(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — COVID-19 cases in New Mexico are “trending in a worrisome direction,” health officials said this week, as they called on residents to get vaccinated amid the surge.

New Mexico reported 1,530 new cases and 539 hospitalizations Wednesday, rivaling numbers last seen in December and January, during the state’s last COVID-19 wave.

“Things are not going well in our hospitals,” Dr. David Scrase, acting cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, said during a COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, noting the state is “facing some very serious problems,” including with intensive care unit capacity.

“Last week, we had only eight ICU beds, now we’re up to 10 — still nowhere near enough ICU beds,” he said. “What this does mean is someone having a heart attack right now may or may not have access to ICU care in New Mexico, and frankly, as cases start rising again in other states, we may not find a bed there.”

Six hospitals across the state have activated crisis standards of care in recent weeks, including the University of New Mexico Health System’s and Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ Albuquerque metro hospitals, as they are being stretched to the limit in terms of space and staffing due to increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and a high volume of patients with acute conditions, officials said.

The decision means that nonessential medical procedures could be delayed by up to 90 days, and patients may need to get treated at different regional hospitals, or possibly out of state, hospital officials said.

Given the high risk for exposure and rising hospitalizations, New Mexico was one of the first in a growing number of states to urge all fully vaccinated adults to get boosters once they meet the six- or two-month thresholds, ahead of federal authorization.

“I want folks to get their boosters,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during the briefing. “Until we get to that 80, 85, 90% of individuals who are eligible for a booster, we are going to see these risks where we have breakthrough infections.”

Over 21% of fully vaccinated residents have gotten a booster dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials have cited waning immunity among fully vaccinated residents as one of the factors fueling the surge in COVID-19 cases, along with transmission of the highly contagious delta variant, increased tourism to the region and colder weather driving people indoors.

Amid the surge, health officials are also focused on getting shots to people who have yet to get a first dose. Unvaccinated residents remain a major driver of transmission and make up the bulk of hospitalizations, with over 71% of new COVID-19 cases and nearly 80% of hospitalizations reported from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 in unvaccinated people, according to state data.

“Full vaccination is still New Mexico’s first priority,” Dr. Laura Parajón, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health, said during the briefing. “If you look at the whole of New Mexico, the whole population, 61.4% of all New Mexicans are vaccinated. However, we are having a surge, because 38.6% of people still remain unvaccinated.”

COVID-19 cases across New Mexico are currently “trending in a worrisome direction,” according to Dr. Christine Ross, the state epidemiologist, with the positivity rate at about 12.5%.

“What this means to us is there’s a very high burden of disease in our communities,” she said during the briefing, noting that transmission among school-aged children in particular is “very concerning.”

Over 25% of COVID-19 infections in the past week in New Mexico were pediatric cases, according to Ross. With children ages 5 to 11 newly eligible to get vaccinated, health officials urged parents to get their children vaccinated.

“We know that children are at low risk for serious outcomes, but they are not at zero risk,” Ross said. “These vaccines are safe and highly effective. This is the best tool to protect your kids and to prevent onward transmission of the virus and to help us end the pandemic.”

Scrase said he is excited by the prospect of outpatient oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19, such as molnupiravir, though they’re not available yet.

For now, he urged people to continue to follow measures like social distancing and mask-wearing. New Mexico is one of a handful of states that still have mask mandates in effect. The state’s health department extended an order requiring masks while in indoor public settings through Dec. 10, due to the significant COVID-19 case counts and strained hospital capacity.

Scrase also warned against unproven treatments for COVID-19, noting that New Mexico saw a third death since August from ivermectin, an anti-parasite medicine that is not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. The man took 150 milligrams of a horse formulation of ivermectin and suffered from liver and kidney failure, according to Scrase.

Health officials said they’re continuing to work with community health workers and local organizations to combat misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

“We’re really trying to meet people where they’re at,” Parajón said.

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(PAUMA VALLEY, Calif.) — The key to helping curb greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry may be hidden just beneath the surface.

While in the past century farming has transformed to be faster and on a larger scale, the newfound efficiency came at a cost to the environment. Farmers extracted more nutrients from the soil than what was being replaced, and the fertilizers used to aid crop growth are responsible for one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions from global agriculture industry, according to experts.

In the U.S. alone, the use of nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for about 195 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, comparable to the emissions of 41 million passenger vehicles per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Some farmers believe the solution to making the agriculture industry more environmental-friendly lies in revitalizing the soil in which they grow crops, rather than traditional methods, such as fertilizer and conventional tilling.

One of the ways to do this is the no-till method, an old practice where the soil structure is not disturbed, experts and officials say. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, continuous no-till practices can save money, improve soil health and conserve resources such as fuel and labor investments. Practicing no-till management for multiple years allows fields to have a higher water holding capacity than conventionally tilled fields, which is particularly important in areas prone to drought, according to the USDA.

And the agency has said that soil disturbance stimulates the microbes that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Adoption of the method, which the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has encouraged, has been increasing, about 8% from 2012 to 2017 according to the latest Census of Agriculture, and accounted for more than 100 million acres. Intensive tillage declined 35% during the same time.

‘Healing process’

It is important for farmers to look at their land and pay attention to “what it’s telling you,” Nan Cavazos, co-owner of Solidarity Farm in Pauma Valley, California, told ABC News. That includes looking at what kind of weeds are growing and improving the health of the soil based on that, he added.

“When you touch the soil, there’s a healing process that happens between soil and humans,” Cavazos said.

Workers at Solidarity Farm stopped plowing the soil in order to encourage more resilient arable land — so that the soil can “hold life” and create better quality crops, Cavazo said. Tilling destroys the soil structure, which makes it difficult for organisms in the soil to survive, Leah Penniman, co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm, a New York-based farm committed to social justice and ending racism in the food industry, told ABC News.

“And if the soil holds life, it’s easier for growing produce, and probably healthier produce,” he said.

As the effects of climate change intensify and threaten future food supplies, young farmers are reimagining their farms to withstand the increase of natural disasters, Sophie Ackoff, co-executive director of the Young Farmers Coalition, told ABC News. They think about conservation as they build their businesses, such as capturing water in the soil to prepare for a hotter and drier future, Ackoff added.

“Young farmers are imagining farming their entire lives in climate change conditions,” Ackoff said. “They’re already experiencing climate change on their farms.”

The variable climate in Southern California, which can include days ranging from 60 to 100 degrees, depending on the time of year, can have a detrimental effect on number and quality of crops, Cavazos said.

“Which makes it really hard for certain crops, you know?” Cavazos said. “The crops are all happy and then at a sudden, like, the sun comes out, and you’re like, ‘Whoa. What just happened?”

‘Cushion’ of protection

Beds of soil that are well-nourished can resist harsher temperatures and are more resilient to the heat because there is a “cushion” of protection, Cavazos said.

Diversifying the number of crops also makes for healthier soil, Cavazos said, adding that his farm grows between 50 and 60 different types of vegetable crops every year.

MORE: Eating sustainably is one of the easiest ways to combat climate change, experts say
Industrial and corporate agriculture prioritize efficiency, and the current food and much of the agriculture system in the U.S. is a result of decades of federal farm policies that incentivized industrialization and consolidation, Ackoff said.

“As soon as you take a step back and look at a five or five year or more timespan, you’ll see that this system is not very resilient,” Penniman said. “If there’s a drought, if there’s a flood or hurricane, heat wave, pest outbreak, that system starts to break down because it has such a narrow margin of conditions in which it can be successful.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Regenerative agriculture is an indigenous practice of farming that improves the land that is being utilized, Penniman said. The methodology involves leaving the soil better than it was found, she added.

“Take care of your soil, take care of your place, and it will take care of you,” he added.

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