COVID-19 Update April 14

COVID-19 Update April 14

I thought this would be done at 10:30, but after numerous crashes tonight, two phone calls to my web host, and a change in my web browser, it’s 3:00 a.m. I hope I’ve caught everything, but it’s too late to do any more proofing. It is what it is.

Key points covered in today’s report:

Today there were 73 new cases. 30 of those cases were tested in MA. Governor Sununu said today was “one of the worst days we’ve had.”
Methuen MA has 277 confirmed cases today; up from yesterday’s 261. According to NH DHHS, Salem has “more than 50” cases.
Dr. Ben Chan is optimistic that the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized has stabilized.
Dr. Chan offered quarantine advice
Not all deaths may have been properly identified.
The “Stay-at-home” order could extend beyond May 4 .”We are not coming out of this in the next few weeks.”
A dispute between Gov. Sununu and the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee
The State will test certain health care workers in long-term care facilities.
The State of New Hampshire will offer a weekly stipend to keep certain long-term care workers on the job.
NH airports will receive funding from the CARES Act.
I am watching for the new app from the IRS to track stimulus payments
Some residents are delivering homemade masks to their police department for distribution and a new no-sew pattern for masks.
Some of my followers have asked for current hospitalization numbers. Today NH DHHS added “Current Hospitalizations” to their report, and I have added it to my calendar. I removed the disclaimer at the bottom of my calendar that this information was not available. ? Keep asking for additional information. It’s possible that we, together, are being heard.

Click on calendar to enlarge
https://www.bonnie4salem.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/april14-calendar.jpg

The “Tracking COVID-19 in N.H.” charts are from NHPR

The NH Division of Public Health Services, Bureau of Infectious Disease Control, has announced a Weekly Summary Report, with more details than I see in the daily reports from the Department of Health & Human Services. See the report or my summary of the key points in my report on April 13.

Q: How is NH doing in comparison to our neighboring states?
A: We aren’t doing enough tests!

The above table is built upon the work done by Mindi Messmer, PG, CG on April 8.
Click table to enlarge.
Table Sources: Population (U.S. Census) and April 8 stats per Mindi Messmer
Tests Reported: Politico

COVID Symptom Tracker: This is a project of Mass General Hospital. In the absence of proper testing, this may be the best way of tracking how we are doing. I’m keeping it near the top, so I’ll remember to log in each day.
https://covid.joinzoe.com/us?fbclid=IwAR2IsoxZ9RBKC4uPQscKiuUUTJCA3cCt3dUr9tjNSsFqOU1rv10jmysmt4Y

Today’s COVID-19 news:

Salem’s confirmed cases: No changes. Again.

April 3: 25 cases
April 6: 33 cases
April 8: 20-40 cases
April 9: 20-49 cases
April 10: Over 50

Yesterday FD Chief Larry Best, the director of Salem’s Emergency Operations Center, reported that NH is following many models to predict COVID-19. He reported that the models show the surge in NH will occur sometime in the next 1-3 weeks.

Today, Dr. Ben Chan, the state epidemiologist, is optimistic that the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized has stabilized at about 70 for the past week or so, meaning the number of new hospitalizations is about the same number as those discharged. Of the confirmed cases in NH, about 15% have required hospitalization.

Salem, Manchester, and Nashua remain the only NH municipalities with more than 50 confirmed cases. With 171 (up +15 from yesterday), Manchester appears to be the city in NH with the most confirmed cases. Nashua has 100 89 (+11) confirmed cases. I presume Salem has the third most cases. Londonderry, Derry, Portsmouth, Dover, Bedford, and Concord, with the addition of Pelham and Hudson, are the only communities with 20-49 confirmed cases.

Hillsborough County, which includes Manchester and Nashua, has 440 (+42) confirmed cases. Rockingham County is second, with 378 (+9) confirmed cases.

As of April 14, Methuen MA has 277 (+16) confirmed cases or 0.7% of its 2019 population of 39,498 people. Salem’s population in 2019 was 29,133. If 0.7% of Salem’s population had COVID-19, we would have 204 cases. How can our neighboring town have so many cases, but we don’t? Massachusetts has much higher testing rates.

We need proper testing to fight COVID-19
“The COVID-19 outbreak isn’t almost over now. Nor will it be in two weeks. We haven’t “almost beaten this” because we haven’t even started properly measuring it yet. We want to measure success in lives saved, not by celebrating an ongoing low death rate.” https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/we-need-proper-testing-to-fight-covid-19/article_acd86517-86cd-5b87-9ce5-e314ffbe5019.html

		April 14		April 13	Change from yesterday
Total Confirmed Cases		1,091		1,020	+71
	Recovered	329	30% (was 24%)	249	+80
	Deaths Attributed to COVID-19	27	2%	23	+4
	Active Cases	735		748	-13
Total Hospitalized		163	15%	152	+11
	Current Hospitalized	63		n/a	?
Tested Negative		10,756		10,590	+166
Persons with specimens submitted to NH PHL		5,245		5,139	+106
	Persons with test pending at NH PHL	73		25	+48
Being Monitored (Approximate)		2,250		2,250	0
Total Tested (Confirmed Cases + Tested Negative)		11,847		11,610	+237

NH News relating to COVID-19

With 73 new cases and four more deaths, Governor Sununu said t4oday was “one of the worst days we’ve had.” 30 of the new cases were tested in MA. The deaths were at long-term care facilities. Three of the four deaths were at Hanover Hill (Manchester; one was at Huntington (Nashua). 15 of NH’s 27 deaths were residents in group or nursing homes.
Dr. Ben Chan: We are “well past being able to contain.” He is optimistic that the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized has stabilized at about 70 for about a week. (Number of new hospitalizations are about the same number as those discharged.) He indicated that this stabilization is perhaps more important than testing, as testing doesn’t change the treatment in most cases. “Hospitalizations are one of the more accurate ways of tracking the number of cases.”
Dr. Chan said people need to quarantine for 48 hours after symptoms stop. (At the same time he was saying this, a report was coming out of Italy that some people are still testing positive several weeks after cessation of symptoms.
Dr. Chan said there have been potential deaths not properly identified as COVID-19. Mindi Messmer reports “The CDC reports NH had 171 deaths due to pneumonia and 29 due to influenza between 2/1 and 4/11 (approx). Based on private reports from people in NH we are concerned that not all the deaths that should be attributed to COVID-19 are being counted.”
Governor Sununu said it’s possible that the “Stay-at-home” order could be extended beyond May 4. “I believe that public health trumps everything. I do.” Sununu is not joining the East Coast Compact, organized by Gov. Cuomo (NY); he is working with other regional governors to relax community relations. “We are not coming out of this in the next few weeks.”
Gov. Sununu signed an executive order today to establish the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief & Recovery (GOFERR). The office is intended to advise, but not veto, the disbursement of the $1.25Billion federal aid coming to NH as part of the CARES Act. GOFERR will bypass the long-standing, bipartisan, bicameral Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee, which has the duty of disbursing funds. Salem’s Senator, Chuck Morse, is a member of both the new GOFERR committee and the Fiscal Committee. Gov. Sununu is being sued to compel him to include the Legislature in his federal stimulus spending process.
The State will partner with ConvenientMD Urgent Care to set up mobile units to test 6,600 health care workers in long-term care facilities in Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, the two counties where 70% of all positive cases call home. The goal is to complete these tests within 20 days, after which, based on results, they will determine if additional rounds of tests should be made.
The State of New Hampshire will offer a weekly $300 stipend for those frontline workers at Medicaid-funded long-term care facilities to keep these critical workers on the job. (30% of NH’s confirmed cases are those in the medical care industry.)
NH airports will receive $15.2 million in emergency funding from the CARES Act, thanks to the effort of Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Most of these funds will primarily go to support the Manchester airport.
I am watching the IRS website for details about their new app to track stimulus payments, “Get My Payment.” which is scheduled to be released on April 17.
A family member in Concord NH reports that their police department is accepting homemade masks. Any Concord resident in need of one may pick one up at the police station. Salem NH residents are making masks available on Facebook. A friend shared a new pattern for a no-sew mask, using a t-shirt.

Salem Government

The Town of Salem’s Emergency Operations Center Team (EOC) will be making weekly reports every Monday evening at 7:00. Their reports can be seen at http://sctv-17.com/CablecastPublicSite/?channel=1

Other Salem Government events coming up:

The Planning Board is scheduled to have a virtual meeting on Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00. which will be viewable by the public on Channel 23.

To watch past or live viewings:

Comcast TV Channel 23
http://sctv-17.com/CablecastPublicSite/?channel=1
https://livestream.com/salemnh
https://www.facebook.com/sctv17

State Representation:
Salem has nine State Representatives. If you are having issues connected to COVID-19, they have access to the people who can get you the help you need. You can find contact info for our reps here: http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/default.aspx

Our Senator, Chuck Morse, can be contacted at Chuck.Morse@leg.state.nh.us His Concord office phone is 603.271.3207.

Disclaimer:

On April 7, NH scientist and politician, Mindi Messmer, PG, CG wrote on her Facebook page: “… testing has pretty much stopped at the NH PHL. The testing penetration is so low in NH, only 1/2% of the 1.3M people, meaning 99.5% of the 1.3M have not been tested, that I am not putting up projections or tests for NH because the graphs would be meaningless and I don’t want to give the false impression that we know what’s going on in NH.”

On April 8, the National Academy of Sciences reported that 16 out of 51 tests were inaccurate. (false negatives). Others also have concerns about both false negatives and false positives.

Please keep these ideas in mind as you review the information on this page or any other page.

Resources to help in these challenging times:

ADDED TODAY:

NH Business Resources:
https://businesshelp.nheconomy.com/hc/en-us

Do YOU think you have COVID-19?

To report suspected cases, contact the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control at 603-271-4496, (603-271-5300 for after hours), or nhbidc@dhhs.nhs.gov.

How You Can Help Others:

Stay home, wash hands, wear cloth masks in public, check on neighbors
Donate food: NH Food Bank: https://www.nhfoodbank.org or call 669-9725
United Way: http://uwnh.org
Donate blood: https://www.redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-Cross
COVID-19 Response in New Hampshire: https://volunteernh.org/covid-19-response/
Watch out for the kids. Child abuse reports are down, because they aren’t out where they can be observed. If you suspect child abuse call Salem Police Department (603) 893-1911 or the NH child abuse hotline at DCYF (800) 894-5533. You could also go to https://knowandtell.org. In an immediate emergency, dial 911.

Masks:

How to make and how to wear: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html
Directions for a no-sew mask (perhaps using the coffee filter, as suggested by the CDC?) http://blog.japanesecreations.com/no-sew-face-mask-with-handkerchief-and-hair-tie
Another option for a new pattern for a no-sew mask, using a t-shirt.

Salem:

Free meals for Salem kids under 18: https://sau57.org/covid19/meals
Town of Salem COVID-29 Info: https://www.townofsalemnh.org/home/covid-19-information
COVID-19 Salem Community Hotline & Email: https://www.townofsalemnh.org/home/news/covid-19-community-hotline-and-email
Salem Police: Dial 911 for emergencies or (603) 893-1911 for non-emergency issues.

New Hampshire:

New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services:

Office of the Governor: https://www.governor.nh.gov

List of NH “essential” services: https://www.governor.nh.gov/news-media/emergency-orders/documents/emergency-order-17-ex-a.pdf

Mindi Messmer: A scientist who is reporting frequently on COVID-19, Mindi is also a candidate for Executive Council, District 3 (including Salem). https://www.facebook.com/Mindi4NH/ Sign up for her “Daily or So COVID-19 Updates” https://actionnetwork.org/forms/daily-or-so-covid-19-updates