Scrase: Elderly, health workers will take priority for COVID-19 vaccine

Santa Fe New Mexican, The (NM)

May 28--New Mexico Human Services Secretary David Scrase said Wednesday that if a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available and the state is able to distribute it, officials likely would give priority to vulnerable people and certain essential workers.

People who are elderly or have physical conditions that make them more vulnerable to the disease would probably get the vaccine first, as would health care workers and first responders, Scrase said during a live webcast Wednesday with state House Speaker Brian Egolf.

"If we do have supplies that the state administers, it would be a risk-benefit-based priority system, where the most vulnerable people and probably first responders and health care workers would be closer to the front of the line," Scrase said.

The Cabinet secretary, who has been at the forefront of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's pandemic response, noted the state does not yet have a protocol in place for distributing a COVID-19 vaccine. Other vaccines are typically distributed through doctors or at hospitals, he added.

But he said it would be important for the elderly to get vaccines right away because the COVID-19 mortality rate is more than 20 percent for people over 80.

The Trump administration has organized an effort called Operation Warp Speed that is drawing on pharmaceutical companies and government agencies in an attempt to reduce the amount of time it takes to develop a vaccine.

The administration has said it aims to have 300 million doses of a vaccine in stock by January, although infectious disease experts have said the timeline is unlikely.

New Mexico's effective rate of transmission of COVID-19 has continued to fall, Scrase said on the webcast. That rate was at 1.3 in early April and is now at 1.09, he said, which means the spread of the illness is slowing.

"So, we're doing well there," he said.

Last week, the state had reported the rate had dropped below the state's target of 1.15 for the first time.

If the rate of spread is above 1, the disease is continuing to spread, while it is considered to be receding if the number drops below that level.

There are 92 intensive care beds being used in the state. Officials have said previously their target is to remain under 460 such beds in use.

Scrase said cellphone motion data shows New Mexicans are moving around more than during the height of the outbreak in April, when mobility had dropped 50 percent to 60 percent.

But mobility is still down 20 percent from prepandemic levels, he said.

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