NH Coronavirus Update: Nov. 6. 2021
Active COVID cases in New Hampshire now stand at 4,850–the highest total since Jan. 31. (Source: NH DHHS)
New Hampshire public health officials announced 863 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and 5 additional deaths. Over the course of this week, the state announced 32 additional COVID-19-related deaths—the most in a one-week period since February. The number of active cases of COVID-19 rose to 4,850, the most since Jan. 31. There are currently 60 active cases in Portsmouth and 787 in Rockingham County. New cases have averaged 618 per day over the most recent 7-day period (October 30 to November 5). This is a 41% increase over the previous 7-day period.
Vaccinations Start for Children Ages 5-11: Here’s Where to Get Them. For kids age 5 to 11 in New Hampshire, it's finally their turn to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Large state-run clinics and mass drive-through sites won’t be an option for kids. Rather, the vaccine will be available across the state at a variety of locations, from pharmacies to schools to doctors' offices. Right now, there are over 500 COVID-19 vaccine providers in the state. But at least initially, many of these providers may not have the smaller, pediatric Pfizer vaccine dose for kids. If you’re looking to get your child vaccinated soon, making an appointment at a pharmacy online could be your best bet. But appointments are already filling up quickly. (Source: NHPR) Meanwhile, New Hampshire health officials, citing the Executive Council’s recent rejection of $27 million in federal funding to support the vaccination effort, are urging families to be patient in scheduling COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11. While the Council eventually approved using $4.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to set up school vaccination clinics, the delay in funding has translated into delays in setting up school clinics, many of which won’t be available until well after the middle of the month. For now, New Hampshire health officials are pointing families of young children to area pharmacies. “Parents should expect significant demand for pharmacy-based vaccinations,” said Jake Leon, a spokesman for the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services. (Source: The Valley News)
What Granite Staters Need to Know About the Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine. According to Dr. Susanne Tanski, a pediatrician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, kids 5-11 will receive two doses (smaller than adult does), 21 days apart, and the most common side effect will be a sore arm. Tanski adds that while the risk of death and serious illness is generally less for children than for adults, it’s important to keep in mind that every time a child gets COVID, they must quarantine from school for 10 days. “That’s a lot of time away from their friends and there is the risk of transmitting to other people,” Tanski says. “For kids who do get COVID disease, there is a risk of some other issues down the way. We do not want our kids to get sick at all and indeed, we’ve had about 94 kids in this age group die in the United States from COVID disease and kids are not supposed to die. There’s been 800 kids under the age of 18 who have died from COVID. And these are all now vaccine-preventable deaths.” (Source: WMUR) Meanwhile, Portsmouth Health Officer Kim McNamara says that while the long-term effects of COVID infection are not known, the growing list of illness and harm this disease is known to produce in all age groups and ethnicities is sobering. In an op-ed published in the Portsmouth Herald, McNamara addresses several considerations that frequently come up when she speaks with people who are vaccine hesitant. (Source: Seacoast Online)
NH Boy, 9, Hospitalized with Rare Complication of COVID-19. A 9-year-boy old from Fremont is at Massachusetts General Hospital recovering from a serious complication some children suffer from after contracting COVID-19. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, is a serious and potentially fatal condition in which different organs can become inflamed. State epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said that while such complications are uncommon, they can occur, even in healthy people. "And in fact, the majority of cases of MIS-C that have occurred have occurred in this age group, the 5- to 11-year olds, and oftentimes, this leads to hospitalizations," Chan said. The boy’s mother is urging other parents to take measures to protect their children, including masking and vaccination. (Source: WMUR)
‘Not Quite on Board’: Parents Proving a Tough Sell on Covid Vax for Teens. Even as the U.S. prepares to roll out a covid-19 vaccine to elementary school-aged kids, its efforts to inoculate teenagers — who have been eligible for the shot since May — continue to meet with a lackluster response. So far, about half of kids 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated in the U.S., compared with nearly 70% of Americans 18 and older. Pediatricians expect it will be even harder to persuade skeptical parents of younger children to get their kids inoculated. A recent poll from KFF found 27% of parents of children 5 to 11 said they plan to get them vaccinated “right away,” while 30% said they would “definitely not” get the vaccine for their 5- to 11-year-olds. More than three-quarters of parents of children in this age group reported they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned that not enough is known about the long-term effects of the vaccine in kids. (Source: Kaiser Health News)
N.H.'s COVID-19 Vaccination Data Hasn't Been Accurate Since June. Why? This week, NHPR reported that COVID-19 booster doses administered in New Hampshire are being incorrectly tracked by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention as first doses of the vaccine. The CDC confirmed that it can’t accurately track booster doses in New Hampshire due to linkage issues with the state of New Hampshire’s immunization information system, which currently can't access data from pharmacies. The linkage issue means that state is also unable to track booster shots or the overall vaccination rate accurately. The inability of the state to include pharmacy data in its database is largely due to its new and underfunded vaccine registry system. The CDC says they can update records as data is fixed locally. But, with funding needed to improve the system at the state level in limbo, it’s unclear when the tracking issues could be resolved. The inaccurate data means the CDC is not only miscounting booster doses, but the rate of first COVID shots is becoming increasingly, and artificially, inflated. (Source: NHPR)
NH Vaccine Data Collection Problems Cloud COVID’s Impact on NH Minority Populations. People of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in New Hampshire and throughout the country. But the collection of data related to race has lagged, obscuring our understanding of COVID’s impact on minority populations in the state. On Friday, the state’s equity dashboard showed that race data was unknown in 30 percent of cases. Dr. Marie Ramas, a family medicine doctor who works with underserved populations in Nashua, says in some communities there is a distrust of medical systems and structures. Other factors impacting vaccination rates include pressure on younger people from elders in their community to avoid vaccination, attrition of primary care physicians, and the NH Executive Council’s refusal of $27 million in federal vaccination funds. Ramas says that as efforts to overcome vaccine hesitancy continue, it’s critical for the state to improve equity data collection when it comes vaccinations. “If it’s not written, it’s not real,” Ramas said. “If it’s not collected and if it’s not identified, then there will be problems that will emerge that we can’t address.” (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)
Hampton, Portsmouth Nursing Homes Hit With COVID-19 Outbreak. While vaccinations have tamped down the fatality rate among New Hampshire seniors, breakthrough cases continue to plague nursing homes and other congregate living facilities. The Hillsborough County Jail and 15 nursing homes are currently reporting outbreaks. As of Nov. 2, 27 residents and three staff at Oceanside Center in Hampton had tested positive. Portsmouth’s Edgewood Centre reports 16 residents and one staff member have tested positive for the virus. (Source: Seacoast Online)
With Federal Vaccine Rules for Private Businesses Set to Kick in Jan. 4, NH Joins Second Lawsuit To Block Vax Mandates. The state has joined a second lawsuit seeking to block a vaccine mandate issued by the Biden administration. In a petition filed Friday in a federal appeals court with 10 other states, New Hampshire seeks to block implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency standards requiring all companies with more than 100 employees to require vaccination or weekly testing of employees for COVID-19. Companies that fail to comply face fines. News of the lawsuit came a day after New Hampshire had the highest number of deaths — 11 — since January and total infections and hospitalizations approaching similar levels as at the height of the pandemic last winter. (Source: InDepthNH) Under the new federal policy, private businesses with more than 100 employees must ensure their workers either are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or that they will undergo weekly testing and wear a face covering. Worth noting is the rule does not require employers to provide or pay for tests for those who are not vaccinated. OSHA officials say the cost of failing to comply would depend on the number and magnitude of the violations, but a single violation could bring a fine of nearly $14,000 — and those deemed to be “willful” could cost as much as $136,000. Hospitals or long-term care facilities that do not comply with the vaccination requirement for their workers also could face penalties from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. An estimated 84 million workers across the United States would be affected. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)
More Rapid COVID Tests on the Way to NH to Meet Demand. New Hampshire is expected to receive 60,000 rapid COVID-19 tests from the Biden administration in the coming weeks. As cases of the coronavirus have spiked, access to rapid tests has been limited. The shortage has made it difficult for parents to keep their children in school, as testing is often a requirement to return to school after developing a wide range of symptoms. (Source: Concord Monitor)
Pfizer Says Its Experimental Pill Reduces Risk of Hospitalization, Death from Covid-19. In what could be a critical breakthrough in the battle against COVID-19, drugmaker Pfizer said Friday its experimental pill designed to fight coronavirus reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk patients taking part in a trial of the drug. The company hopes it can eventually offer the pill to people to take at home before they get sick enough to go to the hospital. An interim analysis -- done before the trial was scheduled to end -- showed an 89% reduction in the risk of hospitalization or death from Covid-19 if patients got it soon enough, the company said. The results were so striking, Pfizer halted the trial and is preparing to make its case to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization of the drug. The pill, called Paxlovid, is what's known as a protease inhibitor. It's designed to stop the virus from multiplying. Another drug company, Merck, is also seeking FDA emergency use authorization for a similar drug that's been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about 50%.(Source: CNN)