ALBUQUERQUE – Albuquerque and New Mexico’s MLK State Commission announced Friday that they have decided to postponed Saturday’s planned Martin Luther King Jr. march because of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases.
Commission Executive Director Leonard Waites said though the in-person event is being postponed “out of an abundance of caution,” a Federal Emergency Management Agency bus will still be at Civic Plaza to administer vaccines and on-site COVID-19 testing.
No new date for the march was announced.
In another development, the University of New Mexico is stiffening its masking mandate to require that face coverings worn by students and employees be of more protective medical or health grade.
The mandate taking effect next Tuesday requires three-ply or better medical and health procedure masks and means that cloth masks may be worn on top of the more protective masks but not alone.
The university said it will provide masks in multiple locations.
The omicron variant spreads even more easily than other coronavirus strains and has already become dominant in many countries. It also more easily infects those who have been vaccinated or previously infected by prior variants of the virus.
