The Las Cruces City Council is calling for equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine for both the city of Las Cruces and the entirety of Doña Ana County.
Council members unanimously passed a resolution urging the New Mexico Department of Health to provide an equal number of COVID-19 vaccines to Doña Ana County. City Policy Analyst Christopher Dunn says Doña Ana’s vaccination rate is approximately 5% less than 19 other counties in New Mexico, despite being the second-most populous county in the state.
“Currently 19 counties have vaccinated, or partially vaccinated, more than 30% of their population, and Doña Ana County has partially vaccinated 25.2% of the population,” Dunn said. “We have been able to fully vaccinate 12.6% of the population…The city of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County are here to distribute vaccines efficiently as well.”
Dunn pointed to the fluctuating reopening status of Doña Ana County, which has continually shifted due to changes in the county’s COVID positivity rate.
“Currently Doña Ana County is in the yellow status of state framework, but we have fluctuated in recent months and weeks between red and yellow status. And this is part of the reason why it's so important to ensure that we have an equitable distribution of vaccines to our region,” Dunn said. “Furthermore, herd immunity can only occur whenever a high percentage of the population is immune to COVID-19 disease, and the lack of control over the pandemic could result in more mutations.”
More than 43,300 Doña Ana County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Councilor Tessa Abeyta-Stuve says the county started receiving an increase in doses at the beginning of March but emphasized that sustained allocation must be ensured.
“We do need to continue to advocate for Doña Ana County to receive these equitable distributions. We did see an increase, about two weeks ago, with the distributions. They were mostly in Moderna and Pfizer,” Abeyta-Stuve said. “And so, with that in mind, that is a two-dose vaccine, so we got around, I believe 12,000. And so that really only is going to help around that 6,000 mark of people, because it is that two-dose, and so we want to make sure that we're asking for those sustained numbers.”
Councilor Johana Bencomo spoke about the importance of securing equal vaccine access for minority populations, who are currently being vaccinated at much lower rates.
“There continues to be a pretty large discrepancy by race in terms of who’s getting vaccinated and who's getting COVID,” Bencomo said. “I noticed that there's a pretty large percentage of Hispanic Latinx folks getting COVID. So, the Hispanic Latinx community is among the lowest who is fully vaccinated, at 11%, and Black New Mexicans, even at a smaller rate.”
The city is working to ensure the resolution is seen by the correct officials at the governor’s office, a request from Councilor Gabe Vasquez. He also advocated for a public briefing on vaccine distribution, suggesting it could be done through a partnership with the New Mexico Department of Health.
“I'd like the sending of this resolution, to be targeted and make sure it's going to the right people in the governor's office,” Vasquez said. “And I would also like to just add a request for a briefing, a public briefing. I think the public and Doña Ana County and Las Cruces really deserve to know what the state strategy is behind the vaccine distribution, and so I might request that they join us for a work session, or that a representative from the Department of Health joins us for a work session, to talk about this in an open meeting with our constituents.”
