Posted on by Bonnie

COVID-19 Update April 13

COVID-19 Update April 13

Key points covered in today’s report:

  • Today NH passed the 1,000 case mark.
  • Today there were 35 new cases, with almost half of them in Rockingham County.
  • Salem’s Emergency Operations Center team made a presentation at the Board of Selectmen’s meeting today, Monday, April 13. My summary is in this post. The best info we can get is Salem has more than 50 cases.
  • Methuen MA  has 261 confirmed cases, equal to 0.7% of its population. 0.7% of Salem’s population would be 204 cases.
  • Senator Rosenwald made a report on the first-ever remote legislative committee meeting, when the Fiscal Committee discussed the federal stimulus funding.
  • NH legislators filed for an emergency injunction to stop the governor from spending the federal stimulus funds without involving formal Legislative oversight
  • One month after Gov. Chris Sununu declared a state of emergency in New Hampshire the Governor said it doesn’t look likely that schools will reopen this school year, and tourism season will be rough.
  • The US Treasury and IRS announced that their new app to track stimulus payments, “Get My Payment,” is scheduled to be released on April 17.

 

Click to enlarge the calendar:
https://www.bonnie4salem.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/april13-calendar.jpg

 


The preceding chart comes from NHPR

 

The NH Division of Public Health Services, Bureau of Infectious Disease Control, has announced a Weekly Summary Report, with more details than we see in the daily reports from the Department of Health & Human Services.

Key points:

  • 311 (30%) of the confirmed cases are healthcare workers.
  • 54% of those diagnosed are male; 46% female.
  • 220 (22%) of those diagnosed are aged 50-59.
  • 16% of those diagnosed are aged 40-49 or 60-69.
  • 5 children under 9 and 17 from 10-19 have been diagnosed.
  • 32% of those diagnosed received their infection from Community Transmission
  • 28% of those diagnosed were exposed from International or Domestic Travel
  • 35% of the confirmed cases are from Rockingham County
  • 39% are in Hillsborough County

 

Q: How is NH doing in comparison to our neighboring states?
A: We aren’t doing enough tests!

 

The above table is built upon the work done by Mindi Messmer, PG, CG on April 8.
Click table to enlarge.
Table Sources: Population (U.S. Census) and April 8 stats per Mindi Messmer
Tests Reported: Politico

 

COVID Symptom Tracker: This is a project of Mass General Hospital. In the absence of proper testing, this may be the best way of tracking how we are doing. I’m keeping it near the top, so I’ll remember to log in each day.
https://covid.joinzoe.com/us?fbclid=IwAR2IsoxZ9RBKC4uPQscKiuUUTJCA3cCt3dUr9tjNSsFqOU1rv10jmysmt4Y


Today’s COVID-19 news:

Salem’s confirmed cases:

  • April 3: 25 cases
  • April 6: 33 cases
  • April 8: 20-40 cases
  • April 9: 20-49 cases
  • April 10: Over 50

Tonight FD Chief Larry Best, the director of Salem’s Emergency Operations Center, gave their 8th briefing since March 16. They will continue with their briefings every Monday at 7:00. He did not give a count of how many cases are in Salem, but referred to NH DHHS’s map that shows we have 50 plus cases. Chief Best believes we have a lot more than 50 cases, because some are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and aren’t getting tested. NH is following many models to predict COVID-19; they show the surge in NH will occur sometime in the next 1-3 weeks. We haven’t seen the increase that they have seen in MA, but Chief Best noted that there are many COVID-19 cases in the Massachusetts counties closest to us, and there has been a 21% increase in Massachusetts over the last 2 days. This is a critical time to keep social distancing and teleworking.

Salem Police Captain Joel Dolan shared that the police are noticing an uptick in traffic, and asks, “Please stay home!”

Superintendent of Schools Michael Delahanty stated that he does not have inside information, but he will be surprised if schools reopen this year. He shared that over 1,000 breakfasts and lunches are being prepared each day, with most being delivered by school bus drivers. These meals are free to families; they will be paid for by the Federal school lunch program.

Salem, Manchester, and Nashua remain the only NH municipalities with more than 50 confirmed cases. With 156 cases (up +3 from yesterday), Manchester continues to be the city in NH with the most confirmed cases. Nashua has 89 (+1) confirmed cases. Londonderry, Derry, Portsmouth, Dover, Bedford, and Concord remain as the only communities with 20-49 confirmed cases.

Hillsborough County, which includes Manchester and Nashua, has 398 (+13) confirmed cases. Rockingham County is close, with 369 (+15) confirmed cases.

As of April 13, Methuen MA  has 261 confirmed cases or 0.7% of its 2019 population of 39,498 people. Salem’s population in 2019 was 29,133. If 0.7% of Salem’s population had COVID-19, we would have 204 cases. How can our neighboring town have so many cases, but we don’t? Massachusetts has much higher testing rates.

We need proper testing to fight COVID-19
“The COVID-19 outbreak isn’t almost over now. Nor will it be in two weeks. We haven’t “almost beaten this” because we haven’t even started properly measuring it yet. We want to measure success in lives saved, not by celebrating an ongoing low death rate.” https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/we-need-proper-testing-to-fight-covid-19/article_acd86517-86cd-5b87-9ce5-e314ffbe5019.html

TodayYesterdayChange from yesterday
Total Confirmed Cases1,020985+35
Recovered24924%
239+10
Deaths Attributed to COVID-19
232%230
Active Cases748723+25
Total Hospitalized15215%
1520
Tested Negative10,59010,222+368
Persons with specimens submitted to NH PHL5,1395,081+58
Persons with test pending at NH PHL25125-100
Being Monitored (Approximate)2,2502,275-25
Total Tested (Confirmed Cases + Tested Negative)11,61011,207403

NH News relating to COVID-19

Senator Rosenwald reported on the first-ever remote legislative committee meeting. The Fiscal Committee met recently to discuss federal stimulus funding. Funds for Meals on Wheels was increased. The governor has transferred funds from several programs in the state budget to purchase essential supplies to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, including cuts for prescription drug financial assistance for low-income seniors, homeless and housing services and state loan payment assistance for critically needed health care workers. The Department of Health and Human Services intends to replace these funds with future stimulus funds.

“In a motion filed in Hillsborough Superior Court Monday, representatives of the House and Senate leadership are seeking an emergency injunction to stop the governor from spending the $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus stimulus funds without involving formal Legislative oversight,” reports the Concord Monitor

Today it has been one month since Gov. Chris Sununu issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in New Hampshire due to the coronavirus. In an interview with NHPR today, the Governor said, “So when it comes to school, let’s just focus a little bit on June 1st. Right? Are we going to go back? I’ll make a decision later this week. It doesn’t look likely, to be honest.”

The US Treasury and IRS announced that their new app to track stimulus payments, “Get My Payment,” is scheduled to be released on April 17.

 

Salem Government

The Town of Salem’s Emergency Operations Center Team (EOC) will be making weekly reports every Monday evening at 7:00. Their reports can be seen at http://sctv-17.com/CablecastPublicSite/?channel=1

Other Salem Government events coming up:

To watch past or live viewings:

State Representation:
Salem has nine State Representatives. If you are having issues connected to COVID-19, they have access to the people who can get you the help you need. You can find contact info for our reps here: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/default.aspx

Our Senator, Chuck Morse, can be contacted at Chuck.Morse@leg.state.nh.us His Concord office phone is 603.271.3207.

Disclaimer:

On April 7, NH scientist and politician, Mindi Messmer, PG, CG wrote on her Facebook page: “… testing has pretty much stopped at the NH PHL. The testing penetration is so low in NH, only 1/2% of the 1.3M people, meaning 99.5% of the 1.3M have not been tested, that I am not putting up projections or tests for NH because the graphs would be meaningless and I don’t want to give the false impression that we know what’s going on in NH.”

On April 8, the National Academy of Sciences reported that 16 out of 51 tests were inaccurate. (false negatives). Others also have concerns about both false negatives and false positives.

Please keep these ideas in mind as you review the information on this page or any other page.

Resources to help in these challenging times:

Do YOU think you have COVID-19?

To report suspected cases, contact the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control at  603-271-4496, (603-271-5300 for after hours), or nhbidc@dhhs.nhs.gov.

How You Can Help Others:

Masks:

Salem:

New Hampshire:

New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services:

Office of the Governor: https://www.governor.nh.gov

Mindi Messmer: A scientist who is reporting frequently on COVID-19, Mindi is also a candidate for Executive Council, District 3 (including Salem). https://www.facebook.com/Mindi4NH/

More info about COVID-19

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:


COVID Symptom Tracker:
This is a project of Mass General Hospital. In the absence of proper testing, let’s let them know how we are doing. https://covid.joinzoe.com/us?fbclid=IwAR2IsoxZ9RBKC4uPQscKiuUUTJCA3cCt3dUr9tjNSsFqOU1rv10jmysmt4Y

Trackers (Cases)

The World Health Organization:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Media with NH COVID-19 news:

Housing

Unemployment

Financial Assistance

Link to other  NH benefits:

Businesses and Employers: Guidance for Small Businesses 

 

Sources for data included in these reports:

Please report any errors or omissions to bonnie@bonnie4salem.us. Thank you.