COVID-19 Update December 15

COVID-19 Update December 15 – REVISED

Total: 1,090 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 13.5%
1 out of 27 Salem residents have been infected
Salem today: 23 new cases since yesterday: 217 active cases

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:
I reached out to NH DHHS, as I always do when they leave out info, and actually heard back today to let me know that the website had been properly updated.

This update replaces the update posted in the wee hours this morning. Changes made are:

Salem Stats
The Community chapter
The Ages chapter
The Rockingham County chapter (and RC info in the chapters for Active Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths)

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

Today NH DHHS reported the lowest number of new cases in 10 days, and the lowest number of test results since December 4. That looks like a slow day, but DHHS is still doing catchup for the previous five days. And they failed to update several dashboards, including the ones that give us town information and ages.

From today’s Press Release from NH DHHS: “On Tuesday, December 15, 2020, DHHS announced 670 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a daily PCR test positivity rate of 6.2%. Today’s results include 525 people who tested positive by PCR test and 145 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 6,477 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today:

12/10: 81 new cases today, for an updated total of 1,106 cases
12/11: 91 new cases today, for an updated total of 587 cases
12/12: 1 new case today, for an updated total of 418 cases
12/13: 111 new cases today, for an updated total of 724 cases
12/14: 386 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 • • • • • •

Community Transmission (per NH Department of Health and Human Services): The overall level of community transmission is defined using three metrics. A community is then assigned an overall level based on the highest-level determination for any specific metric. NH Metrics are: New Cases per 100k over 14 days: Scale: Minimal: <50; Moderate: 50 – 100; Substantial: >100. New Hospitalizations per 100k over 14 days: Scale: Minimal: <10; Moderate: 10 – 20; Substantial: >20. Average PCR Test Positivity Rate over 7 days: Scale: Minimal: <5%; Moderate: 5% – 10%; Substantial: >10%

Average of New Cases per 100K people over 14 days:
- New Hampshire: 749.0
- Rockingham County: 926.7
- All 10 counties and our two biggest cities are all at a substantial level ranging from 211.6 (Sullivan County) to 1,212.3 (Manchester).
- Salem: 1,166
Average of New Hospitalization per 100K people over 14 days:
- New Hampshire: 0.9
- Rockingham County: 0.8
- Belknap County: 3.4
Average Positivity Rate over 7 days:
- New Hampshire: 8.8%
- Rockingham County: 11.4%
- Manchester: 11.0%
- Salem: 13.5%
- Nashua: 11.2%
- Grafton County: 2.7%
- 54 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%.
- 125 communities have a positivity rate of more than 5%.
- 134 communities have a positivity rate of more than 2%.
- 16 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem.

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

The data with town numbers was not updated this evening, so we don’t know how many new cases were diagnosed today.
NH’s daily positivity rate today is 6.2%, a 2.6% decrease.
The current number of active cases is 6,477, which is 275 less than yesterday.
945 people were reported as “recovered” today.
The number of COVID-19 patients who are currently hospitalized decreased by four, although the total number of patients hospitalized increased by one.
On October 16, there were only 16 people hospitalized in NH with COVID-19. On November 16 we were up to 69 people hospitalized. On December 16, there were 257 people hospitalized.
In the first 196 days of the pandemic in NH, by October 16, a total of 465 NH people had died from COVID. A month later, another 35 people had lost their lives, bring the total to 500 deaths. And a month later, by December 16, another 104 people had died, bringing the total to 604 people. Happily, no lives were lost in the 24-hour period covered by this report.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Rockingham (223), Merrimack (82), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (63), Strafford (62), Belknap (54), Cheshire (22), Carrol (20), Grafton (14), Coos (5), and Sullivan (2) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (65) and Nashua (37). The county of residence is being determined for twenty-one new cases.
The dashboards with the town data were not updated last night. The webmaster responded to my email to let me know that their error had been corrected, so I am now able to share this:
Active cases:
- An additional 726 people were reported as “recovered” today; these are reflected in today’s changes.
- Several communities have had more than five or more decreases bringing them to under 50 active cases. They are all in today’s report, but won’t be in future reports unless they add or drop five more active cases in 24 hours.
- It’s interesting to note that the communities with more than 50 active cases are actually the communities with 82 or less.
- There are 20 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 3,776 active cases, accounting for 58% of all active cases.
- Manchester, Nashua, and Concord are the only communities with more active cases than Salem. These four, plus Derry, are the only NH communities that have more than 200 active cases.
- Communities with more than 50 active cases, showing changes in active cases since yesterday: Manchester: 784 (-68). Nashua: 459 (-34). Concord: 368 (-6). Salem: 217 (-2). Derry: 208 (+4). Londonderry: 165 (-12). Hudson: 148 (-4). Merrimack: 139 (-19). Dover: 131 (-5). Windham: 121 (-5). Bedford: 119 (-8). Milford: 114 (-8). Hampton: 107 (-1). Portsmouth: 100 (-3). Goffstown: 98 (-10). Rochester: 96 (+8). Keene: 92 (-7). Hooksett: 91 (-6). Pelham: 87 (+1). Laconia: 82 (+0).
- Other communities with an increase or decrease by five or more people: Berlin: 23 (-5). Brookfield: 5 (+5). Canterbury: 0 (-6). Conway: 22 (-9). Epping: 40 (+7). Exeter: 48 (-8). Farmington: 33 (+7). Fitzwilliam: 0 (-6). Fremont: 20 (+6). Hanover: 24 (-8). Lincoln: 0 (-5). Madison: 0 (-5). Newmarket: 42 (+6). Northfield: 27 (+5). Pembroke: 33 (-5). Plaistow: 46 (-9). Sandown: 41 (-5). Seabrook: 47 (-5). Sutton: 0 (-5). Swanzey: 32 (-7). Weare: 44 (-6). Webster: 0 (-5). Winchester: 7 (+7).
Cumulative Cases
- There are now 99 communities that have had 50 or more cases.
- 38 communities have 5 or more new cases from yesterday
- Only Manchester, Nashua, Concord, and Derry have had more total cases than Salem.
- The ten communities with the highest number of cumulative cases, showing changes from yesterday: Manchester: 5378 (+64). Nashua: 2941 (+37). Concord: 1131 (+32). Derry: 1104 (+27). Salem: 1090 (+23). Bedford: 882 (+11). Londonderry: 810 (+18). Hudson: 721 (+9). Merrimack: 647 (+2). Goffstown: 638 (+5).
- Other communities with 5 or more new cases, showing changes from yesterday: Allenstown: 134 (+5). Alton: 105 (+6). Atkinson: 189 (+5). Auburn: 166 (+6). Belmont: 163 (+7). Dover: 606 (+11). Epping: 163 (+13). Epsom: 134 (+5). Farmington: 116 (+8). Fremont: 112 (+6). Greenland: 76 (+5). Hampstead: 214 (+5). Hampton: 465 (+16). Hooksett: 498 (+11). Keene: 355 (+6). Kingston: 125 (+6). Laconia: 305 (+15). Milford: 400 (+8). Newmarket: 141 (+9). Northfield: 70 (+6). Northwood: 79 (+6). Pelham: 411 (+7). Portsmouth: 513 (+10). Raymond: 240 (+7). Rochester: 512 (+17). Strafford: 57 (+5). Tilton: 206 (+7). Windham: 510 (+21). Wolfeboro: 100 (+5).

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

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 670
New positive cases per DHHS: 670
- 525 PCR tests
- 145 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 84
Total positive cases in NH: 32,545
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 6.2%
Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 2,757
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 3,006
New negative results reported today: 2,087
Total negative cases in NH: 438,492

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 8,129
New cases in Rockingham County: 223
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 72.0
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 74.2
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 11.4%%
Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 25.0%
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 67%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 6,477
Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,722
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 26.2%

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

New antibody tests: 23
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 34,009
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 56

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

0-9: 1313 = 4% (+23).
10-19: 3198 = 10% (+79).
20-29: 6266 = 19% (+113).
30-39: 4838 = 15% (+89).
40-49: 4375 = 13% (+105).
50-59: 5197 = 16% (+116).
60-69: 3538 = 11% (+76).
70-79: 1860 = 6% (+42).
80+: 1929 = 6% (+27).
Unknown: 31 = 0% (+0).

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

Announced today: 726
Total Recovered: 24,519
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 76.9%

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

New people hospitalized from NH: 1
Currently hospitalized: 252
Total hospitalized patients: 863
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 2.65%
Total admitted to ICU: 289
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 208

• • • • • • 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: 604
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.86%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 0
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 120

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.

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
~ Dr. Seuss

Hello, Salem!

It’s a Seussical kind of day. While I was working on tonight’s update, the TV was running in the background, with a recorded version of Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Musical.

It’s a cute story from 1957, so most of us have grown up with it. The Grinch is bitter and ill-tempered. He hates Christmas, and everyone around him. The Whos singing cheerfully on Christmas morning, happy simply to have each other, even though they’ve lost everything else. Happily, the Grinch changes direction, and does the right thing at the end.

Which direction will you choose? Are you a Grinch or will you be like the Whos? Scientific facts or an alternate reality? The choices are yours.

Stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

This 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.

From the beginning of the pandemic, it took 43 days before NH reached it’s first 1,000 confirmed diagnoses. It took 31 days to go from 10,000 to 18,000. In another 5 days, we added another 2,000.