COVID-19 Update July 15

COVID-19 Update July 15

Total: 277 confirmed cases
1 out of every 107 residents has been infected.
Salem Today: 0 new cases, 27 active cases.

• • • • TODAY’S SPOTLIGHT• • • • • •

This is the third day without any new cases in Salem. Keep up the good work, Salem!
There is no change to the number of active cases in Salem, either.
NH isn’t as lucky as Salem. In NH, 3 people were hospitalized, and 2 people died from COVID-19.
Testing remains low, with 1,163 people being tested for the first time. 1.89% of those tested were positive.
Two more children under the age of 18 were just diagnosed. That’s 17 kids in the last five days.
Unless I missed it, there hasn’t been an “outbreak” (multiple cases) in any long-term care facility for a month.
Persons who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 are now 11% of all confirmed cases. (For a long time, it had been 10%)
The number of persons with tests pending at the Public Health Laboratory has more than doubled from yesterday’s count of 424 persons to 1,060 today.
Manchester, as of yesterday, had more than 1600 total infections, but less than 50 active cases.
Don Lemon talked about deaths in the US. “The number of Americans who have died is the equivalent of 50 jetliners crashing every week for the past four months.”

• • • • • DIAGNOSTIC TESTS IN NH • • • • • •

New positive cases per DHHS: 24
My new positive cases (Total of today’s cases minus yesterday’s total): 22
Children under 18 in new cases: 2
Total positive cases in NH: 6,113
Percentage of tests that are positive: 1.89%
Active cases: 594
Percentage of positive cases that are still active: 9.7%
New cases in Rockingham County: 3
Total cases in Rockingham County: 1,534
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 81%
Total PCR tests results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 1,163
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 1,032
New negative PCR cases in NH: 1,141
Total negative cases in NH (as reported by DHHS): 132,159

• • • • • OTHER TEST RESULTS • • • • • •

New antibody tests: 176
Total antibody tests (No break down of positive vs. negative): 21,942
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today:175
Children diagnosed with MIS-C: (as of 5/22/2020): 1

• • • • • RECOVERED IN NH • • • • • •

Announced today: 24
Total Recovered: 5,125
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 83.8%

• • • • • HOSPITALIZATIONS IN NH • • • • • •

New: 3 from today
Current: 24 (up 2 from yesterday)
Total Hospitalized: 668
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 10.93%
Percentage of those who have been hospitalized that are still in the hospital: 3.6%

• • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 2
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 2
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 394
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 6.4%
Lives lost in Rockingham today: 0 today

These are not simply numbers. We must not forget that these are all someone’s husband or wife, mother or father, sister or brother, son or daughter, friend or neighbor.

Useful links

If you are having trouble paying your rent or mortgage because of COVID-19, help can be found here.
Apply for the Self Employed Livelihood Fund (SELF) will be available starting Monday, July 6, 2020. – July 17, 2020. If you are self-employed, you may be eligible for this CARES Act grant, designed to help you recover some of your COVID-19 losses. Details are on the State’s website.
Info about COVID-19 testing is compiled in one place on mywebsite.
Complications of COVID-19 Survivors of all ages can be found on my website.
Help for Salem residents is on my website.
A list of COVID-19 Resources can be found on my website.
An update of nearby communities can be found here.
Institutional Outbreaks as of June 18 on my website.

A Post and a Conversation

I had the pleasure of meeting Nora Travis when we were working on an environmental bill in the NH House a few years back. Nora is a teacher and scientist whose expertise is in environmental and occupational health and exposure assessment, focusing on ways to reduce health risk. She’s smart. She knows her stuff. I trust her implicitly. Here in this casual post, she does a great job exploring COVID-19, and how science and politics collide.

On Thursday, the local wing of the state-wide New Hampshire Science and Public Health Task Force will have Facebook Live Community Conversation about COVID #3 at 4 pm. Tune in here to join in.

While you are reading and watching, please, stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

https://www.bonnie4salem.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/July15-calendar.jpg

Click on the calendar to enlarge

Governor’s Press Conference.

I had several interruptions while trying to watch this. Here is what I heard:

“Our biggest challenges are ahead”
NH is managing and stockpiling supplies. We are prepared for an increase in cases.
NH Unemployment: 73,000 or 9.5%; based on 780,000 who were part of the labor force just prior to COVID.

School Re-Openings:

The Governor issued guidance recommendations for school re-openings.
He says that the recommendations are practical and manageable, but each town can adapt the recommendations to fit the circumstances as needed.
He says this is a dynamic, flexible guidance document.
The full guidance report can be found at https://www.covidguidance.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt381/files/inline-documents/sonh/k-12-back-to-school.pdf
Key requirements:
- 3-6 feet between desks
- Masks won’t be mandated but will be encouraged for kids and staff and required for visitors.
- Daily screening for staff, student, visitors
- Desks to be arranged to minimize close contact
- Schools to Develop Remote leaning options for those who choose to not return
- Transportation plans must include realistic safety protocols, such as assigned seats, but not to require any ruling (such as leaving empty seats), which would require additional buses. Bus seats may be assigned.

Salem School Board Meeting

I had another meeting at the same time as this, so I did not get to see it. This is a very brief summary of a friend’s lengthy summary:

Salem School Department has accepted almost $2 Million in grants.
School starts September 1 for Kindergarten, and grades 6 and 9. All others will start on September 2.
There will be no school on September 8 or Nov 3, for primary and general elections.

Proposed plan:

Salem will follow state guidelines and recommendations of state health officials and FMLA rules.
Superintendent says It is impractical in our town to do a hybrid approach, which would mean doing half in school and half at-home learning
Superintendent says masks protect us and others around us; this should not be political
Distance learning will be available for anyone unable or unwilling to return
Social distancing – 6 ft maintained “wherever we can”
All desks will be mounted with transparent shields
Masks – “where possible and practical,” can be removed behind the shield
K & 1st graders will not be required to wear masks.
Cannot come to school unless you agree to wear a mask (except when sitting at desk behind the plexiglass screen)
Parents to assess kids before coming in the morning.
Lunch will be in the cafeterias, but food will be prepackaged.
Plastic shields will be in place at tables; the same group will sit at the same table each day
Pickup meals will be available for distance learning students, but will not continue to be free in the fall
Everyone is to wear a mask on buses with 2 students per seat. Those eligible for buses will increase from a 1-mile to a 1.25-mile radius to the school
In the event of an infection, the state will determine who will be considered a ‘close contact’ or whether and how long a classroom or school will need to be closed for cleaning

COVID-19 Deaths — It’s Different from the Flu

RESOURCES:

My accumulation of resources has been moved. These can now be found at https://www.bonnie4salem.us/covid-19-resources/

Salem specific info can be found at https://www.bonnie4salem.us/covid-19-cases-in-salem/

The report containing information about other towns, counties and our MA neighbors has been moved to https://www.bonnie4salem.us/covid-19-update-nh-towns/I’m updating this information weekly. The last update was May 24.

Sources used to create this report:

Governor’s Press Conference.

School Re-Openings:

Salem School Board Meeting

COVID-19 Deaths — It’s Different from the Flu

RESOURCES:

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