ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The City of Albuquerque says 72 of the new coronavirus cases in Bernalillo County come from the westside emergency homeless shelter. The shelter now has a total of 93 confirmed cases which is up from the 17 cases initially reported on Thursday.
The City says the shelter has performed 231 COVID tests since pinpointing the first case there through entry screening, then tracking down others through contact tracing. “This is definitely a huge concern. We’ve known since the very beginning that folks living in this kind of close quarters and congregate settings, whether it’s the prison system or the shelter or nursing homes, these are the people that are the most at risk,” said Mark DiMenna with Environmental Health Department.
Eleven of the positive cases are shelter employees. The shelter is currently not taking in any new people as crews deep clean the building and shuttles and while everyone who tested positive is in isolation.
