The Navajo Nation, which covers parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, has been hit hard by COVID-19. After New York and New Jersey, the Navajo Nation has the highest coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. Unlike those, the Nation is very rural including 27,425 square miles of land. The reservation is about the size of West Virginia. The average population density for the U.S. is approximately 345 persons per square mile. The Navajo Nation has a population density of 6.33 persons per square mile. (NYC has a population density of 26,403 people per square mile.) With a rate of 46 deaths per 100,000 people, the tribal nation has a higher coronavirus death rate than every state in the country except New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
So the issues of transmission of COVID there are much different. Measure taken to mitigate the spread differ from those in other parts of the states. In New Mexico, the reservation occupies some of the northwest part of the state down to Gallup along I-40 running east and west. But of NM's Covid's cases broken down by ethnicity, 55% are Native American, mainly Navajo. McKinley County whose seat is Gallup has the highest number of COVID + cases in the state. McKinley County now accounts for about 30 percent of all cases in NM.
While there are smaller towns on the reservation, residents may also travel to larger border towns - Gallup, Farmington, Flagstaff. Gallup has a population of 22,000 but it's not unusual for 80,000 to descend on the town from rural areas including the Navajo Nation after payday to stock up on supplies and eat out.
So, the mayor of Gallup requested permission from the NM Gov to shut Gallup down invoking the state Riot Control Act. That was granted and all entrances except for residents were blocked by the State Police, and rerouting traffic around the city for the past two weekends. And the mayor's request to extend this past weekend's blockade and lockdown of the city until Thursday was also granted. The order also prohibits residents from leaving their homes except for emergency or essential outings, and allows only two people in vehicles at a time. Gallup is setting up emergency water stations for people to fill up at no charge.
Medical personnel in the area hospitals are praising the lockdown to slow the spread of the virus. Thirty employees of the local hospital have tested positive with half of those from the medical staff. The hospital's eight-bed intensive care unit has been consistently full or nearly full over the past month. About a week ago, the facility started transferring patients with major respiratory problems to Albuquerque. The Army Corps of Engineers has helped set up a converted gymnasium into a recuperation facility with 60 oxygen-supplied beds.
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Governor has announced relaxation of restrictions for the rest of the state except for the three counties in the NW part.
More women than men have tested positive. Of the deaths, men outnumber women by 2-1. Forty-seven percent of all Navajos live on the reservation, ten percent live in those border towns, and another twenty-six percent live in metro areas like Albuquerque, Phoenix and other areas. The Health Departments are doing contact tracing for those positive cases, but the realities are that not everyone has a phone and travel to homes can cover long distances. Many households lack clean, running water, which makes frequent hand-washing difficult. The pandemic there is not expected to plateau in the near future.
