In paragraph 5, “Army staff sergeant” is corrected from Navy.

By Shannon Stapleton

FARMINGTON (Reuters) –Dozens upon dozens of U.S. Navy medical personnel have been deployed to New Mexico in support of a military operation that treats virus hotspots throughout the Midwest and Western states.

New Mexico’s hospitals are experiencing record-breaking levels of coronavirus infections, and New Mexico currently has the highest number of these new cases.

Nearly 50 Navy medical personnel are currently treating COVID-19 victims at San Juan Regional Medical Center, Farmington, New Mexico. The facility has seen critical care patients rise to 200% in the last few weeks.

While he sat at the hospital’s ICU, Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles Volk (a pulmonary intensivist) said that he wasn’t seeing many vaccinated patients.

According to Army Staff Sergeant Evan Ruchotzke, the group will be one of twenty military teams that will deploy to help struggling hospitals across at least seven US states, including Colorado, Idaho and Montana.

Navy nurse Kennedy Garcia worked in the fourth COVID ICU hospital unit. The tired Farmington staff welcomed her and her team.

Garcia lost her grandfather and four other family members to COVID-19. She advised Americans to get vaccines.

The vaccine works quickly but the image of an intubated grandmother takes a while. She said that many people had seen the same picture and it didn’t disappear.

New Mexico, which had the highest rate of residents fully vaccinated earlier this year than any other state was an early leader in vaccination. However, immunity is now declining.

Larry Goff, 61 years old, was hospitalized with the same virus as his unborn daughter. The virus caused her to be hospitalized and she lost her baby. Goff, who was at first skeptical of vaccines received his shot six months prior to her baby’s birth.

He said, “I was among the few that held on for a while but I’m glad it finally gave in and I would do this again” from his hospital bed, as he tried to breath.