COVID-19 Update December 31

COVID-19 Update December 31 – Goodbye 2020!

Total: 1,453 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 8.1%
1 out of 21 Salem residents have been infected
Salem today: 17 new cases since yesterday; 167 active cases

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

On Thursday, December 31, 2020, DHHS announced 848 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a daily PCR test positivity rate of 5.7%. Today’s results include 479 people who tested positive by PCR test and 369 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 5,919 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today:

12/25: 69 new cases today, for an updated total of 357 cases
12/26: 39 new cases today, for an updated total of 534 cases
12/27: 48 new cases today, for an updated total of 586 cases
12/28: 1 new case today, for an updated total of 559 cases
12/29: 486 new cases today, for an updated total of 813 cases
12/30: 205 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: 614.2.0
- Rockingham County: 687
- Salem: 895
Average Positivity Rate over 7 days:
- New Hampshire: 8.2%
- Rockingham County: 8.0%
- Salem: 8.1%
- Manchester: 9.7%
- Nashua: 10.7%
- 62 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem. (33 yesterday!)
- 39 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (Substantial: >10%)
- 93 communities have a positivity rate of more than 5%. (Moderate: 5%-10%)
- 102 communities have a positivity rate of more than 2%. (Goal: <2%)

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

17 more Salem residents were diagnosed with COVID-19. The number of new cases in Salem were lower yesterday and today, which appears to be the trend before a major holiday, bringing the daily average for the past week to 25.8.
DHHS continues with large numbers of people who are “recovered.” Today’s 611 brings the total for the last seven days to 5,026 people, for a daily average of 718.
The number of active cases is 5,919, which is 157 more than yesterday’s 5,762, but still over 1,000 less than the peak on Sunday.
902 people have been hospitalized since the beginning of the pandemic. Over 1/3 are still hospitalized.
One more person was admitted to the hospital for the first time. They are from Rockingham County.
Other patients have been readmitted to the hospital, bringing the number of patients currently hospitalized to 317, a new high.
Another 18 people died from COVID-19 in the 24-hour period covered by this report. In the press report, DHHS reported two who were under 60, but the dashboard only shows one death for someone under 60.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (193), Rockingham (162), Merrimack (110), Strafford (101), Belknap (33), Coos (23), Carroll (22), Cheshire (10), Sullivan (10), and Grafton (9) counties, and in the cities of Nashua (68) and Manchester (60). The county of residence is being determined for forty-seven new cases.
This is the first time in a long time that Rockingham County hasn’t been first in this list.
Active cases:
- An additional 611 people were reported as “recovered” today; these are reflected in today’s changes.
- Four communities — Durham, Epsom, Litchfield and Newmarket — added enough new cases to bring them to 50 or more active cases.
- One community — Exeter — dropped by enough cases to bring them under 50 active cases.
- There are 26 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 3,679 active cases, accounting for 62% of all active cases.
- Of the 26 communities with more than 50 active cases, 14 have more active cases than they had yesterday, two have no change in the number of active cases, and 10 have fewer cases today than they had yesterday.
- Of communities with less than 50 active cases, 10 communities added five or more, and 4 had 5 or more fewer active cases.
- Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Dover are the only communities with more active cases than Salem.
Cumulative Cases
- There are now 113 communities that have had 50 or more cases, and 85 that have had 100 or more.
- One community — Rollinsford — now has 50 or more total cases.
- Two more communities — Nottingham and Ossipee — now have 100 or more total cases.
- 37 communities have 5 or more new cases than they had yesterday.
- 22 communities have 10 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): 786
New positive cases per DHHS: 848
- 479 PCR tests
- 369 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 118
Total positive cases in NH: 44,028
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 5.7%
Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results):2,960
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 73,184
New negative results reported today: 2,174
Total negative cases in NH: 468,258

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 10,918
New cases in Rockingham County: 162
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 52.3
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 67.3
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 8.0%
Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.8%
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 65%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 5,919
Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,356
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 22.9%

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

New antibody tests: 34
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 34,671
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 34

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

0-9: 1849 = 4% (+43).
10-19: 4302 = 10% (+90).
20-29: 8317 = 19% (+120).
30-39: 6552 = 15% (+131).
40-49: 5966 = 14% (+131). This age group had been 13% of all cases until today.
50-59: 7077 = 16% (+107).
60-69: 4813 = 11% (+76).
70-79: 2589 = 6% (+41).
80+: 2510 = 6% (+39).
Unknown: 53 = 0% (+8).

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

Announced today: 611
Total Recovered: 37,350
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 84.8%

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

New people hospitalized from NH: 1
Currently hospitalized: 317
Total hospitalized patients: 902
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 2.05%
Total admitted to ICU: 300
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 211

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 18
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 16
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 2
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 759
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.72%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 0
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 141

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.

“Extend your arms in welcome to the future. The best is yet to come!”
~Anthony de Mello

Hello, Salem!

Good evening. Here’s my final COVID-19 update for 2020. Who would have dreamed back in early April, when I started these updates that they would still be continuing with no end in sight? COVID was first detected in the US 347 days ago. It was first detected in NH 305 days ago. This is update #271; I’ve done an update every day except Christmas since April 4. I know that you join me in looking forward to the last one of these updates.

While I’m concerned that things will get worse over the next month or two, I expect that things will get much better for most of us in the near future. Have a happy and healthy New Year; don’t forget to 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.