‘We just want to see if we can make a difference’ (Gallup, NM city lockdown update)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | May 4, 2020 | Elise Kaplan And Theresa Davis

[CedarDave]

GALLUP – Around 3 p.m. Monday, the mayor of Gallup received a call from a bank manager saying an armored truck delivering money to the branch was stopped at the checkpoint outside of town and couldn’t get in.

Another call had come in that morning from a woman who wanted to check on her 80-year-old father and was hysterical at being told she couldn’t cross the city limits.

Since the Governor’s Office ordered a lockdown of Gallup on Friday, Mayor Louis Bonaguidi said his office phone has been ringing off the hook with questions from residents and logistics as they determine what vehicles are essential and should be allowed in.

But for the most part, he said, the calls and emails he and his staff have received have been from people who approve of the drastic measure to stem the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

“It’s a start,” said Bonaguidi in an interview Monday afternoon. “… We just want to see if we can make a difference.”

As of Monday, McKinley County had 1,233 reported cases of COVID-19. That’s 289 more cases than in Bernalillo County, which has nine times its population, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Bonaguidi said the purpose of the lockdown is twofold – to protect the city’s residents from outsiders bringing the virus in as they do their shopping or stop off to gas up or eat on their travels and to protect outsiders from contracting the disease in Gallup and spreading it further.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office has extended the order through Thursday at noon, although Bonaguidi says it’s possible it will have to continue.

[CedarDave]

At the first weekend of each month, when tribal members are paid (government checks?), an estimated 30,000 to 65,000 come to Gallup for supplies and in many cases water (to fill tanks in the back of pickups as remote hogans have no piped water). The NMDOT has set up water stations at two checkpoints north and south of town and the tribe has provided supplies at chapter houses in various locations. Also they have encouraged shopping at on-reservation stores.

The expected weekend influx of tribal members is what prompted the Gallup mayor and other city/county/state officials to request the lockdown.

On Monday, the NM Health Dept. announced 136 of New Mexico’s 186 additional coronavirus cases were from McKinley and San Juan counties. The two counties combined have 2,014 cases, about half of New Mexico’s total of 4,031.

Twenty-one people in McKinley County have died from COVID-19, and neighboring San Juan County has reported 57 deaths. The 78 COVID-19 deaths in the two counties account for half of New Mexico’s 156 deaths from the disease.

Both counties include parts of the Navajo Nation. Although Native Americans represent 11% of the state’s population they make up about 55% of the state’s coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, the rest of the state outside the Rio Grande corridor and in Sandoval, Cibola, Mckinley and San Juan counties (when most pueblo and Navajo Native Americans reside) have two dozen or less cases of the virus.

[hal ogen]

Those anti-Indian racists!

[CedarDave]

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[gibsonguy]

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is a Trump hating idiot.

[\/\/ayne]

If I had a million dollars I’d hire a few doctors and nurses; take them and a truckload of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and zpacks to Gallup, NM.

[CedarDave]

Leland Barger and his stepdaughter fill up several water tanks in Thoreau on Monday to take to his father-in-law, who lives near Bluewater Lake. Barger said he normally would be doing his shopping in Gallup but has been going to Grants instead. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

[CedarDave]

As I’ve said earlier on other threads, I’ll give the Gov a pass on the Gallup situation, but as typical for Dems, she’s badly over reaching with continuing the strict business and travel restrictions in counties outside the areas where the virus is concentrated.

[DuncanWaring]

Is it allowable to get off of I-40 at any of the truck stops for fuel?

[crz]

They got cement barriers on the access roads to the Hualapai and Havasupai reservations on Rt 66-at Peach Springs, etc. The Navajo rez the same I understand. They all got it bad.

They are under complete lockdown.

Yet you still see them walking along Rt 66.

[kaktuskid]

I assume Farmington and Cortez are doing big business

[crz]

Better fuel up before you get into the Reservation areas. Once you get over the hill after Albuquerque it gets mostly Reservation till Abt Holbrook AZ.

Although there are Stops outside of the reservations along there, I wouldnt trust them being open.

[Cold Heart]

Thanks for the information on the circumstances in Gallup. I also would give a pass except for one glaring omission.

Any area of lockdown in this country should allow any healthcare provider that can write prescriptions to write Rx for HCQ for the Wuhan flu.

It’s criminal to lock down a medication that has healed more people from Wu Flu than any other drug.

[Amendment10]

My blunt analysis of Gallop is based on probably this and one other Gallop thread that I saw. Corrections welcome.

The lockdown remedy to control virus outbreak is a first-responder decision imo. Although the intent of the lockdown expressed in OP sounds like honest troubleshooting, lockdown MUST be implemented early enough, like PDJT did, to make a difference, or it’s much less effective (worthless?) in my non-medical opinion.

Somebody is getting bad advice. I question basic math / science skills too.

[wildcard_redneck]

“Better fuel up before you get into the Reservation areas. Once you get over the hill after Albuquerque it gets mostly Reservation till Abt Holbrook AZ.

Although there are Stops outside of the reservations along there, I wouldnt trust them being open.”

I drove through the 4 corners area on my way to Denver last summer and it is a whole lot of beautiful nothing out there

[CedarDave]

I drove through the 4 corners area on my way to Denver last summer and it is a whole lot of beautiful nothing out there

So true and though depending on the tribe for assistance, the Navajo families choosing to live in that arid remoteness are the true survivalists.

[crz]

Ya it aint the end of the world, but you can see it from there.

[CedarDave]

BEDONIE explains NAVAJO COVID19 high % spread, living conditions and Freedom
Karen Bedonie, a full time resident of the Navajo Reservation, talks about the high spread of COVID19 among her people and also her support of her state of New Mexico. Bedonie is a candidate for Congress in New Mexico, CD-03.

I highly recommend watching this video. It will answer a lot of questions as to why the Navajo's are more susceptible to this virus than others.

Hat tip to Tammy8.

[CedarDave]

Any area of lockdown in this country should allow any healthcare provider that can write prescriptions to write Rx for HCQ for the Wuhan flu. It’s criminal to lock down a medication that has healed more people from Wu Flu than any other drug.

So true, and most all the healthcare providers are from the USPHS, and follow FDA and Dr. Fauci recommendations that do not include, or include as a last resort, the HCQ+Zpac+zinc protocol.

[shanover]

Why in 2020 are "Native Americans" and their "nations" and "reservations" still a thing? I think most of this goes back to the......"New Deal" for Indians in the 30's!!!!!

Every "deal" American government has made is made out of sh*t.

[DuncanWaring]

I’ve driven that road many dozens of times over the last decade-or-so.

Normally buy gas and get a sandwich at the Love’s at Exit 277 in AZ.