Houselessness During a Pandemic, COVID-19 Across NM & Our Land Looks at Fire Season | Preview

This week on New Mexico in Focus, correspondent Megan Kamerick talks with officials from the City of Albuquerque and nonprofits helping those without housing. They discuss efforts to help curtail COVID-19 spread among people experiencing homelessness and how the response to this pandemic may shape public health and housing in the future. “Our Land” correspondent Laura Paskus sits down with Santa Fe National Forest fire fighter Terrance Gallegos, who went to Australia to help combat the country’s recent unprecedented bushfires, which burned more than 72,000 square miles and destroyed some 6,000 buildings. Based on that experience, he looks ahead to New Mexico’s fire season. Correspondent Megan Kamerick talks with members of the Catholic and Jewish communities about how they are trying to adapt faith traditions during a pandemic. Both the Christian and Jewish faiths will adjust major celebrations for Holy Week, which leads up to Easter, and Passover, a commemoration of the story of Exodus. Correspondent Laura Paskus begins a series of interviews with journalists around the state as they cover COVID-19 in their communities. Noel Smith reports on the Navajo Nation for the Farmington Daily Times. She’s also a tribal member and has seen her home devastated by a COVID-19 outbreak. Gene Grant and The Line opinion panel discuss Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s new actions to deal with COVID-19, including tighter restrictions on businesses, extending those restrictions through April, and ordering the early release of low-risk prison inmates. The Line also looks at the effects of the pandemic on faith communities.