Posted on by Bonnie

COVID-19 Update September 29

COVID-19 Update September 29

• Total: 327 confirmed cases in Salem
• 1 out of every 90 Salem residents have been infected
• Salem Today: 0 new cases, 7 active cases 

• • • • TODAY’S SPOTLIGHT • • • • • •

  • There were no new cases in Salem.
  • There were 28 new people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the State today, but the cumulative total went up by only 25.
  • The community with the biggest increase in total cases is Manchester, with 8 more people with infections. Other municipalities with increases include Dover (+4) and Nashua and Concord (+3)
  • Schools with active or recovered cases:
    • No preschools. 
    • 17 elementary schools; 10 schools with active cases (+2) affecting a total of 12 students.
    • 6 middle schools (3 with active cases, 3 students). 
    • 15 high schools; 6 schools with active cases, 9 students (+1). 
    • 12 Colleges/Universities; 8 with active cases (+3) affecting 52 students (-2). (UNH-Durham has 37 active cases (-8), 108 recovered (+10)).
  • The numbers for Salem students remain unchanged (1 active case, even though we know of four Salem High students that have been infected.)
  • The State’s school dashboard is only reporting students and staff who have been infected while in school. They are not reporting teachers and students who were infected outside of the school setting. That seems illogical to me. Does it even make sense to include this school info?
  • 17 communities have more than five active cases. 
  • The positivity rate today was 2.99, a little high. However, we usually see fewer results returned this time of the week. (Apparently, people don’t like to get tested on the weekend!). We had less than 1,000 results returned today.
  • Today, NH DHHS reported in their press release that 5 more kids under 18 were infected. Per NH DHHS’s dashboard, there were no new children aged 0-9 that were infected, and there were 8 kids aged 10-19. Yesterday we had the biggest increase in those who are 20-29; today that cumulative count went down by one. Those 40-49 had the biggest jump (+6), followed by those who are 60-69 (+5).
  • One more Granite Stater resident was hospitalized with COVID-19, but the number of patients did drop down to 13.
  • No one died in NH in the 24-hours covered by this update, for the third day in a row.

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

  • New positive cases per DHHS: 28
  • My new positive cases (Total of today’s cases minus yesterday’s total): 25
  • Children under 18 in new cases: 5
  • Total positive cases in NH: 8,233
  • Percentage of today’s tests that are positive: 2.99%
  • Total PCR tests results reported today (Positive results plus negative results): 837
  • The daily average of diagnostic (PCR) tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 3,674
  • New negative results reported today: 812
  • Total negative cases in NH: 261,971

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

  • Total cases in Rockingham County: 2,033
  • New cases in Rockingham County: 3
  • Rockingham County: New cases per 100K residents: 1.0
  • Rockingham County 1-week average per 100K residents: 1.9
  • Percent of all cases from Rockingham County: 24.7%
  • Percent of all cases from either Hillsborough County or Rockingham County: 78%

• • • • • ACTIVE CASES • • • • • •

  • Active cases in NH: 331
  • Active cases in Rockingham County: 76
  • Percent of NH’s active cases that are in Rockingham County: 23.0%

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

  • New antibody tests: 32
  • Total antibody tests (No break downs of positive vs. negative): 31,078
  • The daily average of antibody tests reported from 7 days ago to today: 42

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

  • Announced today: 33
  • Total Recovered: 7,463
  • Percentage of diagnosed cases that have recovered: 90.6%

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

  • New: 1
  • Current: 13
  • Total Hospitalized: 738
  • Percentage of those who have been infected that have been hospitalized: 8.96%

• • • • • DEATHS IN NH • • • • • • 

  • Lives lost today: 0
  • Persons over 60 years of age who died today: 0
  • Persons under 60 years of age who died today: 0
  • Total fatalities in NH associated with COVID-19: 439
  • NH Residents diagnosed with COVID-19 that died: 5.33%
  • 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.

This morning I took a 2-hour Zoom workshop on “Racial Equity and Inclusion” which was offered by Enterprise Bank for local businesses and nonprofits. Fascinating! The keynote speaker, Deo Mwano, talked about “Cognitive Bias,” and broke bias down into ten different styles. We all have some kind of bias. While he was focusing on racial equality, I was able to see how it ties in with all aspects of our lives. Four of the styles of bias that were touched on today felt appropriate while talking about COVID-19. How many of these do you have? Is it good or bad? Do you need to think differently? Process things differently? Which of these applies to you when you talk about COVID-19?

  • Confirmation Bias: People tend to listen more often to information that confirms the beliefs they already have. People tend to favor information that confirms their previously held beliefs.
  • The Anchoring Bias: Overly influenced by the first piece of information that we hear.
  • The False-Consensus Effect: Overestimate how much other people agree with your own beliefs, behaviors, attitudes and values.
  • The Optimism Bias: We overestimate the likelihood that good things will happen to us while underestimating the probability that negative events will impact our lives.

“How do you deal with reality if you don’t know what that reality is?”

Another part of the discussion had to do with microaggression, broken down into microassault, microinsult and microinvalidation. These sometimes fit here, too. 

While you reflect on all of this, please stay safe, and always, be kind.

~Bonnie

Useful links

Sources used to create this report:

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