SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – All New Mexico public schools will start the 2020-21 school year with kids at home distance learning through Labor Day. That order came from New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham Thursday in the governor’s first news conference about COVID-19 in nearly two weeks. The latest change to the state’s school schedule comes as the state reported a record 343 new COVID-19 cases Thursday. The state says data also shows a surge in new COVID cases in kids ages 10 to 19 years old.

“When we started the pandemic, you all remember, a lot of older people had the disease, (older people) predominantly were the cases we were seeing,” said Dr. David Scrase, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Human Services. “Now, if you look over time, children over the entire course of the pandemic– and by children, I mean 0 to 19 years of age– (they) are 14.9 percent of cases, but in the last week we’re now up to 22 percent.”