COVID-19 Update July 19

COVID-19 Update July 19

Total: 279 confirmed cases
1 out of every 106 residents has been infected.
Salem Today: 0 new cases, 19 active cases.

• • • • TODAY’S SPOTLIGHT• • • • • •

Today eight people were moved from Salem’s active case list to our recovered list, and we did not add any additional infections. It’s nice to have less than 20 active cases in Salem!
There has been concern about the number of kids being infected recently. The total, as of today, of kids who have been infected, is 402. The daily average seems to be fairly stable, however, the percentage of all tests who are children does seem to be creeping upward a little, from 6.14% a month ago to 6.48% now. Unfortunately, the kid’s count is not something that I have tracked for more than about 5 weeks, so I can’t go back further. It is something that I will be watching going forward.
• For what it’s worth, here’s some daily averages for kids: July 5 to July 12: Daily average of 3.25 kids per day. March 2 to today: 2.89 kids per day. The past two weeks: Daily average of 2.64 kids per day. From March 2 to June 20: 2.6 kids per day. This past week: Daily average of 2.58 kids per day. The past month: 2.21 kids per day.
NH test results today remain lower than normal — only 892 people. The percent of positive results is a very respectable 1.68%. Massachusetts infections continue to remain in the 2-3% positivity range. However, Florida is reporting 18.2%, and Arizona is reporting 39% of all tests are positive, so we in New Hampshire can be very thankful. Let’s keep it this low.
With 30 more recovered patients, including the eight from Salem, the number of active cases in NH continues to fall. 554 is the lowest since this info has been available to us.
Only 17 people are currently hospitalized in our hospitals, a record low (since April 24, when this info first became available to us). It peaked on May 13, at 126 hospital patients.
I found something that disturbs me about some of NH’s numbers. I need to spend some more time digging a little deeper; hopefully, I’ll have finished figuring it out for tomorrow’s update. I need to find a way to present it so it makes sense.

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

New positive cases per DHHS: 18
My new positive cases (Total of today’s cases minus yesterday’s total): 15
Children under 18 in new cases: 2
Total positive cases in NH: 6,203
Percentage of tests that are positive: 1.68%
Active cases: 554
Percentage of positive cases that are still active: 8.9%
New cases in Rockingham County: 1
Total cases in Rockingham County: 1,551 (Same as yesterday, per DHHS)
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 81%
Total PCR tests results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 892
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 1,050
New negative PCR cases in NH: 877
Total negative cases in NH (as reported by DHHS): 137,175

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

New antibody tests: 150
Total antibody tests (No break down of positive vs. negative): 25,466
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 558
Children diagnosed with MIS-C: (as of 5/22/2020): 1

• • • • • RECOVERED IN NH • • • • • •

Announced today: 30
Total Recovered: 5,251
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 84.7%

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

New: 1
Current: 17
Total Hospitalized: 673
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 10.85%
Percentage of those who have been hospitalized that are still in the hospital: 2.5%

• • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 2
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 2
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 398
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 6.4%
Lives lost in Rockingham today: 0 today

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.

Useful links

If you are having trouble paying your rent or mortgage because of COVID-19, help can be found here.
Info about COVID-19 testing is compiled in one place on my website.
Complications of COVID-19 Survivors of all ages can be found on my website.
Help for Salem residents is on my website.
A list of COVID-19 Resources can be found on my website.
An update of nearby communities can be found here.
Institutional Outbreaks as of June 18 on my website.
Resources from NH DHHS are on the State’s website.
Guidance documents from the State are on the State’s website.

I like what Tate Reeves, the Republican Governor of Mississippi said tonight. Gov. Reeves said, “We’ve got to come together and unite, recognizing that our enemy is the virus, our enemy is not one another, and we’ve got to work together to slow the spread of this virus.”

We’ve got to try. Social distance. Wash hands. And wear a mask. If these efforts don’t work, there is no additional harm done. If they do work, we can knock this thing back, as we safely rebuild our economy. If we don’t try, we risk undoing everything we’ve accomplished in the first few months under the Stay-at-Home order, and we might have to undo some of that good, which no one wants. In the meantime, stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

https://www.bonnie4salem.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/July19-calendar.jpg

Click on the calendar to enlarge

COVID-19 Deaths — It’s Different from the Flu

I was asked about deaths in the US, as reported in these charts. Here’s my analysis:

Per the CDC, from 2/1 to 6/27, there were a total of 1,276,875 deaths. Of those:

US COVID Deaths: 8.8%
Pneumonia: 9.6%
Pneumonia AND COVID: 3.8%
InFLUenza: 0.5%
Pneumonia, ‘Flu OR COVID: 15%
All others: 62.3%
(All others include homicides, accidents, and suicide, plus cancer and heart disease and diabetes and other medical conditions, and natural causes like old age, etc.)

Do I trust these numbers? No. It’s how the death certificates are written. There has been a lot of discussion about how these deaths have been reported, especially in the early days. We see a lot of adjustments, both up and down, in various areas. So no, these aren’t totally accurate. But these numbers give us an approximation. The CDC has linked these categories together in their info, presumably for some purpose.

What I see is that 481,647 people died from a contagious lung disease in this time period. That’s 37.7% of all deaths. Take out the ones that were reported as “Just Flu” or “Just Pneumonia,” (presuming these are correct!), and you get 353,580 cases, or 27.6% of all deaths. That’s more than 1 out of 4 deaths that have been associated with COVID-19.

And don’t forget the potential impacts on the long-term health, and the short and long-term impact on the finances of those who don’t die.

RESOURCES:

My accumulation of resources has been moved. These can now be found at https://www.bonnie4salem.us/covid-19-resources/

Salem specific info can be found at https://www.bonnie4salem.us/covid-19-cases-in-salem/

The report containing information about other towns, counties and our MA neighbors has been moved to https://www.bonnie4salem.us/covid-19-update-nh-towns/I’m updating this information weekly. The last update was May 24.

Sources used to create this report:

COVID-19 Deaths — It’s Different from the Flu

RESOURCES:

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