By Ike Swetlitz, Searchlight New Mexico |
January 29, 2021
Michael Benanav/Searchlight New Mexico
January 22, 2021 - Lina, a caregiver impacted by missed payments from the state, receives a call from her landlord about her overdue rent.
ALBUQUERQUE Nearly every day for the past ten months, Lina, 23, has worked as a personal care assistant for Lisa Langrehr, a 60-year-old woman who is paralyzed on her right side. It’s been a full-time job for Lina from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, seven days a week, she’s helped Langrehr take showers, accompanied her to and from medical appointments, paid the bills, done the laundry, walked Blacky the dachshund, and cooked meatloaf and enchiladas.
Transcript
Unger: Hello, this is the American Medical Association s COVID-19 update. Today, we re addressing how one state is successfully approaching vaccine allocation and distribution. I m joined today by Dr. Tracy Collins, the New Mexico s health secretary. Dr. Collins joined the governor s cabinet from the College of Population Health at the University of New Mexico, where she served as dean. She assumed her new role in mid-December and is responsible for New Mexico s COVID-19 vaccination program. She s calling in from Albuquerque. And Dr. David Scrace is the New Mexico Human Services Department cabinet secretary. Dr. Scrace has been the governor s right-hand person since the pandemic began. And he s calling in from Santa Fe, New Mexico. I m Todd Unger, AMA s chief experience officer in Chicago.
Use of local hospital beds for confirmed COVID-19 patients increased by a total of 28 for the seven-day period of Jan. 15 to Jan. 21. For that time period, Eastern New Mexico Medical Center and Lovelace Regional Hospital had a total of 188 beds used for COVID-19 patients in both in-patient and ICU settings. The […]