FACT BRIEF

Has New Mexico closed down some grocery stores temporarily as part of its pandemic restrictions?

Saturday, December 5, 2020

By Christopher Hutton

Copy link

Copy featured image

YES

As part of renewed efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the state, New Mexico's health authorities issued a public health order that has resulted in the temporary closure of a dozen grocery stores, including Walmart stores in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

The order requires any business, even if essential, to close for two weeks if four or more coronavirus infections among employees are reported within a two-week period. As of Dec. 4, a number of restaurants, fast-food outlets and other businesses have also been shut down by the order.

Grocery stores are otherwise open, along with other essential businesses. According to the state's orders, a store may not exceed "may not exceed either 25% of maximum occupancy or 75 customers at any one time," whichever is smaller.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Center Square: New Mexico governor shuts down grocery stores put on COVID-19 'watch list' for two weeks

NM Health Department: Next phase of COVID-19 response

NM Environment Department: Current list of 'rapid response' store closures

AP: Some New Mexico essential business close due to virus spike

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF BY

Latest fact briefs

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.