Special Report

COVID-19: This is the Most Dangerous County in the Albuquerque, NM Metro Area

Samuel Stebbins

Published: April 9, 2021 3:30 am

Though vaccine distribution is well underway across the United States, the novel coronavirus continues to spread through the population. To date, there have been 30,475,900 reported cases of the virus nationwide — and that number is growing every day.

In the Albuquerque metropolitan area, located in New Mexico, a total of 73,662 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 8,095 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 9,315 cases per 100,000 people.

Even though Albuquerque has fewer COVID-19 infections per capita than the national average, there are parts of the metro area that appear to be higher risk than others.

The broader Albuquerque metro area comprises four counties or county equivalents, which can include independent cities — and of them, Valencia County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita. So far, there have been a total of 6,452 infections in Valencia County, or 8,494 for every 100,000 people.

A relatively high infection rate does not necessarily mean COVID-19 related fatalities per capita are higher in Valencia County than they are across all of the Albuquerque area, however. There have been a total of 136 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Valencia County, in line with 136 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Albuquerque metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of April 7, 2021.

These are all the counties in New Mexico where COVID-19 is slowing (and where it’s still getting worse).