COVID-19 Update December 30

COVID-19 Update December 30

Total: 1,433 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 10.2%
1 out of 21 Salem residents have been infected
Salem today: 18 new cases since yesterday; 171 active cases

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

On Wednesday, December 30, 2020, DHHS announced 594 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a daily PCR test positivity rate of 7.4%. Today’s results include 365 people who tested positive by PCR test and 229 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 5,762 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today:

12/23: 92 new cases today, for an updated total of 1,208 cases
12/24: 52 new cases today, for an updated total of 797 cases
12/26: 9 new cases today, for an updated total of 495 cases
12/27: 1 new case today, for an updated total of 538 cases
12/28: 111 new cases today, for an updated total of 558 cases
12/29: 329 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
- All 10 counties and our two biggest cities are all above 100, putting the State in a substantial level of community transmission
- New Hampshire: 628.0
- Rockingham County: 706.4
- Salem: 943.0
Average Positivity Rate over 7 days:
- New Hampshire: 7.8%
- Rockingham County: 8.2%
- Salem: 10.2%
- Manchester: 10.0%
- Nashua: 10.7%
- 33 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem.
- 35 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (Substantial: >10%)
- 86 communities have a positivity rate of more than 5%. (Moderate: 5%-10%)
- 98 communities have a positivity rate of more than 2%. (Goal: <2%)

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

Over 18,000 antigen and PCR tests have been performed on Salem residents.
152 test results were reported for Salem residents in the 24-hour period covered by this report. The daily average for the last week is 184 tests (a combination of PCR and Antigen tests).
Salem’s positivity rate for PCR + antigen test results returned over the past week is back on the wrong side of 10%.
NH’s positivity rate for the past week also went up from 7.6%. to 7.8%. Today’s PCR results were 7.4%.
In NH, more people (660) were recovered today than new cases were added. (594 per NH DHHS, but there are only 545 more total cases reported by them today compared to the total reported yesterday.)
The number of active cases (5,762) is 121 fewer than NH had yesterday.
There were no more people admitted to the hospital for the first time today, although the number of people currently hospitalized increased by 11.
The total number of people currently hospitalized is back over 300 for the second time.
Last Wednesday, 305 NH residents were hospitalized. Today the count is up to 306, a new record.
While most of those admitted to the hospital are elderly, three this week are under 50 years of age.
One more person was admitted to the ICU, for a total of 300 ICU patients in NH since the start of the pandemic. 21 of the ICU patients have been in the past month.
Another 6 people died from COVID-19 in the 24-hour period covered by this report, including another person who was under 60 years old.
The new variant of COVID-19 first identified in the UK has now been detected in two states, Colorado and California. Most states are not testing for this variant. There are no recognized connections between the identified patients, indicating community spread.
According to WorldOMeter, the US has had over 20 million confirmed cases of COVID-19.
I have replaced NH DHHS’s charts of outbreaks at longterm care facilities.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Rockingham (160), Merrimack (100), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (95), Strafford (34), Carroll (26), Belknap (25), Cheshire (15), Grafton (15), Sullivan (10), and Coos (8) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (41) and Nashua (41). The county of residence is being determined for twenty-four new cases.
Active cases:
- An additional 660 people were reported as “recovered” today; these are reflected in today’s changes.
- Two communities — Durham and Hampton — dropped by enough cases to bring them under 50 active cases.
- There are 23 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 3,448 active cases, accounting for 60% of all active cases.
- Of the 23 communities with more than 50 active cases, only nine, including Salem, have more active cases than they had yesterday, three have no change in the number of active cases, and 11 have fewer cases today than they had yesterday.
- Of the communities with less than 50 active cases, six communities have more than 5 than they had yesterday, and 13 communities have at least 5 fewer than they had yesterday.
- Manchester, Nashua, Concord, and Dover are the only communities with more active cases than Salem.
Cumulative Cases
- There are now 114 communities that have had 50 or more cases, and 84 that have had 100 or more.
- Two more communities — Antrim and Charlestown — now have 50 or more total cases.
- 34 communities have 5 or more new cases than they had yesterday.
- Only Manchester, Nashua, and Concord have had more total cases than Salem.

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

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 545
New positive cases per DHHS: 594
- 365 PCR tests
- 229 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 65
Total positive cases in NH: 43,242
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 7.4%
Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 1,397
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 2,044
New negative results reported today: 852
Total negative cases in NH: 466,084

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 10,761
New cases in Rockingham County: 160
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 51.7
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 63.8
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 8.2%
Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.9%
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 65%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 5,762
Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,351
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 23.4%

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

New antibody tests: 40
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 34,637
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 38

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

0-9: 1806 = 4% (+24).
10-19: 4212 = 10% (+48).
20-29: 8197 = 19% (+89).
30-39: 6421 = 15% (+64).
40-49: 5835 = 13% (+93).
50-59: 6970 = 16% (+98).
60-69: 4737 = 11% (+72).
70-79: 2548 = 6% (+43).
80+: 2471 = 6% (+13).
Unknown: 45 = 0% (+1).

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

Announced today: 660
Total Recovered: 36,739
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 85.0%

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

New people hospitalized from NH: 0
Currently hospitalized: 306
Total hospitalized patients: 901
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 2.08%
Total admitted to ICU: 300
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 0
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 210

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 6
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 5
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 1
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 741
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.71%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 0
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 140

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.

“All the world is topsy-turvy, and it has been topsy-turvy ever since the plague.”
― Jack London, The Scarlet Plague

Hello, Salem!

As I have been working on tonight’s update, the old movie, Jumangi, starring Robin Williams, is playing on the TV in the background. Doesn’t life feel like we are living in that movie? Our numbers go up, our numbers go down, and then they go back up again. Conspiracy theories abound about COVID and many other topics. Some days the world just doesn’t make sense.

But like Jumangi, I have faith that our world will, eventually, have a happy ending. Hang in there, friends. This too shall pass. In the meantime, stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

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

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.