A public defender in the state capital has tested positive for COVID-19, prompting officials to shutter the Santa Fe office and begin contact tracing that includes jail inmates and court personnel, according to a news release from the state Law Office of the Public Defender.

The attorney was in self-quarantine at home as of Wednesday evening, the release says. It was not immediately clear whether the attorney, who was not identified in the release, had severe symptoms.

This marks the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New Mexico for someone working or caught up in the state’s criminal justice system.

This marks the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in New Mexico for someone working or caught up in the state’s criminal justice system.

Also not clear from the release was how many other attorneys, people who work in Santa Fe's First Judicial District courthouse or people locked up at the Santa Fe County Detention Center may have come into contact with Burrill in recent days.

She tells SFR that she provided a list of 61 names to the public defenders office and to the state Department of Health to assist in the contact tracing.

The public defenders office praised its own efforts and those of the jail and court to limit person-to-person contact and said those measures led to “limited direct contact with inmates and jail personnel.”

Pressure has mounted on jail and prison officials to test inmates for the novel coronavirus, release nonviolent offenders and take other steps to make state and county lockups safer for the 15,000 or so people who are incarcerated in New Mexico.

Burrill's list of names includes a dozen people she believes are still locked up at the Santa Fe County jail and six others who have been released.

Santa Fe County has tested just two inmates—and no corrections officers—for COVID-19; one test has come back negative, the other is pending.

Carmelina Hart, a county spokeswoman, tells SFR a third inmate, a woman, was moved into one of the jail's quarantine pods Wednesday after showing symptoms of the coronavirus. Jail officials were waiting for the state Health Department to test the woman for COVID-19.