In order to minimize the spread of coronavirus and make sure our hospitals and clinics do not become overwhelmed, we are calling on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to Shutdown NM today. This includes all non-essential businesses without pickup or delivery. It is clear that optional, individualized social distancing is not working and the time to act is slipping away. Limiting businesses to only pickup or delivery will help in containing COVID-19, protect associates who work for businesses that are being flooded, protect customers who are flooding businesses and create limits to hoarding essential items making them accessible to all.

Right Now we need decisive and proactive leadership in New Mexico. We recognize that there will be severe economic effects from a shutdown, and we will undoubtedly need Federal and State-level financial assistance. Yet the consequences of continuing in every day life as usual will be far worse.

This is not a drill. In the words of George Q. Daley, Dean of the Harvard Medical School: "The outbreak of COVID-19 is the single most threatening pandemic to arise in the last century, and has historians recalling the devastation of the influenza pandemic of 1918, which infected about a third of the world’s population, resulting in at least 50 million deaths. The world’s population today is almost four times larger, and our communities are correspondingly denser and more vulnerable. Reducing not only community density but containing the migration of those infected with the virus will be essential for dampening the impact of this pandemic." 

We call on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to shut down all non-essential businesses without pickup and delivery in NM, as quickly as possible. We also call on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to provide direct aide to those affected by this critically important shutdown, including a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, sufficient paid leave for all workers, immediate support for small businesses, and ensuring that COVID-19 medical testing and treatment is available at no charge to NM residents.