CORONA, N.M. (AP) — Last Wednesday, I went for a drive. After leaving Las Cruces and driving to Tularosa, I headed north through the sagebrush, juniper, creosote and what might have been skunkbush sumac, Mexican poppies or yellow-flower purslane — or maybe Todson's pennyroyal — nestled between the rolling hills of the Tularosa Basin.

In this time of coronavirus, I was headed to Corona, New Mexico — a tiny town of 163 residents in Lincoln County — to see how they were handling the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic. So far, Lincoln County has one confirmed case of the novel coronavirus. To...