COVID-19 Update December 29

COVID-19 Update December 29

Total: 1,415 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 9.0%
1 out of 21 Salem residents have been infected
Salem today: 33 new cases since yesterday; 166 active cases

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

“On Tuesday, December 29, 2020, DHHS announced 1,029 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a current PCR test positivity rate of 7.3%. Today’s results include 630 people who tested positive by PCR test and 399 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 5,883 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today:

12/23: 99 new cases today, for an updated total of 1,119 cases
12/24: 2 new cases today, for an updated total of 744 cases
12/26: 9 new cases today, for an updated total of 487 cases
12/27: 435 new cases today, for an updated total of 537 cases
12/28: 484 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: 687.1
- Rockingham County: 711.6
- Salem: 983
Average Positivity Rate over 7 days:
- New Hampshire: 7.6%
- Rockingham County: 7.5%
- Salem: 9.0%
- Manchester: 10.3%
- Nashua: 10.3%
- 40 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem.
- 30 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (Substantial: >10%)
- 87 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 • • • • • •

Today, Salem added 33 new people to our list of confirmed cases. Our average for the last two weeks is 25 new cases per day.
Although our numbers went up, our positivity rate for today has gone down to 9.0%.
NH’s positivity rate also went down from 9.3% to 7.3%.
NH added 1,029 new cases today, per NH DHHS. Our daily average is 800 cases per week. The week before the daily average was 799 cases per day, so things are essentially unchanged.
572 children under 18 years of age were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past week, including 125 today.
Today’s numbers also include an additional 20 more health-care workers and 83 persons in long-term care health facilities since yesterday.
Yesterday, NH had 5,508 people with active infections. Today we have 5,883, an increase of 375 people.
Six more people were admitted to the hospital for the first time today because of COVID. As of today, over 900 NH residents have been hospitalized because of COVID-19.
The number of people currently hospitalized went up by 26. This makes a total of 295 currently hospitalized, which is still 10 less than the record, which was set one week ago.
While most of those admitted to the hospital are elderly, three this week are under 50 years of age.
Two more people were admitted to the ICU, for a total of 299 ICU patients in NH since the start of the pandemic.
Another 20 people died from COVID-19 in the 24-hour period covered by this report. NH has lost an average of 13 people per day over the past week.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Rockingham (252), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (182), Merrimack (105), Strafford (85), Belknap (54), Carroll (22), Grafton (21), Coos (18), Sullivan (10), and Cheshire (9) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (128) and Nashua (87). The county of residence is being determined for fifty-six new cases.
Active cases:
- An additional 632 people were reported as “recovered” today; these are reflected in today’s changes.
- Four communities — Amherst, Durham, Hampton and Raymond — added enough new cases to bring them to 50 or more active cases.
- One community — Merrimack — added enough new cases to bring them to 100 or more active cases.
- There are 25 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 3,626 active cases, accounting for 62% of all active cases.
- 31 communities have 5 or more new active cases than they had yesterday. Seven communities have 5 or more fewer active cases than they had yesterday.
- Manchester, Nashua, and Concord, plus now Dover and Hudson, are the only communities with more active cases than Salem. Derry and Salem have the same number of active cases: 166.
Cumulative Cases
- Two more communities — Brentwood and Warner — now have 100 or more total cases.
- There are now 112 communities that have had 50 or more cases, and 84 that have had 100 or more.
- 45 communities have 5 or more new cases than they had yesterday.
- Only Manchester, Nashua, and Concord have had more total cases than Salem.
- Manchester has had over 6,800 total cases, Nashua over 3700, Concord over 1500. Salem now has had over 1,400 total cases. Derry is still in the 1,300’s. Bedford, Hudson and Londonderry have had more than 1,000 total cases. All other communities have less than 1,000 total cases. 76 communities have triple digit numbers, and another 106 communities have total numbers in the double-digit range.

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

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 1,027
New positive cases per DHHS: 1,029
- 630 PCR tests
- 399 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 125
Total positive cases in NH: 42,697
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 7.3%
Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 1,789
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 2,322
New negative results reported today: 762
Total negative cases in NH: 465,232

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 10,604
New cases in Rockingham County: 252
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 81.4
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 62.9
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 7.5%
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: 5,883
Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,366
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 23.2%

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

New antibody tests: 20
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 34,597
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 40

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

0-9: 1782 = 4% (+12).
10-19: 4164 = 10% (+107).
20-29: 8108 = 19% (+189).
30-39: 6357 = 15% (+139).
40-49: 5742 = 13% (+150).
50-59: 6872 = 16% (+173).
60-69: 4665 = 11% (+118).
70-79: 2505 = 6% (+72).
80+: 2458 = 6% (+66).
Unknown: 44 = 0% (+1).

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

Announced today: 632
Total Recovered: 36,079
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 84.5%

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

New people hospitalized from NH: 6
Currently hospitalized: 295
Total hospitalized patients: 901
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 2.11%
Total admitted to ICU: 299
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 210

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 20
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 20
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 735
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.72%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 3
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.

Disappointment is inevitable. But to become discouraged, there’s a choice I make.
~ Charles Stanley

Hello, Salem!

Like others, I was starting to feel a little encouraged with our numbers. Today is disappointing. However, let’s not allow ourselves to be discouraged. Consider the recent numbers as a sign that things will improve, and today’s numbers as a reminder that we must remain vigilant so that things can improve and so we can 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.