Today was a busy day in Rio Arriba County. Despite great leadership by Governor Lujan Grisham, New Mexico has seen a rapid jump in new Covid cases in the past two days with 71 yesterday, and 124 today. Many of these are appearing in the northwest quadrant of our state which is home to the Navajo Nation and several Pueblos. We are not sure why the illness seems to be ripping so rapidly through some of our Native American Communities.
The County Economic Development Director, Christopher Madrid, helped us to purchase a nursing home that had gone out of business last year, and the beds were still in the facility. We disbursed them between three hospitals to prepare for an expected surge. We gave 34 to Presbyterian Española Hospital, increasing their capacity for ICU beds with ventilators from two to eighteen. We also gave beds to Taos Holy Cross and to the more distant Rehoboth McKinley Medical Center in Gallup, which serves the Navajo Nation and western Pueblos.
And our Rosie the Respirators got crackin’!
By tomorrow, New Mexico’s halcyon days as a light pink state in a sea of dark pink and deep rose will likely come to an end. By the end of the day, we had jumped suddenly to 989 cases.
When I called Rehoboth McKinley hospital to offer them our spare beds, they told me that the virus had begun to ravage their homeless population. They were happily astonished by the offer.
The beds are the old hand crank models but nobody seems to mind.
At this point, we are all making do with what we can find. We are functioning like a Home Ec class on acid.
I now have two 3-D makers, Steve Cox and Ryan Proctor, working with my Rosies. Steve is making face shields . Ryan is making N-95 masks. Ryan, who was introduced to me by County Commissioner Leo Jaramillo, even went out and purchased two new printers so he could produce a higher volume. Neither are charging. They are both printing full-steam ahead in an effort to supply our under-stocked health care facilities. We received a donation of medical grade material for masks from Cristus St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe via a fellow home sweat shop operator, Robin Thomson Carillo Ortiz, and were given the blessing by Cristus to begin sewing for communities north of Santa Fe. The sewn and printed N-95s will all go to health care providers. We will start with clinics and hospitals in Rio Arriba County and then prioritize beyond our borders based on the intensity of the epidemic.
We are also making hand-sewn cloth masks. Because these masks can protect the wearer from spreading the illness but not from catching it, and because you can make your own mask using only a sock, we are prioritizing individuals who come into contact with large numbers of people everyday such as grocery store and retail workers, first responders, Meals on Wheels drivers, and food workers for mask distribution. This week, we are giving out masks at Espanola’s Center Market, Food King, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Espanola Community Market and SuperSave in Chama. I believe masks were also given to the supermarket in Pojoaque just south of Española.
Most of the Supermarkets we contacted were ecstatic. At Lowe’s they invited us into a staff meeting. They all looked worried until they realized we weren’t scammers asking for money. We were just giving them masks. They were extremely happy we reached out to them!
Only WalMart has rejected the help. Brittany, the HHS staff member I have tasked with coordinating our efforts to collect and distribute supplies and masks, tried to call them multiple times. Every time she called, they told her they were in a meeting and would call back later. The last time I was in WalMart, I was informed by an employee that management wouldn’t allow them to buy cleaning supplies, masks or gloves and wouldn’t dispense them. I reported them to the New Mexico State Police and Department of Health as well as to every newspaper that would listen. In my opinion, Walmart should be giving every worker a small supply of bleach, gloves and masks, and requiring them to wear them. One worker probably comes into contact with at least 300 people a day, even in a small town like ours. Imagine what would happen if they contracted the virus but did not have symptoms. Talk about vectors!
Tomorrow I will be meeting with a few people in my community about assisting the homeless. I intend to propose opening one of our city parks to them and placing tents at safe distances from one another with 24/7 security. It is my hope that we will then be able to bus in hot meals from the soup kitchen and possibly to arrange telehealth appointments with suboxone providers where needed. If we can’t use a park, I will aim for a parking lot.
Yesterday, the Espanola Fire Department pulled its trucks into the parking lot of Presbyterian Espanola Hospital and ran their lights to thank our health care workers. People in our town have been putting their Christmas lights back up. We’re too far apart to be heard, but we hope our lights will say “thank you” for us!