Posted on by Bonnie

COVID-19 Update January 9

COVID-19 Update January 9

  • Total: ??? confirmed cases in Salem. Yesterday: 1,613
  • Salem’s Positivity Rate for the past 2 weeks: 10.7; was 7.1% yesterday
  • 1 out of 18 Salem residents have been infected as of yesterday
  • Salem today: ? new cases; ? active cases; 179 as of yesterday

There are MORE problems with the State’s website. Parts of the Interactive Map Dashboard have been updated, and look right, but other parts show today’s date, although the data is the same as yesterday. In addition, the Active and Cumulative Cases Data maps are labeled as January 8, but, while the data itself says it is from January 9, the data is the same as yesterday. As a result, we do not have updated town numbers today.

I don’t know who is responsible for this, but these errors are occurring too frequently. NH DHHS or the Governor’s staff, needs to investigate, and get these things fixed so they don’t happen again, and/or heads need to roll.

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

On Saturday, January 9, 2021, DHHS announced 817 new positive test results for COVID-19, for a current PCR test positivity rate of 5.1%. Today’s results include 555 people who tested positive by PCR test and 262 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 6,635 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire. Of the results reported today: 

  • 12/31: 36 new cases today, for an updated total of 1,057 cases 
  • 1/1: 21 new cases today, for an updated total of 655 cases 
  • 1/6: 9 new cases today, for an updated total of 580 cases 
  • 1/7: 428 new cases today, for an updated total of 856 cases 
  • 1/8: 323 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 over the past 14 days
    • All 10 counties and our two biggest cities are all significantly above 100 new cases, putting the State in a substantial level of community transmission, regardless of how we rank in the other two metrics.
    • New Hampshire: 624.1 yesterday. not updated today.
    • Rockingham County: 616.8
    • Salem: 801
  • Hospitalizations per 100K over the past 14 days
    • All 10 counties and our two biggest cities are all significantly under 10 cases, which is considered minimal. 
  • Positivity Rate over 7 days: 
    • New Hampshire: 7% yesterday; not updated today.
    • Rockingham County: 9.9%
    • Salem: 10.7%, was 7.1% yesterday.
    • Manchester: 11.2%
    • Nashua: 13.2%

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

  • Because of errors at DHHS, we don’t know what Salem’s numbers are today, with a few exceptions:
    • 19,987 tests have been done on Salem residents.
    • 540 new test results were reported for today. The average for the last week is 242 tests per day.
    • The average number of new cases in Salem per 100K people has been declining. Today was the lowest we’ve had in the past month.
      • Today Salem had 801 new cases per 100K over the past week. Rockingham County is 616 today; 641 yesterday. Yesterday the State was 624; we don’t have today’s number.
    • Salem’s Positivity Rate over the past 7 days is 10.7%. Yesterday it was 7.1%. The last time it was this high was December 26. 
    • There are 125 NH communities with a positivity rate above 2%, the max desired goal. There are 110 communities with a positivity rate above 5%. (A moderate community transmission level is 5-10%; below is minimal; above is substantial.) There are 56 communities that are over 10%. Today, 45 communities have a higher positivity rate than Sunday. Yesterday, it was 76. Seven days ago, it as 66, the lowest of the week until today.
  • DHHS reported 817 new cases today, for a total of 50,871 confirmed cases of COVID. Yesterday they reported a total of 50,152 new cases, which is 719 fewer total cases than today, and a difference of 98 fewer cases than what DHHS reported. Yesterday we saw a similar pattern, with a difference of 90 fewer cases. That’s a discrepancy of 188 new cases in two days. I’d like to understand this. I don’t.
  • The number of people who have been hospitalized went up by two today. But the number of people currently hospitalized is down by 29 to 268, the lowest since December 20.
  • DHHS tells us that 308 people have been in the ICU at some point during the pandemic, which is two more than yesterday, and an increase of 8 in the first nine days of the year.
  • In NH, we lost another 16 people today, making a total of 93 COVID-related fatalities in the last 7 days. In this past week, every day except one has had cases in the double digits.
  • Globally, there have now been 90 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase from 84.9% since the beginning of the year
  •  US confirmed COVID-19 cases has passed 22 Million, with two million of those diagnosed in the past 9 days, an increase of 10%. In NH, in those 9 days, we have gone from 45,100 to 50,800, an increase of 8%.

• • • • • • Communities • • • • • •

  • NH DHHS says that the new cases reside in Rockingham (185), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (173), Strafford (79), Merrimack (63), Belknap (37), Grafton (18), Sullivan (18), Cheshire (16), Coos (8), and Carroll (6) counties, and in the cities of Nashua (106) and Manchester (78). The county of residence is being determined for thirty new cases. 
  • Active Cases yesterday. This info is not available today.
    • There are 13 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 3,188 active cases, accounting for 47% of all active cases. 
    • There are 29 NH communities with more than 50 active cases. Between them, these communities have 4,346 active cases, accounting for 64% of all active cases. 
    • Four communities — Manchester, Nashua, Concord and Dover — have more active cases than Salem.
  • Cumulative Cases yesterday. This info is not available today.
    • There are now 126 communities that have had 50 or more cases, and 92 that have had 100 or more.
    • Three communities — Manchester, Nashua and Concord — have more cumulative cases than Salem

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

  • New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus previous total): 719
  • New positive cases per DHHS: 817
    • 555 PCR tests
    • 262 Antigen tests
  • Children under 18 in new cases: 109
  • Total positive cases in NH: 50,871
  • Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 5.1%
  • Total PCR test results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 4,375
  • New negative results reported today: 3,656
  • Total negative cases in NH: 488.287

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

  • Total cases in Rockingham County: 12,424
  • New cases in Rockingham County: 185
  • Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 9.9%
  • Percent of NH cases that are from Rockingham County: 24.4% 

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

  • Active cases in NH: 6,635
  • Active cases in Rockingham County: 1,371
  • Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 20.7% 

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

  • 0-9: 2122 = 4% (+30).
  • 10-19: 5132 = 10% (+107).
  • 20-29: 9573 = 19% (+162).
  • 30-39: 7577 = 15% (+86).
  • 40-49: 6923 = 14% (+110).
  • 50-59: 8156 = 16% (+86). (+1 death)
  • 60-69: 5519 = 11% (+72).
  • 70-79: 2995 = 6% (+33).
  • 80+: 2824 = 6% (+32).
  • Unknown: 50 = 0% (+1).

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

  • Announced today: 879
  • Total Recovered: 43,374
  • Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 85.3% 

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

  • New people hospitalized from NH: 2
  • Currently hospitalized: 268
  • Total hospitalized patients: 928
  • Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 1.82%
  • Total admitted to ICU: 308
  • New hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 1
  • Total hospitalized patients from Rockingham County: 215

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • • 

  • Lives lost today: 16
  • Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 15
  • Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 1
  • Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 862
  • NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 1.69%
  • Lives lost in Rockingham County today: 1
  • Total lives lost in Rockingham County: 156

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.

“Frustration is an interesting emotional state, because it tends to bring out the worst in whoever is frustrated.” 

― Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

Hello, Salem!


I’m frustrated! When the website is not updated by NH DHHS properly, it adds a lot of time to my updates. Sometimes I catch it early, other times, I collect a lot of data before I realize that there is no change from the previous day. Then my report template needs to be amended to reflect the change today. The next day, my formulas need adjusting to see differences for two days, and requires more changes to the template. Then on the following day, the spreadsheet formulas need to be changed back, and the report template needs to revert back to the original. This has happened with Christmas and New Year’s … those are understandable. But now today I had to start the process yet again.

Add to that, they have made changes in the data – the death numbers are no longer reported where my formulas expect to find them. And data has moved from one page to another this week. Data that I could copy and paste (one line at a time), I now have to key in by hand.

And then I look at numbers that indicate that Salem’s new numbers are going to be ugly, and I look at numbers like the discrepancy in the number of cases as mentioned in the Spotlight … <grrr!>

So please forgive me, but I’m frustrated. Others — paid well, and who get time off — aren’t doing their job properly, which makes my volunteer job, with no pay and no days off, much more challenging. All of this is making me grumpy. I own those emotions tonight. And now you know why. To the ten people who read my messages, thanks for listening! Happily, tomorrow is another day.

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.

This screenshot comes from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm?s_cid=mm6942e2_w

This report is explained here:
https://www.clickondetroit.com/health/2020/10/20/cdc-from-january-to-october-us-had-299k-more-deaths-than-in-previous-years/

Useful links

Sources used to create these reports:

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