COVID-19 Update January 6

COVID-19 Update January 6

Total: 1,589 confirmed cases in Salem
Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 7.1%
1 out of 19 Salem residents have been infected
Salem today: 30 new cases; 191 active cases

Missing Data
In their daily press release on March 21, NH DHHS reported the number of patients who had been hospitalized (It was 3.). That statistic has been reported in every press release since. On March 23, the number of persons who have been hospitalized was added as a line item on the State’s Summary Report, and had seen reported in every Summary report since. Today, the info reporting the total number of individuals who have been hospitalized in both the Press Release and the Summary Report has disappeared.

Starting with the fourth COVID-19 Summary Report from NH DHHS on March 9, the “Number of Persons Being Monitored in NH” was reported. This statistic has been reported in every Summary report, until December 4, after which this was abruptly removed without notice.

I, for one, would like to know why the cumulative number of people who have been hospitalized and the number of persons being monitored were removed, and call for them to be returned.

Shhh! Don’t tell DHHS, but, while this important hospitalization datum has been removed from two key reports, the total number of hospitalizations can still be found on the interactive analytics dashboard, so they didn’t hide it very well.

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

On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, DHHS announced 912 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a current PCR test positivity rate of 5.8%. Today’s results include 542 people who tested positive by PCR test and 370 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 6,785 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today:

12/30: 65 new cases today, for an updated total of 1,039 cases
12/31: 43 new cases today, for an updated total of 869 cases
1/2: 1 new case today, for an updated total of 579 cases
1/4: 361 new cases today, for an updated total of 701 cases
1/5: 442 new cases

Test results for previous days are still being processed and the total number of new positives for those days is 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. (The community with the fewest new cases per 100K has over 300 new cases per 100K.)
- New Hampshire: 667.5
- Rockingham County: 719.7
- Salem: 939
Average Positivity Rate over 7 days:
- New Hampshire: 8.1%
- Rockingham County: 8.7%
- Salem: 7.1%
- Manchester: 13.2%
- Nashua: 10.5%
- 79 communities have a positivity rate higher than Salem. (33 yesterday!)
- 41 communities have a positivity rate of more than 10%. (Substantial: >10%)
- 103 communities have a positivity rate of more than 5%. (Moderate: 5%-10%)
- 111 communities have a positivity rate of more than 2%. (Goal: <2%)

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

After today’s results, we know that over 19,000 tests have been done on Salem Residents, including 138 new test results added today.
Salem has added another 30 new cases of COVID-19; which is139 new cases this week.
Today, DHHS announced that 24 people had lost their lives today, including 5 from Rockingham County. This is the most deaths to have taken place in a 24-hour period.
NH has now lost over 800 people because of COVID-19, including 75 people within the past week.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Rockingham (218), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (156), Strafford (76), Merrimack (68), Belknap (39), Grafton (37), Coos (33), Sullivan (27), Cheshire (19), and Carroll (10) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (116) and Nashua (62). The county of residence is being determined for fifty-one new cases.
Active cases:
- An additional 517 people were reported as “recovered” today; these are reflected in today’s changes.
- One community — Pelham — added enough new cases to bring them to 100 or more active cases.
- One community — Berlin — added enough new cases to bring them to 50 or more active cases.
- One community — Durham — dropped by enough cases to bring them under 50 active cases.
- Compared to yesterday:
  - 88 communities have more active cases
  - 14 communities have the same number of active cases
  - 37 communities have fewer active cases.
- There are 27 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 4,298 active cases, accounting for 63% of all active cases.
- Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Dover are the only communities with more active cases than Salem.

Cumulative Cases
- There are now 125 communities that have had 50 or more cases, and 91 that have had 100 or more.
- Two more communities — Pittsfield and Strafford — now have 100 or more total cases.
- Two communities — Greenville and Kensington — added enough new cases to bring them to 50 or more total cases.
- 50 communities have 5 or more new cases than they had yesterday
- 18 communities have 10 or more new cases than they had yesterday
- 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): 846
New positive cases per DHHS: 912
- 542 PCR tests
- 370 Antigen tests
Children under 18 in new cases: 134
Total positive cases in NH: 48,838
Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 5.8%
Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 2,824
The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 2,338
New negative results reported today: 1,978
Total negative cases in NH: 479,812

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

Total cases in Rockingham County: 11,996
New cases in Rockingham County: 218
Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 70.4
Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 66.8
Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 9.7%
Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.6%
Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 64%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

Active cases in NH: 6,785
Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,3472
Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 21.7%

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

New antibody tests: 35
Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 34,944
The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 51

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

0-9: 2047 = 4% (-9). (DHHS’s records show a decrease in cumulative cases for this age group)
10-19: 4849 = 10% (+104).
20-29: 9150 = 19% (+186).
30-39: 7309 = 15% (+140).
40-49: 6638 = 14% (+123).
50-59: 7878 = 16% (+151).
60-69: 5306 = 11% (+92).
70-79: 2897 = 6% (+56).
80+: 2715 = 6% (+18).
Unknown: 49 = 0% (-15).

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

Announced today: 517
Total Recovered: 41,237
Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 84.4%

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

New people hospitalized from NH: 1
Currently hospitalized: 301
Total hospitalized patients: 919
Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.88%
Total admitted to ICU: 304
New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 214

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • •

Lives lost today: 24
Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 23
Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 2
Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 816
NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.67%
Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 5
Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 151

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 don’t end war, war will end us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

Hello, Salem!

We are at war. We cannot see the enemy, but the enemy is here, all around us. The enemy is cunning, and is looking for a way to infiltrate. The enemy won few battles today. We must remain vigilant, so we can win this war.

There are many casualties of this war that we have been waging for nearly a year. Certainly, the 75 people in NH who died in the past week are victims of this war, as are their families and loved ones, as are the long-haulers who can’t return to a normal life because of COVID-19 side effects. Our kids, who aren’t being allowed to be kids, and our seniors who are isolated and alone, are casualties of this war. Our businesses are wounded. There are so many lives that are impacted.

Fight on! There are ways we can end the war. You know what to do to 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.