Posted on by Bonnie

COVID-19 Update January 17

COVID-19 Update January 17

  • Total: 1,794 confirmed cases in Salem.
  • Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 8.2%
  • 1 out of 17 Salem residents have been infected 
  • Salem today: 17 new cases. 153 active cases.

DHHS has not properly updated the town information for the fifth time since the beginning of the new year. This sloppiness is unacceptable. This is also concerning. What else isn’t working right that we can’t see?

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

On Sunday, January 17, 2021, DHHS announced 941 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a current PCR test positivity rate of 6.4%. Today’s results include 660 people who tested positive by PCR test and 281 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 6,387 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today: 

  • 1/6: 133 new cases today, for an updated total of 726 cases 
  • 1/7: 36 new cases today, for an updated total of 880 cases 
  • 1/15: 467 new cases today, for an updated total of 515 cases 
  • 1/16: 305 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: 642.9.2
    • Rockingham County: 607.4
    • Salem: 764
  • 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: 6.9%
    • Rockingham County: 8.1%
    • Salem: 8.2%
    • Manchester: 7.6%
    • Nashua: 10.6%

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

  • 17 more Salem residents were diagnosed as positive with COVID-19 today. Since the beginning of the year, the daily average is 20.2 new cases per day. The average of the last four days is “only” 16 new cases, which brings that average down.
  • The number of active cases in Salem increase by 4 residents today to 153. The average number of active cases since the beginning of the year is 154.2 cases. This is essentially the same as today’s count, showing that we are adding as many cases as we are removing.
  • On New Year’s Eve, 1 out of 21 Salem residents had been confirmed to have had COVID-19. We are still at 1 out 17 for the sixth consecutive day. Although that number isn’t changing daily, the percentage does change every day. On New Year’s Eve, we were at 4.8% of our population. Today we reached 6.03% of our population, passing 6% for the first time.
  • 21,490 tests have been received for Salem residents, including 223 new tests added today. The average since the beginning of the year is 188 tests per day.
  • Salem’s positivity rate for tests returned in the previous week changes daily. On Wednesday, it was 10.1%, the fifth day above 10.0%. Since Wednesday, it has gone down daily to today’s 8.2%.
  • I started tracking Salem’s positivity rate on December 3. Since then, we have ranged from a high of 14.3% on December 14 and December 16, to a low of 7.1% on January 8.
  • NH’s seven-day average positivity rate, based on PCR and antigen test results, has ranged this year from today’s low of 6.9% to a high of 8.7%, which was found on January 3, 4, and 5.
  • NH’s daily PCR Positivity Rate for a single day has gone from yesterday’s 3.8% to 10.5% on January 5. My records for this metric go back to early October, where I’m showing we were at 0.4%. We started getting in the 2% range in early November, and hit 5% at the end of November. The positivity rate has been under 5% only three days since December 1.
  • Two more people have been hospitalized in NH, bringing the total to 957. We are averaging 3.2 people per day since the beginning of the year, and 3.9 in the past week. (Friday, hopefully, was an anomaly; we added 9 new hospital patients that day, which has increased the daily average.)
  • Patients currently hospitalized decreased again by another 9, to 243. The hospital census hasn’t been this low since December 9.
  • Another person was admitted into the ICU since yesterday’s update.
  • NH lost another 6 people from COVID-19 during the 24-hours covered by this report. Since this new year started, we have averaged a loss of 10.2 people per day. Remember that they aren’t numbers. They all have their own stories.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

  • NH DHHS reports that the new cases reside in Rockingham (191), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (159), Merrimack (95), Strafford (69), Cheshire (60), Carroll (44), Belknap (43), Grafton (37), Sullivan (27), and Coos (21) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (90) and Nashua (64). The county of residence is being determined for forty-one new cases. 
  • Active Cases 
    • NH DHHS did not provide the info to allow me to easily compute the info that goes in this section.
  • Cumulative Cases 
    • NH DHHS did not provide the info to allow me to easily compute the info that goes in this section.

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

  • New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 919
  • New positive cases per DHHS: 941
    • 660 PCR tests
    • 281 Antigen tests
  • Children under 18 in new cases: 130
  • % of new cases announced by DHHS today that are kids under 18 years old: 13.8%
  • Total positive cases in NH: 56,864
  • Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 6.4%
  • Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 3,693
  • New negative results reported today: 2,774
  • Total negative cases in NH: 507,910

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

  • Total cases in Rockingham County: 13,785
  • New cases in Rockingham County: 191
  • Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 8.1%
  • Percent of NH cases that are from Rockingham County: 24.2% 

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

  • 0-9: 2436 = 4% (+56).
  • 10-19: 5804 = 10% (+99).
  • 20-29: 10710 = 19% (+161).
  • 30-39: 8394 = 15% (+122).
  • 40-49: 7672 = 13% (+141).
  • 50-59: 9137 = 16% (+154).
  • 60-69: 6186 = 11% (+99).
  • 70-79: 3345 = 6% (+47).
  • 80+: 3121 = 5% (+40). [This age has been moving between 5% and 6%. Today it’s back to 5%.]
  • Unknown: 59 = 0% (+0).

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

  • Active cases in NH: 6,387
  • Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,305
  • Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 20.4% 

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

  • Announced today: 607
  • Total Recovered: 49,544
  • Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 87.1% 

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

  • New people hospitalized from NH: 2
  • Currently hospitalized: 243
  • Total hospitalized patients: 957
  • Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.68%
  • Total admitted to ICU: 312
  • New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 0
  • Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 220

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • • 

  • Lives lost today: 6
  • Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 6
  • Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
  • Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 933
  • NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.64%
  • Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 1
  • Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 164

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.

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” 

— Fred Rogers

Hello, Salem!

Depression is rampant. There are many degrees of depression, and many causes, including concerns about COVID-19, isolation, loss of income, and much more. 

Depression is not always obvious. An issue that might seem like a small matter to you could be a huge problem to someone else. 

The CDC says 1 out of 4 Americans under the age of 25 has seriously considered suicide in the past month. One out of four. And young adults aren’t the only ones who are living in turmoil these days.

Talk to the people that you love. Here are some resources. If you need them on another day, they are at the bottom of every update in the resource section.

  • NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Health. 24-hour hotline: 1-800-950-6264. https://www.nami.org/Home
  • Center for Life Management (603) 434-1577, Option 1. https://www.centerforlifemanagement.org/
  • National Suicide Hotline: #SuicideAwareness: 1-800-273-8255.

Listen to your family, your friends, your neighbors. Help them 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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