New Mexico Department of Health announced changes to how it addresses COVID-19.

Epidemiological reports covering COVID-19 will change from biweekly to monthly as of April 12 and the COVID-19 Data Dashboard will be discontinued and archived May 11.

“These changes reflect the new phase of COVID-19 that we are in today,” said DOH Deputy Secretary Laura Parajon. “We will continue to actively monitor trends related to COVID-19, but with fewer COVID-19 tests being taken and inconsistent reporting of home COVID-19 tests, the day-to-day numbers are not as meaningful as they once were.”

NM Notify, the state’s COVID-19 Exposure Alert system, was supported by the Association of Public Health Laboratories in partnership with Google, Apple and Microsoft. The national resources that made this system possible will no longer be available after May 11.

During the pandemic, the majority of New Mexicans activated the NM Notify app on their phone. More than 1.5 million notifications were sent to users who may have had sufficient exposure to COVID-19 to become infected.

“We are proud of how well New Mexicans picked up and used this technology to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” said Daniel Sosin, a medical epidemiologist with the DOH. “NM Notify was an important tool early in the pandemic and 54% of New Mexicans with smartphones activated the app. We will need this tool in the future, and we will be ready to use it even more effectively.”

Users of NM Notify will be automatically notified when the application is no longer operational. They will not need to take any action in regards to the app.