New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has invoked the state’s Riot Control Act and shut down all roads leading into and out of Gallup, a former trading- post city bordering Navajo Nation, which has been particularly hard hit amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In her latest move to battle the fast-spreading disease, Grisham on Friday banned all nonessential traffic going into the western city of about 22,000 and ordered all businesses to close from 5 p.m. through 8 a.m.

“Residents of the city should remain at home except for emergency outings and those essential for health, safety and welfare,” Grisham’s office said in a press release.

Gallup is the seat of McKinley County, which has 1,027 coronavirus cases and 19 deaths. The county now has the highest number of cases in all of New Mexico, where 3,411 people have been infected, according to the state’s department of health.

It also includes part of the Navajo Nation, an area spanning several states including Arizona and Utah.

The reservation, roughly the size of West Virginia, has one of the highest per capita COVID-19 fatality rates nationwide when compared to other states. The troubling figure is mirrored across New Mexico as a whole.

According to the COVID-19 Tracking Project, a volunteer group that publishes state statistics regarding the pandemic, the rate currently stands at around 53 deaths per 1 million people.

The latest restrictions in New Mexico were welcomed by most local and state officials who have sounded the alarm while coronavirus ravaged nursing homes and homeless populations as well as overwhelmed hospital intensive care units.

“The spread of #COVID19 in McKinley County is frightful. Physical distancing has not occurred & is not occurring,” Grisham tweeted, after enacting the order per requests from Gallup’s mayor. “Stricter measures are necessary to stop the virus.”