Gallup’s third lockdown will include several changes. One will be a need for face masks.

City Manager Maryann Ustick told the Gallup Sun May 7 that all Gallup residents will be required to wear a cloth face covering when they are inside a business, non-profit or government building. That new requirement was just a suggestion by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in her most recent public health order.  Now it is mandatory in Gallup.

The mask for customers was requested by Mayor Louis Bonaguidi and announced by the governor. The ordinance will be coming up on the city council agenda May 12.

The curfew will include a lock down of roads for non-residents until May 8 at 8 pm. That means Gallup roads will be locked down until the curfew on the Navajo Nation starts.

“We really wanted to try to find a way to transition this,” Ustick said.

She said the checkpoints on roads will stay in place until Sunday at noon to enforce the requirement of a maximum number of two people per vehicle. No papers will be needed.  The reason behind keeping the checkpoints in place is to avoid a massive influx of people into Gallup.

The business curfew for Gallup remains in place each day from 8 pm until 5 am through May 10, when the order is set to expire at noon, unless it is extended.

Gallup is the county seat of McKinley County, which has just 3.5 percent of the state’s population, but about 30 percent of the state’s COVID-19 cases. McKinley County reported 1,337 positive cases of COVID-19 as of May 6, and 29 COVID-related deaths.

By Beth Blakeman
Associate Editor