New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has extended to Thursday the closure of all roads to nonessential traffic in Gallup, one of the largest communities bordering the Navajo Nation near the Arizona state line.
Gallup has seen a surge in Coronavirus cases and already had seen a lockdown over the weekend enforced by the New Mexico National Guard and local authorities.
Lujan Grisham’s extension of the order, which was issued Sunday, also required that businesses in Gallup close from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. in the city of about 20,000 people along Interstate 40, which remained open to through traffic.
Gallup Mayor Louis Bonaguidi asked the governor to extend the order, which Lujan Grisham first issued on Friday. “Only through the extension of the invocation of your authority under the Riot Control Act can our community impose the measures necessary to stem transmission of COVID-19,” Bonaguidi wrote to the governor.
Also on Sunday, health officials reported 12 more coronavirus-related deaths in New Mexico, pushing the state total to 152. They also said New Mexico had 118 new positive COVID-19 tests since Saturday’s numbers were announcing, increasing the state total to 3,850 cases. Due to a technical lapse, reporting results from some labs to the state Department of Health were delayed Sunday.
