COVID-19 Update 25 May 2021

COVID-19 Update 25 May 2021

Total: 2,960 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem today: 3 new cases since yesterday
Salem has 11 active cases. In late September, we had less than 5 active cases.
1 out of every 10 Salem residents has been infected
Salem’s new cases per 100K for 14 days: 118
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 4.5%
Salem’s new cases account for 3.9% of all of today’s cases. (Salem has 2.2% of NH’s population.)

On Tuesday, May 25, 2021, DHHS announced 76 new positive test results for COVID-19. Today’s results include 49 people who tested positive by PCR test and 27 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 421 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire.

Several cases are still under investigation. Additional information from ongoing investigations will be incorporated into future COVID-19 updates.

• • • • • • TODAY’S SUMMARY • • • • • •

Salem added 3 new cases since yesterday, bringing our total to 2,960 Salem residents who have had confirmed case of COVID-19.
Salem’s active cases increased by 2 since yesterday bringing the total to 11. Salem had 7 active cases two days ago and 18 active cases one week ago.
Salem’s new cases per 100K residents is 118. Yesterday, it was 122 One week ago, it was 118.
Salem’s positivity rate for PCR & antigen results in the past week is 4.5%, a “minimal” level of community transmission, although it is above the goal of less than 2%. Yesterday it was 5.3%. One week ago, it was 3.5%. Salem’s positivity rate was 14.3% on Dec. 14. Last Sunday, May 16, was 2.3%, the lowest we’ve been since I’ve been tracking this metric.
There are 44 NH communities with a positivity rate of more than 0. (58 a week ago). There are 40 communities with a positivity rate higher than 2%. (56 a week ago). 18 communities have more than 5% (29 a week ago). 6 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (10 a week ago.) 20 communities have a higher positivity rate than Salem’s. (43 a week ago; it was as high as 10 on March 28.)
Today the new cases “by math” (yesterday vs. today’s cumulative total of positive cases as reported by DHHS) was 79. NH reported 69 people have “recovered” since yesterday’s update. After allowing for those who lost their lives today because of COVID-19, NH’s number of active cases went up by 10 since yesterday to 421. That’s 683 fewer active cases than we had a week ago. NH has added 524 new cases in the past week.
The last time NH’s active case count was lower than yesterday was October 2. We were as low as 209 on Sep 4 and 798 active cases on Oct 21. On April 1, 2020, we had 320 cases in NH. Our peak was December 27, when we had 6,994 active cases.
NH has had 128.5 new cases per 100K residents in the past 14 days. Yesterday, it was 132.2. One week ago, it was 436.4.
NH’s positivity rate for PCR & antigen results in the past week is 2.3%. Yesterday it was 2.4%. One week ago, it was 5.3%.
DHHS is reporting a total of 1,424 people who have been hospitalized as of today because of COVID-19. This is anincrease of 1 person since yesterday’s update, and an increase of 13 since last week. There was 1 hospitalization reported today from Rockingham County; our county’s total hospitalization count is 315.
The number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 46 which is 2 less than yesterday and 4 less than we had one week ago.
The cumulative total of ICU admissions increased by 3 since yesterday; the total number of ICU admissions is 421. We have seen an increase of 8 ICU admissions in the past seven days.
Today, 0 lives were lost due to COVID-19 for the period covered by this report, leaving the total of lives lost at 1,344 people who have died in NH due to COVID-19. This is unchanged since Saturday. We have lost 5 people in NH due to COVID-19 in the past week. There were 0 lives lost today from Rockingham County; the total number of people who have died from our county is 261.

• • • • • Communities • • • • • •

DHHS reports that the new cases reside in the following counties:
Rockingham (27), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (11), Strafford (7), Cheshire (4), Merrimack (4), Belknap (3), Grafton (3), Carroll (2), Coos (1), and Sullivan (1) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (6) and Nashua (3). The county of residence is being determined for four new cases.

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

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 79
New positive cases per DHHS: 76
Total people who have tested positive: 98,428

• • • • • • ROCKINGHAM COUNTY (22.78% of NH’s population) • • • • • •

Total cases in Rockingham County: 24,197
New cases in Rockingham County: 27
Rockingham County’s percentage of new cases: 35.5%
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 4.1%

• • • • • • CHANGES BY AGES • • • • • •

20 children under 18 are included in today’s new cases.
26.3% of new cases announced by DHHS today are kids under 18 years old.

(Totals showing changes since yesterday.)

0-9: 6% of Total cases: 5481 (+5); Hospitalizations: 9; Deaths: 0
10-19: 12% of Total cases: 12294 (+19); Hospitalizations: 10; Deaths: 0
20-29: 20% of Total cases: 19782 (+15); Hospitalizations: 32; Deaths: 1
30-39: 15% of Total cases: 14451 (+11); Hospitalizations: 62; Deaths: 6
40-49: 13% of Total cases: 12925 (+13); Hospitalizations: 103; Deaths: 12
50-59: 15% of Total cases: 15069 (+4); Hospitalizations: 186; Deaths: 34
60-69: 10% of Total cases: 9663 (+8); Hospitalizations: 341; Deaths: 132
70-79: 5% of Total cases: 4756 (+3); Hospitalizations: 360 (+1); Deaths: 322
80+: 4% of Total cases: 3918 (+1); Hospitalizations: 321; Deaths: 837
Unknown: 0% of Total cases: 89 (+0); Hospitalizations: 0; Deaths: 0

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 421
Active cases in Rockingham County: 95

• • • • • • RECOVERED • • • • • •

Recovered today: 69
Total recovered: 96,663
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 98.2%

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

Currently hospitalized: 46
New people hospitalized from NH: 1
Total hospitalized patients: 1,424
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.45%
Total admitted to ICU: 421
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 315

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 0
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 0
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 1,344
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.37%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 0
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 261

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.

Hello, Salem!

For those who missed it, there were some questions today about herd immunity.

Herd immunity is reached when 60-70% of all residents are fully vaccinated, regardless of age or eligibility. Some say regardless of having a history of confirmed case of COVID-19, because those antibodies aren’t believed to be long-lasting. As someone pointed, vaccines might not be, either.

Per NH DHHS’s vaccination dashboard as of 5/23: 46.1% fully vaccinated. 58.1% partially vaccinated. (They haven’t updated this dashboard for the last two days, so it’s probably higher now.)

Beckers Hospital Review ranked states by percentage of population fully vaccinated. The top five states are five of the six states in New England. NH, sadly, is ranked 23 out of 51. We have been making progress, but despite what NH government officials are telling us, we have a long way to go. 23rd position just isn’t acceptable. (Thanks, Aimee, for this link.)

We may never reach herd immunity. Here’s five reasons why.

Herd immunity needs to be more than just a small geographic pocket. It needs to be global, as reported here.

Some other recent articles that are of interest:

What does the future hold? Experts are still asking that question.

We know that the higher the count of active cases, the more likelihood of new variants. We know that there are some nasty variants that might make their way here. With less than half of our population fully vaccinated, the prudent thing to do is to exercise caution so that we can stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

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.