Lea County has recorded its first official death due to COVID-19 and possibly a second. The N.M. Department of Health announced on Tuesday a 70-year-old male, who had been hospitalized with underlying conditions had died. Meanwhile on Facebook, a family of the 45-year-old Lovington woman announced she had died due to COVID-19 but that information was not released through the …

Lea County cumulative total added one positive case for COVID-19 on Monday and adding 35 cases on Monday. The county now has a cumulative total of 379 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 8,159 tests. Testing numbers in Lea County increased by 408 people from Saturday through Monday, the latest the state released numbers. There have been …

Wearing his golden honor graduate robe, Devin Adame was the first Hobbs High School graduate to walk through the doorway. You couldn’t see his smile behind the Hobbs Eagles mask he wore, but anyone could see the relief in his eyes. He was the first of the Class of 2020 to walk across the front of Tydings Auditorium’s “stage” Saturday …

Lea County cumulative total added 10 positive tests for COVID-19 on Saturday. The county now has a cumulative total of 343 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 7,692 tests. There have been no deaths due to COVID-19 in Lea County. Nor-Lea reported on Thursday it had no patients in its hospital who are positive for COVID-19. Of …

Lea County cumulative total added 23 positive tests for COVID-19 on Thursday. The county now has a cumulative total of 322 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 7,107 tests. The single biggest age group to be testing positive for COVID-19 in Lea County are those ages 20-29. That age group has 70 cases. The next largest age …

Lea County cumulative total added eight positive tests for COVID-19 on Wednesday. The county now has a cumulative total of 299 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 7,011 tests. Of those 299 cases, the state says 61 have been designated as totally recovered. Of those positive tests, 179 were for the 88240 or Hobbs zip code, 66 …

Casey’s restaurant in Hobbs was cited Wednesday by N.M. State Police for staying open after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered all restaurants to only serve customers outdoors or with carry-out, to-go orders. In the photo, the state police officers, who are not in uniform and are the masked pair in the middle, speak with the owners as well as other …

Dear governor: This letter is in response to your recently amended “Emergency Public Health Order” whereby, among other pronouncements, restaurants would no longer be able to offer indoor dining. As I am sure that you are aware, these orders have not been well received by many citizens in the Southeast rural areas. Public perception is a big part of the …

Lea County cumulative total added six positive tests for COVID-19 on Tuesday. The county now has a cumulative total of 291 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 out of 6,938 tests. Of those 291 cases, the state says 57 have been designated as totally recovered. On Monday, the total recovered stood at 47. Of those positive tests, 177 were …

Lea County cumulative total added 32 positive tests for COVID-19 on Friday, the single biggest jump in positive test since the N.M. Department of Health began tracking test results for Lea County. The 32 cases come after a week of steady increases in positive cases for the county.  On Thursday, Lea County added seven cases. On Wednesday, Lea County added …