SANTA FE, NM - Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced the state is on track to see restaurants, salons, gyms, malls and other services reopen in some capacity June 1st.
The Governor mentioned neighboring states like Texas that are reopening, while communities such as El Paso continue to see cases increase.
"Just because another state is reopening faster, it's not an indication that faster is better," said Lujan Grisham. "Like, for example, now, they're treating El Paso differently in Texas in terms of its reopening because they've got a containment issue; and if we aren't careful and we aren't clear that people move between communities, we spread risk not just to Dona Ana County, but you spread risk to every other county in New Mexico."
The Republican Party of New Mexico, which has taken legal action against the Governor's orders, released a statement following Lujan Grisham's remarks. Chairman Steve Pearce said "The continued shutdown is killing livelihoods while other businesses are partially opened and national chains take in New Mexico dollars. This is unjust and unfair."
Governor Lujan Grisham stressed the gating criteria set by the White House which requires a 2 week period of declining cases for reopening, which she said no state has met. She said increased testing would be critical in order to move forward and though there is now a shortage of swabs to conduct the tests, over 4,400 New Mexicans are being tested daily. A total of 147,344 tests have been conducted. There were 7 new deaths announced Wendesday. 206 people are hospitalized in the state and 58 of those are on ventilators.