Posted on by Bonnie

COVID-19 Update October 23

COVID-19 Update October 23

  • Total: 380 confirmed cases in Salem
  • 1 out of 78 Salem residents have been infected
  • Salem Today: 4 new cases, 25 active cases 

Community Transmission (per NH Department of Health and Human Services)

The overall level of community transmission is defined using three metrics.  A community is then assigned an overall level based on the highest-level determination for any specific metric.  

  • Since discovering the Community Transmission info on the State’s website about two weeks ago, I’ve been watching how these numbers have been changing. There are very minimal changes in the hospitalization rate and the positivity rate; things would need to get much worse before we see significant changes in those metrics. For now, I’ll concentrate on the number of new cases, as that is where we are seeing the most changes.
  • NH Community Transmission Metrics:
    • New Cases per 100k over 14 days: 
      • Scale: Minimal: <50; Moderate: 50 – 100; Substantial: >100. 
      • Today: 1,146 cases; Daily average: 84.5 (Moderate)
    • New hospitalizations per 100k over 14 days:
      • Scale: Minimal: <10; Moderate: 10 – 20; Substantial: >20, 
      • Today: Total hospitalizations: 9 total; Daily average: 0.7%
    • Average PCR Test Positivity Rate over 7 days:
      • Scale: Minimal: <5%; Moderate: 5% – 10%; Substantial: >10%
      • Today: Tests over last 7 days: 493.  Total. PCR Tests over last 7 days: 40,128 Daily average: 1.2%
    • Today’s Level of Transmission: Moderate
  • Rockingham County Transmission:
    • New Cases per 100k over 14 days: 95.4
    • New hospitalizations per 100k over 14 days: 0.6
    • Average PCR Test Positivity Rate over 7 days: 1.4
    • Rockingham County Transmission: Moderate
  • Other NH Locations
    • Manchester: Substantial. (122.7 new case average; 2.7 hospitalizations; 2.8% positivity.)
    • Nashua: Substantial (131.0 new case average; 1.1 hospitalizations; 2.7% positivity.)
    • Merrimack: Substantial (123.7 new case average; 0.7 hospitalizations; 1.8% positivity)
    • Hillsborough County excluding Manchester and Nashua (89.6 new case average): Moderate 
    • Belknap County (60.6 new case average): Moderate
    • Strafford County (58.4 new case average): Moderate
    • Coos County (47.5 new case average): Minimal
    • Grafton County (34.5 new case average): Minimal
    • Carroll County (12.3 new case average): Minimal
    • Sullivan County (23.2 new case average): Minimal
    • Cheshire County (27.5 new case average): Minimal

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

  • Today four more Salem residents were diagnosed with COVID-19
  • Salem now has 25 people who are considered to be infectious, an increase of 4 from yesterday.
  • NH has now had over 10,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19. We have added 1,181 new infections in the past two weeks, with 618 having been diagnosed in the last 7 days.
  • NH’s positivity rate is 1.3%. However, that’s an average. It’s as low as 0.2% in Grafton County, and as high as 2.8% in Manchester.
  • Communities:
    • Notable changes in active cases from yesterday to today:
      • There are now 10 communities with more than 20 active cases. Between them, these 10 communities have 460 total cases, accounting for 51% of all active cases. (Shown: # of active cases and change from yesterday). 
        • Durham is now on this list, with 20 or more active cases.
        • Hudson: 26 (-1)
        • Manchester: 103 (+5). Bedford: 56 (+1). Nashua: 76 (+12). Concord: 48 (+5). Warner: 45 (+3). Derry 34 (+9). Portsmouth: 26 (+2). Salem: 25 (+5).
        • Manchester is now back to having over 100 active cases.
    • Some of the communities with significant changes in cumulative cases: (Twice as many as yesterday):
      • Nashua (+18). Manchester (+15). Concord (+7). Durham, Exeter, Salem and Windham (+4 each). Derry, Dover, Londonderry and Portsmouth (+3)
      • Barrington now has had its 50th case.
  • My records for US infections only go back to May 25. The number of new infections in the US went up by significantly more than any day since then, with the next highest day being yesterday. Today we had 88,639 new cases. The two-week daily average is 61,086. A week ago, that average was 52.8K people.
  • Contact tracing is becoming more difficult to manage. Here is part of the story. Missing: The State doesn’t have enough contact tracers, which both Mindi Messmer and I have questioned. (Note: It’s “Contact” Tracing, not “Contract” Tracing, as reported in this article!)
  • The number of people being monitored is up to 4,325. It’s been over 4,000 for the past 8 days. The only times it has been close (but not that high) since April 1 is a 5 day run in early June, and a 6 day run in late May.

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

  • New positive cases by my math (Total of today’s cases minus yesterday’s total): 118
  • New positive cases per DHHS: 120
    • 87 PCR tests
    • 33 Antigen tests
  • Children under 18 in new cases: 14
  • Total positive cases in NH: 10,112
  • Percentage of today’s tests that are positive per DHHS: 1.3%
  • Total PCR tests results reported today (Positive results plus negative results: 2,978
  • The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 2,077
  • New negative results reported today: 2,860
  • Total negative cases in NH: 316,039

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

  • Total cases in Rockingham County: 2,484
  • New cases in Rockingham County: 32
  • Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 10.3
  • Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 7.2
  • Rockingham County Positivity Rate: 1.4%
  • Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.6%
  • Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 77%

• • • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

  • Active cases in NH: 896
  • Active cases in Rockingham County: 201
  • Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 22.4%. 

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

  • New antibody tests: 40
  • Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 31,919
  • The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 35

• • • • • • CHANGES BY AGES • • • • • • 

  • 0-9: +8 (3% of all cases. 7% of new cases
  • 10-19: +9 (8% of all; 8% today) 
  • 20-29: +26 (18% of all; 22% today) 
  • 30-39: +23 (14% of all; +19% today)
  • 40-49: +13 (13% of all; 11% today)
  • 50-59: +16 (15% of all; 14% today)
  • 60-69: +14 (12% of all; 12% today)
  • 70-79: +6 (7% of all; 5% today) 
  • 80+: +3 (10% of all; 3% today)
  • Unknown: 0 (0% of all; 0% today)

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

  • Announced today: 53
  • Total Recovered: 8,745
  • Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 86.5%

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

  • New: 0
  • Current: 15
  • Total Hospitalized: 765
  • Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 7.57%

• • • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • • 

  • Lives lost today: 1
  • Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 1
  • Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
  • Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 471
  • NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 4.66%
  • Lives lost in Rockingham today: 0

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.


Hello, Salem!

Am I the only one that finds time is flying past us? How can it be the weekend again? 

COVID numbers in NH, and especially Merrimack, Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, are rising. Plan your weekend accordingly.

Stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

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/

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Changes-by-month-877x1024.jpg

Useful links

Sources used to create these reports:

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