COVID-19 Update January 5

COVID-19 Update January 5

Total: 1,559 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 9.0%
1 out of 19 Salem residents have been infected
Salem today: 32 new cases; 180 active cases

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

On Tuesday, January 5, 2021, DHHS announced 667 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a current PCR test positivity rate of 6.6%. Today’s results include 427 people who tested positive by PCR test and 240 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 6,480 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today:

12/29: 111 new cases today, for an updated total of 1,091 cases
12/30: 83 new cases today, for an updated total of 980 cases
1/3: 133 new cases today, for an updated total of 458 cases
1/4: 340 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 significantly above 100, putting the State in a substantial level of community transmission.
- New Hampshire: 662.9
- Rockingham County: 703.5
- Salem: 919
Average Positivity Rate over 7 days:
- New Hampshire: 8.7%
- Rockingham County: 9.4%
- Salem: 9.0%
- Manchester: 12.6%
- Nashua: 11.5%
- 69 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem. (33 yesterday!)
- 53 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (Substantial: >10%)
- 105 communities have a positivity rate of more than 5%. (Moderate: 5%-10%)
- 114 communities have a positivity rate of more than 2%. (Goal: <2%)

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

Today, Manchester and Nashua added more new cases to the cumulative total than Salem, but Salem added more to their active case count than any other community.
Salem’s positivity rate over the past 7 days has gone up for the past three days from 7.7% to 8.0% to today’s 9.0%.
Today NH DHHS announced “only” 667 new cases, with a 6.6% positivity rate for today’s PCR test results. The average positivity rate over the past seven days has been 8.7% for the past three days. (It usually changes every day.)
114 communities have a positivity rate over 2%, which is the maximum goal. 105 are more that 5%, and 53 communities are higher than 10%. 69 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem.
Salem does, however, have a positivity rate (9%) lower than that for Rockingham County (9.4) for the second day in a row.
Two people were admitted to the hospital, including on healthcare worker. Both patients were under 60, one of whom is in their 20’s.
Since Christmas, one child under nine has been hospitalized, as have three people in their 20’s, one in their 30’s, five in their 40’s, and two in their 50’s. Twelve under 60, twelve over 60.
Not long ago, having 300 patients hospitalized at the same time because of COVID-19 was unthinkable, but that is what we have had for the past week, even though today we saw currently hospitalized patients go down by 14.
57 people have died in NH because of COVID-19, including 11 more today.
Among those who were infected this week are one resident and one staff at the Residence at Salem Woods. The resident would be counted as a Salem resident, but, while the staff member is reported for the long-term care facility, they would be reported based on their hometown, which is not necessarily Salem, or even NH.
The State has not reported an outbreak at Salem Woods for a while. The previous outbreak was closed May 18. In that outbreak, 23 residents were infected, as were 26 staff members. Ten people associated with Salem Woods died, and, while I presume most are residents, that information was not reported.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Rockingham (195), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (112), Merrimack (66), Strafford (65), Carroll (35), Grafton (19), Belknap (16), Sullivan (14), Cheshire (12), and Coos (11) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (62) and Nashua (38). The county of residence is being determined for twenty-two new cases.
Active cases:
- An additional 373 people were reported as “recovered” today; these are reflected in today’s changes1
- One community — Hampstead — added enough new cases to bring them to 50 or more active cases.
- One community — Berlin — dropped by enough cases to bring them under 50 active cases.
- Compared to yesterday:
  - 78 communities have more active cases
  - 30 communities have the same number of active cases
  - 29 communities have fewer active cases.
- There are 27 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 4,114 active cases, accounting for 63% of all active cases.
- Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Dover are the only communities with more active cases than Salem.
- Salem had more new active cases today than any other community.

Cumulative Cases
- There are now 123 communities that have had 50 or more cases, and 89 that have had 100 or more.
- One community — Walpole — now has 50 or more total cases.
- 36 communities have 5 or more new cases than they had yesterday
- 18 communities have 10 or more new cases than they had yesterday
- Today, two communities — Manchester and Nashua— have added more new cases than Salem.
- Three communities — Manchester, Nashua and Concord — still have more cumulative cases than Salem

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

New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 664
New positive cases per DHHS: 667
- 427 PCR tests
- 240 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 93
Total positive cases in NH: 47,992
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 6.6%
Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 2,625
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 2,357
New negative results reported today: 1,961
Total negative cases in NH: 477,834

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 11,776
New cases in Rockingham County: 195
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 63.0
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 63.7
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 9.4%
Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.5%
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 64%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 6,480
Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,366
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 21.1%

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

New antibody tests: 18
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 34,909
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 52

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

10-19: 4745 = 10% (+77).
20-29: 8964 = 19% (+100). (+1 hospitalization)
30-39: 7169 = 15% (+93).
40-49: 6515 = 14% (+95).
50-59: 7727 = 16% (+123). (+1 hospitalization)
60-69: 5214 = 11% (+69).
70-79: 2841 = 6% (+55).
80+: 2697 = 6% (+17).
Unknown: 64 = 0% (+0).

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

Announced today: 373
Total Recovered: 40,720
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 84.8%

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

New people hospitalized from NH: 2
Currently hospitalized: 305
Total hospitalized patients: 918
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.91%
Total admitted to ICU: 303
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 213

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 11
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 11
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 792
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.65%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 2
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 145

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.

“If we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward.”
~John Wooden

Hello, Salem!

Sometime between New Year’s Eve and January 3, Salem residents with confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 5%. That seems like a big deal to me. (Still, trying to remain positive, 95% have not had it.)

Today, Salem’s active cases increased by 27 … more than any other community. One of our nursing homes now has an outbreak. Small, so far, but it’s there. Our students just returned back to school from their Winter Break. Let’s keep our seniors and our kids healthy. Let’s prevent another shutdown, like so many other places are seeing.

Adapt! Wear masks. Wash hands. Social distance. Many of us have adapted, but not enough. What does it take?

Move forward: Stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

Compiled by Bonnie Wright, based on data obtained from NH DHHS.

The following 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.