Highlands denies fault for spike in San Miguel County virus cases

Sep. 2—The dramatic uptick in coronavirus cases in San Miguel County in recent weeks has nothing to do with a coronavirus outbreak within the New Mexico Highlands University football team, according to the school's athletic director.

In addressing accusations he had heard around Las Vegas, N.M., that his department was at least partially responsible for record numbers of positive cases in the county since mid-August, Highlands athletic director Andrew Ehling said Wednesday that it's merely coincidental that the elevated case counts happen to correlate with the issues with the Cowboys' athletic teams.

"We're well aware that we're getting blamed for this but we've done everything that we're supposed to, and that includes regular testing," Ehling said. "It's just a coincidence that the county's cases came up at the same time ours did. It's not like our football players are out wandering around town getting people sick."

Ehling did not give an exact number on how many people in the Highlands athletic department had contracted COVID-19 since early August, but did say the figure was "30-plus," saying that the vast majority of them were part of the football team.

State health officials agreed that the county's surge couldn't be pinned solely on the university's spate of cases.

"Essentially, San Miguel County has a high level of community transmission, just like we are seeing across the state," state Department of Health spokesman David Morgan wrote in an email. "People are getting exposed and infected from multiple different possible settings, scenarios."

San Miguel reported 313 cases in the last two weeks of August, a high number for a county with a population of about 28,000, Morgan wrote.

That's 77 percent more cases than were tallied Aug. 10-23, with the virus hitting all age groups, and 85 percent of those infected living in Las Vegas, he wrote.

The surge is happening despite the county having a solid vaccination rate, with 64 percent of residents completing their series of shots.

The women's soccer team had its own outbreak in August. Ehling said all Highlands athletes and staff have followed COVID-19 protocols, and most have been cleared to return to normal activity.

As of Wednesday, he said, there were six unidentified personnel still in COVID-19 protocol. He did not specify if those individuals were student-athletes or support staff.

Highlands football coach Josh Kirkland said the only players not available for Saturday's season opener at Fort Lewis are those with football-related injuries.

"This entire thing has been blown out of proportion, if we're being frank," Ehling said.

San Miguel County has seen a surge of nearly 500 new cases in the last month, 157 of which were reported Monday and Tuesday. The county has reported 384 cases since Aug. 16.

Kirkland said the majority of Highlands' football players — roughly 70 in all — reported to campus in July to begin offseason conditioning drills in preparation for the start of practice the first week of August. Whether any of those athletes were sick when they arrived in Las Vegas or contracted COVID-19 after they showed up is unclear. What is clear is that the first sizable jump in cases came on the same day that fall semester in-person learning began Aug. 16 at Highlands. Twenty-five cases were reported in San Miguel County that day. Ehling said the football team was removed en masse from in-person learning after the first day. The team went into a mandatory seven-day quarantine, followed by four more days of limited team activity, then another six days of conditioning without helmets and pads.

"We lost 12 or 13 days of real practice time during all of that," Kirkland said. "In football, you don't ever get a chance to get those days back; they're gone if you don't use them. That's 12 or 13 days of preparation for a team that just lost an entire year because of COVID."

Ehling called the outbreak "isolated" and "contained," saying all athletes and staff were tested three times as recently as last week. All came back negative, he said. "We're in good shape now," Ehling said. "The narrative that this was out of control and we were responsible for all this is not accurate."

Ehling said 65 percent of the Highlands football team is fully vaccinated with another 26 percent having received at least one shot. He said most of the team will be fully vaccinated by mid-September. NMHU requires its students and staff to be vaccinated to attend classes.

There are a few players, Ehling said, who are seeking a waiver from the NCAA to avoid the vaccine, citing religious or medical concerns to justify not getting the shot. Those who remain unvaccinated must wear face coverings and subject themselves to regular testing.

NCAA guidelines say teams no longer have to test if they reach an 85 percent vaccination rate.

"Regardless of what our final number is, we will continue to test," Ehling said. "The other side of this that people need to see is this: We are getting our people vaccinated. It won't be everyone but it will be most of them."

New Mexican reporter Scott Wyland contributed to this story.