San Juan County faces possibility of falling to more restrictive level of reopening

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- San Juan County is on notice. The county faces the potential of moving from the Turquoise level of reopening to the more restrictive Yellow level.

"Unfortunately, the biggest casualty is gonna be our businesses that are going to be reducing their capacity again right as they get reopened and back with some employees and back in the swing of things it’s just gonna hurt them once again," said Devin Neeley, public relations manager for San Juan County.

San Juan county would be in Yellow if it wasn’t for the new rule that allows all Turquoise counties to stay that way for four weeks.

As of May 19, the county’s test positivity rate is an 8.02%. It’s supposed to be less than or equal to 7.5%.

The case rate is also higher than the state’s goal. However, the county’s vaccination rate is on target.

"Its kind of scary to see that based on our current numbers that we could be going backwards and right now one of the biggest keys for us is the vaccine," Neeley said.

County and health officials hope the lines at the vaccine clinics will get longer, especially now that children 12 to 15 can get vaccinated.

The county has two weeks to improve.