News Flash

OBJECTIVE: To streamline communication between local government agencies during the COVID-19 response. Partner organizations include city and county representatives, local hospitals, the Department of Health, jail and prison facilities, first responders, the Las Cruces Public School district, the Town of Mesilla, City of Anthony, City of Sunland Park and Village of Hatch. JIC members collaborate on a weekly conference call at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays. The notes compiled during that call are made available at www.las-cruces.organd www.donaanacounty.org. 

Regional updates:
City of Anthony
Chief Vanessa Ordoñez

Anthony Police Dept.
Oscar Dominguez,
City Manager
No report.
Nothing new to report.

www.cityofanthonynm.com
City of Sunland Park Capt. Dennis Schoen
Sunland Park Fire
www.sunlandpark-nm.gov

No report.
City of Las Cruces
Jennifer Martinez
Steve Ramirez
www.las-cruces.org
Nothing New

Las Cruces Police / Las Cruces Fire
Dan Trujillo
www.las-cruces.org
Nothing new to report.

Las Cruces Public Schools
Samantha Lewis
Kelly Jameson
www.lcps.net
Today is the 1st day back for students. Working on COVID-19 screening for staff and students.

Doña Ana County
Catherine Zaharko
Luce Rubio
Jamie Michael
www.donaanacounty.org
Government Center remains closed to the public due to COVID-19. 

Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office
www.goDASO.org
No report.

Doña Ana County Detention Center
Capt. Bryan Baker
www.donaanacounty.org/detention
No report.

Village of Hatch
The Village of Hatch conducted a testing site last Saturday with DOH.  Low turnout.

Chief Tim Thornton, Hatch PD
www.villageofhatch.org

Town of Mesilla
Dorothy Sellers
www.mesillanm.gov
Nothing new to report.

Memorial Medical Center
Ryan Perkins
www.mmclc.org
Friday will be the last day for the test and go testing site at MMC.  MMC will communicate to the public that they will no longer be testing.

MountainView Regional Medical Center
Ben Woods
www.mountainviewregional.com
Nothing new to report.

New Mexico State University
Justin Bannister
www.nmsu.edu
Out of state students arrived and quarantined for 14 days.  
In state students are arriving.  Masks are required on campus.  NMSU will be helping with COVID-19 testing.  
More to come.  

•We’re moving into the final stretch of our preparations for the start of classes next week. We hope you are ready to teach, learn, work or research, whether you are on campus, remote, or some of both.Today on our Las Cruces campus, installation began for our new vending machines, which will contain hand sanitizer, latex gloves, reusable and disposable masks, safety glasses, disinfectant wipes and other items. These supplies are offered without charge to NMSU employees through Aggie ID, and paid for by CARES Act funding through a central index. In addition to reusable masks purchased for and distributed to students at no cost by ASNMSU, 

Housing & Residential Life, Aggie Stampede, and other organizations and departments, reusable masks will also be available for purchase by students at select vending machines in Corbett Center Student Union.We’re expecting the vending machines to be operational later this week.By now, I certainly hope all of our faculty and staff have read and re-read our NMSU Ready plan and completed our Return to Campus Training. Supervisors, please be sure that your teams are familiar with the individual plans created for your unit, and that everyone understands the procedures that are in place for reporting a positive COVID-19 test, replenishing cleaning supplies for classrooms, and other situations that may arise.Supervisors, if you have questions or need more information, this month’s Lunch & Learn topic is “AreYOU Ready? NMSU at Your Service,” and offersan extended conversation to discuss what you need to know to be ready for fall and return to campus. Leaders from Facilities & Services, Environmental Health Safety & Risk Management, Aggie Health &Wellness Center, and Information & Communication Technologies will review parts of our NMSU Ready plan, provide resources, and be available to answer your questions. The session is from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 12, and you can register at https://bit.ly/LunchAndLearn08122020.

I want to thank our faculty who participated in the first faculty Q&A session yesterday, led by faculty who make up our various Rapid Response tiger teams. Another session is planned for Monday, Aug. 17, at 3 p.m., to continue the conversation, and you can find the Zoom link and submit your questions ahead of time at provost.nmsu.edu/faculty-qa. I hope you’ll join in to learn more about the topics most pressing for faculty and to hear answers to your questions.Self-check and self-report tool onlineAs a reminder, each member of our NMSU community needs to screen their health for COVID-19 symptoms daily. We developed an online self-check and self-reporting portal, available on the homepageand the ready.nmsu.edusite, to help with screening and contact tracing. Students, faculty,staff and visitors are encouraged to perform a daily self-check and register locations visited on all of our campuses to help Aggie Health & Wellness and other campus contact tracers to identify additional potential contacts.#NMSUReady plan updates for Aug. 11Here’s a summary of the updates we made to the NMSU Ready plan this week. There’s also a table on page 4 of the plan PDF that tracks previous changes and additions. (Page numbers refer to the downloadable PDF.)

Expanded the section on travel guidelines to include more details and resource links (p. 8 | Travel)•Added information about an online self-check and self-reporting portalnow available (p. 12 | Using Data)•Updated points of contact for reporting COVID-19 at community college campuses (pp. 13 & 25 | Using Data& Reporting)•Clarified how to report issues with classroom configuration or supplies to Facilities & Services (p. 16 | Classroom Spaces)•Added information about the Dining Sanitation Team and its work to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 (p. 21 | Dining)•Added details about daily cleaning protocols undertaken by F&S custodial teams (p. 22 | Cleaning for Prevention)•Clarified that any student must report a positive test to Aggie Health and Wellness Center immediately. (p. 25 | Reporting)•Added the expectation that vendors and contractors visiting campus must complete a visitor commitment form for vendors (p. 26 | Visitors)An important part of our success as we bring students back to our campuses this fall relies on the personal responsibility of our students, faculty, staff and visitors. It’s up to each and every oneof us to help keep ourselves, our fellow Aggies, and the surrounding communities in which we live and work as safe as we can. I’m asking you, as faculty and staff, to model this behavior for our students, and 

• Las Cruces-Public Health Office
  Sunland Park-Public Health Office