on August 31 at Ocotillo Elementary School and a time on September 1.
Artesia Public Schools reported its first case on August 6, a time on August 8, two on August 10 at Artesia High School and Central Elementary, two others were reported on August 27, one on August 28 at Grand Heights Elementary and one at Yucca Elementary on August 31 Yucca Elementary School reported the case on September 2.
In a Sept. 3 webcast, New Mexico Secretary of Public Education Ryan Stewart said the state remains committed to bringing students back to school, as most public school districts in all of the state have received permission to begin hybrid learning.
MORE: Educators in southeastern New Mexico are ‘frustrated’ as in-person categories still wait in the middle of COVID-19
The Department of Public Education (PED) closed public schools in March and asked school districts to adopt distance learning by the start of the 2020-2021 school year with the promise that academics would return to some form of learning if infection rates could simply be reduced.
Health Secretary David Scrase said red county communities continue to adhere to COVID’s protective practices: wearing hats, holding small meetings, washing hands, and quarantined if required, to help drive a return to general school activities.
“What we need is to green counties and keep schools open,” Scrase said in the webcast.
“Wearing masks, six-foot social distance, washing hands, and diligently respecting public fitness, all of these things will take counties to green. “
Not all green county districts have reintegrated academics into study rooms or hybrid models, Stewart said, because the PED does not impose a return to the study rooms, but it provides districts with the means to make that resolution locally.
“We were getting ahead of the time when we could go back to school,” Stewart said.
“We adopt a highly planned technique for this because we don’t need to be in a scenario where we are witnessing primary epidemics, where we see scenarios in other states. “
In an effort to prepare for any situation, Stewart said the DEP had trained more than 500 COVID-19 safe practice education officers, instituted instance reports in districts through its website, created an immediate reaction protocol, and described closure scenarios on the occasion. of a school.
For the districts that are reopening, Stewart said the PED would institute site visits in an effort to ensure practices in public schools.
“Broadband infrastructure is a huge challenge for the state,” Stewart said.
Although PED distributed $40 million to school districts to help fill gaps in the InternetArray and invested in Chromebooks, wireless networks, and issues across the state, students and parents continued to report issues.
“We also work with the CARES cash that the federal government gave us and the maximum of that cash goes to the district,” he said.
Stewart said the branch that runs with the districts “to close the virtual gap. “
“We won’t be able to solve those demanding broadband situations overnight, but we know we’re going to put every resource imaginable into this effort,” Stewart said.
Jessica Onsurez can be contacted jonsurez@currentargus. com, @JussGREAT on Twitter at 575-628-5531.
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