Special Report

These Are the Counties in the Albuquerque, NM Metro Area With the Most COVID-19

Samuel Stebbins

Published: December 7, 2021 2:30 am

Despite the ongoing vaccination effort, new daily cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise once again in parts of the United States. To date, there have been 48,413,300 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 119,047 COVID-19 cases have been reported to date. Adjusted for population, there have been 13,082 reported infections for every 100,000 people in the area — below the national rate of 14,798 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 at 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 10,843 infections in Valencia County, or 14,275 for every 100,000 people.

Not only does Valencia County have the most COVID-19 infections per capita in the Albuquerque area, it also has more deaths attributable to the virus per capita than the metro area as a whole. There have been a total of 220 coronavirus deaths for every 100,000 people in Valencia County, compared to 183 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 across the entire Albuquerque metro area.

All COVID-19 data used in this story are current as of Dec. 3, 2021.

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