COVID-19 Update October 14

COVID-19 Update October 14

Total: 356 confirmed cases in Salem
1 out of every 83 Salem residents have been infected
Salem Today: 1 new case, 20 active cases

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.

Community Transmission Metrics:
- New Cases per 100k over 14 days:
  - Scale: Minimal: <50; Moderate: 50 – 100; Substantial: >100.
  - Today: 977 cases; Daily average: 77.0 (Moderate)
- New hospitalizations per 100k over 14 days:
  - Scale: Minimal: <10; Moderate: 10 – 20; Substantial: >20,
  - Today: Total hospitalizations: 17 total; Daily average: 1.3
- Average PCR Test Positivity Rate over 7 days:
  - Scale: Minimal: <5%; Moderate: 5% – 10%; Substantial: >10%
  - Today: Tests over last 7 days: 426 Total PCR Tests over last 7 days: 35,873
  - Daily average: 1.2%
Today’s Level of Transmission: Moderate

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

Another Salem resident has been identified with COVID-19. 20 people are still considered to be infectious. The last time we had this many active cases was July 28. We were down to less than 5 on September 30.
NH has now done more than 300,000 tests. (MA, which has roughly 6 times our population, has done over 2.7 million tests, about 9 times our tests.
3,750 people in NH are “being monitored.” I presume this means that these people are quarantined because their exposure to someone who is infected with COVID-19 has been identified because of contact tracing. The last time we have had this many on the monitoring list was June 12.
Communities:
- Notable changes in active cases:
  - Yesterday, there were 36 communities with 5 or more cases, accounting for 629 of the 787 active cases. Today we are up to 39 communities, accounting for 674 of the 823 active cases. Many other communities have between 1 and 4 active cases.
  - Allenstown, Brentwood, Plaistow and Weare had less than five active cases yesterday, but have more than 5 today.
  - Gilmanton had more than 5 active cases yesterday, but have less than 5 today.
  - Other communities: Nashua (+8). Manchester (+6). Bedford (-5)
- Some of the communities with significant changes in cumulative cases: Nashua (+11). Manchester (+10). Derry (+4). Hooksett and Hudson (+3 each)
NH has 823 active cases. We had 266 cases on Sept 23. The last time we had this many active cases was July 6.
At least one NH resident has been hospitalized because of COVID-19 for all but one of the last eight days.
After 8 days of losing NH residents, NH had two days without any loss of life because of COVID-19. Today that brief streak was broken, as we lost two more lives. We are averaging 1.43 deaths per day over the last week.

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

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus yesterday’s total): 70

New positive cases per DHHS: 71
- 40 PCR tests
- 31 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 14
Total positive cases in NH: 9,349
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 0.90%
Total PCR tests results reported today (Positive results plus negative results: 3,217
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 1,920
New negative results reported today: 3,147
Total negative cases in NH: 291,718

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 2,289
New cases in Rockingham County: 19
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 6.1
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 6.4
Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.3% yesterday: 24.5%
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 78%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 823
Active cases in Rockingham County: 178
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 21.6%

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

New antibody tests: 39
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 31,619
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 42

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

0-9: +8 (3% of all cases. 11% of new cases
10-19: +10 (8% of all; 14% today)
20-29: +7 (17% of all; 10% today)
30-39: +8 (14% of all; 11% today)
40-49: +12 (13% of all; 17% today)
50-59: +10 (15% of all; 14% today)
60-69: +5 (12% of all; 7% today)
70-79: +3 (7% of all; 4% today)
80+: +7 (11% of all; 10% today)

• • • • • • CHANGES IN SCHOOLS • • • • • •

Yesterday, I shared that the school dashboard showed that there is another student at Salem High School with COVID-19. I’m told that one of my readers contacted the school, and the school denied that there was any case. This “new” case still shows up on the dashboard. It looks like NH DHHS may have screwed up again.
The dashboard still shows the infection at Peter Woodbury (Elementary) School as our Woodbury (Middle) School.
Granite State Arts Academy, a public chartered high school in Salem, has one student listed as having an active infection, unchanged from yesterday.
Pinkerton Academy, in Derry, has gone to remote learning, at least until the end of the month. You can read how one a small breaking of rules impacted the whole school here.

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

Announced today: 32
Total Recovered: 8,068
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 86.3%

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

New: 2
Current: 19
Total Hospitalized: 760
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 8.13%

• • • • • • 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: 458
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 4.90s%
Lives lost in Rockingham today: 0

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.

There are some new phrases or new meanings to phrases that we didn’t have half a year ago.

“Long-haulers.” No, not the truckers. Some people recover quickly from COVID-19, but others don’t. Long-haulers are the people who have troubles recovering from COVID-19; their symptoms just won’t go away, sometimes for months, and maybe for life. Many are younger, many have no pre-existing conditions before COVID. You can read about long-haulers here.

“COVID Fatigue.” I think we are all experiencing this. We are tired of masks, we are tired of social distancing. We want our old way of life back. We are tired of hearing “coronavirus” in the news. And that’s when things get dangerous. I see people being less careful, and admit, it’s harder for me now than it was. We must all be careful; Do NOT let down your guard.

We have enough long-haulers. Don’t let COVID Fatigue get to you.

Be smart. Stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie