Navajo infections surge as Trump prepares to visit southwest
Santa Fe, N.M. • U.S. health officials say coronavirus infections are beginning a renewed surge across the Navajo Nation and bordering areas that may peak in mid-May — a sign that the worst has yet to come in one of the nation’s hardest-hit rural areas. In a press briefing Thursday, officials with Indian Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described efforts to containing the virus on remote stretches of the Navajo Nation. A widespread lack of indoor plumbing and crowded housing conditions are interfering with efforts at social distancing and isolation, despite local curfews and humanitarian aid deliveries, they said. A COVID-19 outbreak at a detox facility was highlighted as a major factor behind surging infections in the city of Gallup and surrounding McKinley County that overlaps indigenous Zuni Pueblo and portions of the Navajo Nation. “We anticipate that we have begun our surge,” said Loretta Christensen, chief medical officer for the Indian Healt...