Posted on by Bonnie

COVID-19 Update January 16

COVID-19 Update January 16

  • Total: 1,777 confirmed cases in Salem.
  • Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 9.0%
  • 1 out of 17 Salem residents have been infected 
  • Salem today: 15 new cases. 149 active cases.

• • • • • • Report from NH Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) • • • • • • 

On Saturday, January 16, 2021, DHHS announced 483 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a current PCR test positivity rate of 3.8%. Today’s results include 329 people who tested positive by PCR test and 154 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 6,081 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today: 

  • 1/5: 14 new cases today, for an updated total of 946 cases 
  • 1/6: 36 new cases today, for un updated total of 593 cases 
  • 1/13: 8 new cases today, for un updated total of 498 cases 
  • 1/14: 376 new cases today, for un updated total of 888 cases 
  • 1/15: 49 new cases 

Test results for previous days are still being processed and the total number of new positives for those days are not yet complete. Updated case counts for prior days will be reflected on the COVID-19 interactive dashboard. 

• • • • • • Community Transmission • • • • • •

  • New Cases per 100K over the past 14 days
    • All 10 counties and our two biggest cities are all significantly above 100 new cases, putting the State in a substantial level of community transmission, regardless of how we rank in the other two metrics.
    • New Hampshire: 667.2
    • Rockingham County: 662.1
    • Salem: 804
  • Hospitalizations per 100K over the past 14 days
    • All 10 counties and our two biggest cities are all significantly under 10 cases, which is considered minimal. 
  • Positivity Rate over 7 days: 
    • New Hampshire: 7.2%
    • Rockingham County: 8.3%
    • Salem: 9.0%
    • Manchester: 8.1%
    • Nashua: 10.1%

• • • • • • TODAY’S SPOTLIGHT • • • • • •

  • 15 more Salem residents were diagnosed as positive with COVID-19 today. Since the beginning of the year, 327 Salem residents have been diagnosed.
  • The number of active cases in Salem decreased by 19 residents today, and by a total of 18 residents since the beginning of the year.
  • On New Year’s Eve, 1 out of 21 Salem residents had been confirmed to have had COVID-19. We are now at 1 out 17, which is equal to nearly 6% of our population.
  • 21,267 tests have been received for Salem residents, including 2,976 since the beginning of the year.
  • Since the new year began, our positivity rate has gone from 7.7% down to 7.1%, up to 10.9%, and then back down to today’s 9.0%.
  • NH’s daily PCR Positivity Rate for today’s results is 3.8%. This is the lowest since November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, but it’s still almost twice as much as the maximum goal.
  • Since the beginning of the year, NH DHHS has announced 12,681 new cases, but the total number of cases has increased by “only” 11,917.
  • Only two days have had fewer test results this year than we had today.
  • Another 919 people were reported as “recovered” today. 11,587 people have been reported as recovered since the beginning of the new year.
  • Two more people have been hospitalized in NH, bringing the total to 955. 53 people have been hospitalized since the beginning of the year, including seven healthcare workers.
  • Patients currently hospitalized decreased again by another 3, to 252. This is 65 fewer hospitalized patients than there were at the beginning of the year.
  • One more person was admitted into the ICU since yesterday’s update.
  • NH lost another 19 people from COVID-19 during the 24-hours covered by this report. 168 of our NH neighbors have died since this new year started, with 103 of them coming from long-term care facilities.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

  • NH DHHS reports that the new cases reside in Rockingham (124), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (65), Strafford (41), Merrimack (33), Cheshire (25), Grafton (23), Sullivan (17), Coos (16), Belknap (13), and Carroll (6) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (61) and Nashua (46). The county of residence is being determined for thirteen new cases. 
  • Active Cases 
    • There are 14 NH communities with more than 100 active cases. Between them, these communities have 2,971 active cases, accounting for 49% of all active cases.
    • There are 24 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 3,675 active cases, accounting for 60% of all active cases.
    • Seven communities — Manchester, Nashua, Dover, Concord, Merrimack, Hudson and Derry — have more active cases than Salem.
  • Cumulative Cases 
    • There are now 131 communities that have had 50 or more total cases, and 97 that have had 100 or more.
    • Three communities — Manchester, Nashua and Concord — have more cumulative cases than Salem.

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

  • New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 445
  • New positive cases per DHHS: 483
    • 329 PCR tests
    • 154 Antigen tests
  • Children under 18 in new cases: 81
  • % of new cases announced by DHHS today that are kids under 18 years old: 16.8%
  • Total positive cases in NH: 55,945
  • Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 3.8%
  • Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 2,504
  • New negative results reported today: 2,059
  • Total negative cases in NH: 505,136

• • • • • • ROCKINGHAM COUNTY • • • • • • 

  • Total cases in Rockingham County: 13,594
  • New cases in Rockingham County: 124
  • Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 8.3%
  • Percent of NH cases that are from Rockingham County: 24.3% 

• • • • • • CHANGES BY AGES • • • • • •  
(Shown: Total infections, percentage of all infections, and increase yesterday.

  • 0-9: 2380 = 4% (+32).
  • 10-19: 5705 = 10% (+65).
  • 20-29: 10549 = 19% (+85).
  • 30-39: 8272 = 15% (+67).
  • 40-49: 7531 = 13% (+35). [This age has dropped from 14% of all cases to 13%]
  • 50-59: 8983 = 16% (+67).
  • 60-69: 6087 = 11% (+50).
  • 70-79: 3298 = 6% (+14).
  • 80+: 3081 = 6% (+30). [This age had accounted for 6% of all cases, dropped to 5% a few days ago, and just moved back to 6%]
  • Unknown: 59 = 0% (+0).

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •                          

  • Active cases in NH: 6,081
  • Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,251
  • Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 20.6% 

• • • • • • RECOVERED IN NH • • • • • • 

  • Announced today: 919
  • Total Recovered: 48,937
  • Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 87.5% 

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

  • New people hospitalized from NH: 2
  • Currently hospitalized: 252
  • Total hospitalized patients: 955
  • Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.71%
  • Total admitted to ICU: 311
  • New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 0
  • Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 220

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • • 

  • Lives lost today: 19
  • Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 19
  • Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
  • Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 927
  • NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.66%
  • Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 1
  • Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 163

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.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world. 

-Arthur Schopenhauer

Hello, Salem!

How far can we see? While there appears to be a decrease in new cases here in NH, we see numbers that are horrifying in other parts of our country. 

It’s hard to comprehend, and harder to predict where we are heading.

LA County CA has been making the news lately because of their high rate of infections and their high COVID death rate. With a population of 10,004,300, LA County’s population is 7.4 times more than NH’s population of 1,359,711.

On January 8, one person was dying every 10 minutes in LA County, which is equal to 6 people per hour or 144 people per day. In NH, that would be the equivalent of 19.5 people per day. 

On January 6, NH lost 24 people because of COVID, which is more deaths per our population than they had in LA County. On January 8, and again today, NH had 19 COVID-related deaths, which is comparable to LA County, when comparing our population to theirs.

On January 8, NH’s daily average for the previous week was 12.4 people dying per day. We are now losing 9.3 people per day over the last week, and 11.3 people per day over the last two weeks.

As I see it, while we have had several days when NH is comparable to LA County, our death rate is not consistent at LA County’s level, and our rate appears to declining.

We have a long way to go, but the end could be in sight. But until we can get our numbers down quite a bit, we still need to be really careful, stay smart, stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

Compiled by Bonnie Wright, based on data obtained from NH DHHS.

The following video was posted almost two months ago. Things have changed in that time. On October 2, US deaths were 1,035,451, according to the video. (My records say 1,033,174 per WorldOmeter.) WorldOMeter now says the global death rate is 1,446,889, an increase of 413,715 in less than two months. Just please remember that there is a lot more between COVID->Death vs. COVID->Recovery. More and more, long-haulers are making the news, as are other consequences of COVID-19.

This screenshot comes from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm?s_cid=mm6942e2_w

This report is explained here:
https://www.clickondetroit.com/health/2020/10/20/cdc-from-january-to-october-us-had-299k-more-deaths-than-in-previous-years/

Useful links

Sources used to create these reports:

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