Rep. David Meuse
IMG_9343.jpg

Updates

State House Updates

N.H. Coronavirus Update—May 2021

Sunday, May 30

As COVID-19 cases ease in NH and the US, here are the global hot spots. (Source: New York Times)

As COVID-19 cases ease in NH and the US, here are the global hot spots. (Source: New York Times)

After two deaths were announced on Friday, New Hampshire public health officials announced one additional death on Saturday, bringing the state’s pandemic death toll up to 1,352. Also reported on Saturday were 73 new COVID-19 cases. There were 500 active infections reported statewide and 46 people were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Sunday.

  1. State Vaccination Sites Closed on Monday. All state-managed vaccination sites will be closed on Monday in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Beginning June 1, all state-managed fixed sites will only offer second doses of vaccines. All state of New Hampshire-managed COVID-19 vaccination sites will be closing at the end of June, state officials said Thursday. (Source: WMUR and NBC Boston)

  2. Sununu Renews State of Emergency for Another 14 Days. Gov. Chris Sununu once again renewed New Hampshire’s state of emergency declaration on Friday, but for only 14 days instead of the usual 21. Sununu first declared a state of emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic on March 13, 2020, and has renewed it every three weeks since then. Friday’s decision comes six weeks after Sununu eliminated the statewide mask mandate and three weeks after the lifting of business restrictions.“Today’s action to renew the State of Emergency allows the legislature to take up our various critical emergency orders that have brought flexibility to manage through this pandemic, and I call on the House and Senate to move swiftly in this charge so that we can move out of a State of Emergency as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement. (Source: Associated Press) Worth noting is that continuation of the state of emergency also extends the governor’s power to issue and rescind emergency orders and to accept and allocate federal relief funds offered to the state without legislative or Executive Council approval.

  3. Many Businesses Still Not Onboard with Dropping Mask Restrictions. While one-way aisles in many supermarkets and stores have disappeared, some businesses still are not fully on board with dropping mask requirements for customers and employees. Market Basket stores in Manchester and Bedford no longer have one-way aisles, and markers advising customers to stay 6 feet apart have been removed from its famous red-and-white linoleum floors. Masks, however, are still required. Multiple national chains have announced masks are not required for fully vaccinated customers. The Postal Center USA at the East Side Plaza in Manchester has a sign on the door that reads, “Notice: Face masks are not required.” The “not” is in red and underlined. But several customers and a clerk on a recent afternoon continued to wear masks anyway. One customer, John Stowell of Manchester, said he’s fully vaccinated but still chooses to wear a mask. He is waiting until 70% of the state’s population has been vaccinated. As of Thursday, 46.6% have been fully vaccinated, according to the state. (Source: Union Leader)

  4. Keene Area Teens Say Yes to the Vaccine. As of May 25, more than 14,000 state residents who are 15 or younger — representing about 6 percent of that age group — have received their first dose, according to the most recent data from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services. Several vaccination clinics have occurred at schools in the Monadnock Region. Amy Treat said she and her husband have been talking to their daughters about the importance of getting vaccinated for a while, so they were prepared once the vaccine became available to them. “Both of them were thrilled to be able to get the vaccine and hopefully start to get back to normal and to protect themselves and others,” she said in an email. “We felt the same way.” Morgan Philbrick, 14, of Nelson also advocated for herself to get vaccinated. Even though she has a fear of needles, her mom, Anna, said she was adamant about getting immunized. Morgan received her first dose on May 15. If she hadn’t wanted to get vaccinated, Anna Philbrick added, she wouldn’t have forced her daughter to do so. “Of course I would have WANTED her to get it, for her safety,” she said in an email, “but I would have respected her desire to not have the vaccine if that was how she felt.” Sarah Dunton of Keene, however, believes the vaccine needs to be tested further before getting herself or her kids — who are 14 and 16 — immunized. “I’m not against the vaccine at all and I understand people who decide to receive the vaccine ... but ultimately I feel it was rushed and not studied enough to give to my children,” she said in an email. For others like Calvin Williams, getting vaccinated has “lifted a weight from his shoulders,” according to his dad. That, Bobby Williams said, outweighs any possible side effects or complications. (Source: Keene Sentinel)

  5. Colleges Hope Students Get COVID-19 Vaccines for Fall Semester – But Can They Require It? The widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines is making what passes for a normal return to classes possible, but colleges are likely to remain wary. Though nearly half of adult Americans are fully inoculated, only about 30% of 18- to 24-year-olds have reached that benchmark, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. College students pose a high risk to efforts to control the pandemic. Last September, counties home to universities suffered many of the nation’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks. In New Hampshire, there were over 500 active cases at UNH Durham alone at one point in January. But students and professors struggled with online learning, and universities lost revenue tied to in-person costs such as dorms, meal plans and even athletics. This has made colleges determined to find ways to resume full, in-person courses. So far, about 400 or so colleges plan to require that students who wish to learn in-person receive the Johnson & Johnson, Moderna or Pfizer shots, according to a list compiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Both public and private universities have issued coronavirus vaccine mandates for students, though state colleges in Republican-controlled states—such as New Hampshire—have been more likely to eschew such requirements. While New Hampshire’s state university system has yet to announce a vaccine mandate for students, Dartmouth College in Hanover has announced it will require all retuning students to be vaccinated. (Source: USA Today)

  6. Checks to End Soon for Half of NH Unemployment Recipients. Much has been made of the fact that unemployment compensation checks will be reduced by $300 per week in New Hampshire on June 19 because Gov. Chris Sununu is joining other Republican governors in opting out of a federal pandemic aid program. But what might not be so well known is that about 15,000 people – nearly half of those receiving unemployment in the state – will lose all unemployment benefits as of that day because the governor is also taking the state out of other federal programs that expand and extend unemployment benefits. Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance is one of those programs. It covers 8,600 people in the state who would not otherwise be eligible to receive unemployment compensation, some of them self-employed. This includes those who have COVID-19, people living in a household where someone has it, those providing care to a family member who has it, people who have become the main support for a household because the breadwinner has died of the disease and those who had to quit a job as a direct result of the disease. Another 6,500 people will lose their benefits because they were covered under Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which expanded the length of time for receiving benefits. Normal state coverage lasts for six months. Extensions under the federal program boosted this to about a year. Sununu’s decision to cut back on unemployment benefits came at the urging of business groups that feel overly generous compensation is discouraging people from rejoining the workforce at a time when employers are struggling to fill openings. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  7. Many State COVID-19 Websites Found Wanting in Accessibility and Usability. A newly released study on each state's website for COVID-19 vaccine information has found that design flaws may have made it more difficult for some users to understand vaccine eligibility, schedule an appointment online, or to be added to a wait list. Seven websites weren't available to view completely via smartphone, and nine were only in the English language. Not all states included vaccine eligibility information on their sites. Of the 47 that had a median readability of 15.6 out of 100 (the lower score, the more readable), 39 (83.0%) were rated at a post–high school reading level. Regarding usability, the researchers found that 40 of the 47 states with vaccine eligibility information had no indicator of when the information was last updated, and 27 (57.4% of 47) did not support methods to verify eligibility. (Source: JAMA Network) While the study did not list grades for individual states, New Hampshire’s vaccination website made it easy for users to see if they qualify by asking key eligibility questions upfront. The site also worked well in mobile devices and was integrated with Google Translate to allow non-English speaking users to switch from English to a wide range of other languages. Worth noting is that a similar study released early in the month by Johns Hopkins University that focused more on accessibility issues for disabled users. It ranked New Hampshire’s vaccination website in the middle to the pack at #27 for accessibility among states. The ratings were compiled with the help of an automatic accessibility evaluation tool that looked for issues that can present problems for disabled users, including text that has insufficient contrast to the background, images that do not have alternative text for blind users, links and buttons that lack descriptive text, and form controls that are not labeled with descriptive text. (Source: Johns Hopkins University)

  8. Portsmouth's Peirce Island Outdoor Pool Opens June 21: No Reservations Required. The city's Peirce Island outdoor pool is now set to open for the season June 21, with no reservations required, easing a coronavirus restriction that had been previously planned. It will be limited to Portsmouth residents only with a capacity of 200. The pool will be open June 21 through Aug. 20 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week. There will be a limited number of swimmers at one time. Admission is free. (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Friday, May 28

On Thursday, New Hampshire public health officials announced three additional deaths and 105 new positive test results for COVID-19. 494 active cases were present statewide and 49 people were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Friday.

  1. State Epidemiologist Urges Continued Precautions Over Memorial Day Weekend. Dr. Benjamin Chan said now is not the time to take a holiday from COVID-19 precautions. Chan cautioned that there is still moderate to substantial transmission in many communities. He said the goal is to keep levels of community transmission as low as possible to allow people to resume more normal activities over the summer. He urged people to continue receiving vaccinations but said it will likely be months before children 11 years and younger are eligible for vaccination. “That may not occur until fall and winter, so come the fall-time there’s still going to be a substantial number not yet fully vaccinated,” Chan said. “That’s going to likely put us at higher risk come fall or winter for numbers to go back up.” (Source: WMUR)

  2. Are We Moving Too Fast? Doctors Warn of COVID Euphoria, Urge Continued Vigilance. Dr. Artemio Mendoza, an infectious disease specialist at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, said as things seem to be getting better, it is only natural for people to want to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Mendoza said he is on the fence when it comes to masks. "The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) says we do not need them at all outdoors," he said. "These decisions are made based on the science, but also on politics and the economy. I understand that. The CDC has the unenviable task of satisfying all of those. When is the optimal time? I think there isn't one, that it depends heavily on the numbers, on the mythical herd immunity number, and on the rate of transmission.” An important thing to remember, said Dr. Gretchen Volpe, an infectious disease physician at York Hospital, is that while the situation looks better here, that is not the case across the globe. "We are not limited to what we see here," said Volpe. "There is air travel and there are places globally where cases are not going down, and might, in fact, be going up, like in India. So we still need to be concerned." Even in our country, Volpe said there are still large numbers of people who are not yet vaccinated, many by choice. That means there are places we still need to wear a mask. “Even for the fully vaccinated, we must follow the rules of a restaurant, or a business," Volpe said. "A higher vaccination population would be better but for now, maintaining precautions will certainly help us get through this." (Source: Seacoast Online)

  3. State Run Vaccination Sites to Close by End of June. Starting on June 1, state-run vaccination sites will stop offering first-dose vaccinations, according to a statement released Thursday by the NH Joint Information Center. State-run sites will close down permanently on June 30, an indication that New Hampshire is saturated with doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 60% of the population has received at least one dose and many of the remaining 40% have reported that they’re not interested in receiving the vaccine at this time. Those eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine can still schedule an appointment at one of the 350 locations across the state offering first dose appointments at vaccines.nh.gov. Several locations also administer shots without appointments. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  4. Speedway Received $350K in Federal Funds to Defray Costs for Mass Vaccination Clinics. Gov. Chris Sununu in recent months acted under his unilateral emergency powers authority to reimburse the New Hampshire Motor Speedway more than $350,000 in federal funds for expenses the racetrack incurred hosting four mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics. The contracts were brought to the Executive Council during meetings in April and May as “informational items” not subject to council approval. The four contracts, taken together, showed Sununu approved payments of federal funds totaling $353,000 to reimburse the speedway for wide range of items. The reimbursements included more than $92,000 for tents, about $13,000 for lights, $4,300 for golf carts, $9,000 for message boards and about $6,000 for “IT support.” The food bills totaled about $60,000, and the speedway was reimbursed $13,000 for labor costs. One of the largest items was a $25,000 “site fee.” Speedway spokesperson Scott Spradling said the site fee was a reimbursement for “lost business” because, he said, an event was cancelled to make way for the most recent vaccination clinic April 24. (Source: WMUR)

  5. NH Senate Approves Bills Allowing Houses of Worship to Be Open During a State of Emergency, Establishing Rights to Decline the COVID-19 Vaccine and Disclose Vaccination Status, and Checking the Governor’s Powers in Future Emergencies. In a marathon Thursday session, the state senate approved three controversial bills in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On religious liberty, the Senate voted along partisan lines, 14-10, to pass an amended bill (HB 542) that would classify worship as an “essential service” and allow churches and other house of worship to remain open during a future state of emergency. “Religious organizations should be treated with a heightened level of importance,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry. However, State Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Hopkinton, said religious groups enjoy protections under the state and federal constitutions, and this bill would too broadly define organizations that could qualify. “Nearly anybody could claim to be organizing for religious purposes,” Whitley said. The immunization bill (HB 220) would recognize that every individual has the right to refuse to take any vaccine. It would also prevent state, county or local government from denying a person any “public service” or “benefit” because they were not vaccinated. (Source: Union Leader) Sen. Thomas Sherman, D-Rye, a physician, noted vaccines are the second most important milestone to public health, noting sanitation is the most important. He said many members of the Senate don’t remember polio or measles, because of vaccines, noting “this is not a light discussion with more than 98,000 infected and 1,346 deaths alone in New Hampshire.” Sherman said since vaccines have been widely available in the state, the rate of infections, hospitalizations and deaths has dropped significantly. “We are in the middle of the pandemic,” Sherman said, “the light at the end of a long, dark COVID tunnel can clearly be attributed to (the vaccines).” He said as a doctor the bill sends the wrong message particularly in a pandemic. “It is the wrong time, it is the wrong message,” Sherman said, “and it threatens to undermine our most powerful defense against the next pandemic.” (Source: InDepthNH) The Senate also unanimously passed its version of legislation to provide oversight of the governor’s powers during an emergency. House Bill 417 would automatically end a state of emergency after 30 days and modify the procedure for renewing it – requiring a majority vote in the House and the Senate to approve a renewal. If a state of emergency were to last beyond the initial 30-day period, emergency orders by the governor would be subject to approval in both bodies by majority vote. An emergency could also be revoked if there was a majority vote to do so in both the House and the Senate. Sen. Sharon Carson said the bill intended to strike a balance between oversight and public safety during times of crisis. “It will not affect the current state of emergency,” she said. The bill, if approved, would go into effect either 30 days after passage or after the COVID-19 state of emergency ends, whichever comes later. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  6. Interest in Vaccinations Increased After CDC Announced New Mask Guidance. Data obtained exclusively by CNN shows that interest in getting vaccinated against Covid-19 increased right after Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced two weeks ago that vaccinated people could take off their masks. "This shows incentives matter," said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University School of Medicine. "People needed a carrot, and the carrot was the ability to drop the mask in most settings.” The data comes from vaccines.gov, where people look up vaccination sites by zip code. On the afternoon of May 13, just after Walensky's announcement, the number of visits to the site started to climb, hitting its second highest number of visitors since the website was launched on April 30. "It's amazing -- really amazing," said John Brownstein, co-founder of VaccineFinder, which powers vaccines.gov. (Source: CNN)

  7. Can Employers Make Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandatory? Yes, with some exceptions and barring any new changes in the law. Experts say U.S. employers can require employees to take safety measures, including vaccination. That doesn’t necessarily mean you would get fired if you refuse, but you might need to sign a waiver or agree to work under specific conditions to limit any risk you might pose to yourself or others. “Employers generally have wide scope” to make rules for the workplace, said Dorit Reiss, a law professor who specializes in vaccine policies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. “It’s their business.” The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has allowed companies to mandate the flu and other vaccines, and has indicated they can require COVID-19 vaccines. There are exceptions. For example, people can request exemptions for medical or religious reasons. Lawmakers in some states—including New Hampshire—have proposed laws that restrict mandating the vaccines because of their “emergency use" status, but that may become less of an issue since Pfizer has applied for full approval and others are likely to follow. (Source: NECN) In New Hampshire, a bill to prevent employers from making a COVID-19 vaccination a precondition for employment got the endorsement of a House policy committee on Wednesday. The House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee on Wednesday voted, 11-9, to ban a vaccine mandate in the workplace. The amendment was added to a Senate-passed bill (SB 123) to ensure residents aren’t charged for getting a COVID-19 test at work. All Republicans on the committee approved the bill, and all Democrats opposed it. (Source: Union Leader)

  8. Hassan, Shaheen Join in Introducing Bill to Stop Massachusetts from Taxing NH Home Workers. U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen have joined with two Connecticut senators in the introduction of a bill that would protect Granite Staters who are working from home for out-of-state companies from future income taxes imposed by the companies’ home states. An announcement from Hassan’s office Thursday came after the Biden administration’s acting U.S. solicitor general sided with Massachusetts against New Hampshire in an income tax dispute between the two states. The Multistate Worker Tax Fairness Act would establish a simple, uniform federal standard for taxation based on a worker’s physical presence. The bill prohibits a state from imposing an income tax on the compensation a nonresident earns when that person is not physically in the state, and it ensures that people with out-of-state employers who telework, or whose job requires them to occasionally work in another state, do not have to pay out-of-state income taxes. Hassan spokesperson Laura Epstein said the bill would take effect when passed, but added, "Senator Hassan has pressed this issue on multiple fronts. She believes that these unconstitutional taxes must also be undone retroactively, and the Supreme Court should rule to do that." Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts had imposed taxes on Granite Staters employed by Massachusetts companies only when the workers were physically working in that state. (Source: WMUR)

  9. Two NH School Districts Sued Over Mask Mandates for Students. Two school districts in southern New Hampshire are being sued by parents over their requirements that students must wear face masks inside of the schools. Separate civil lawsuits were filed Tuesday against the Bedford School District and the Hollis-Brookline School District seeking injunctions to prohibit the schools from continuing their mask mandates. Attorney Robert Fojo is representing plaintiffs in both cases, and has also joined the Bedford case as a plaintiff himself. “These parents are concerned that children will have to wear masks again next year, and they are just fed up with this requirement,” Fojo said on Thursday. “They are exhausted and exasperated and they want to put an end to it.” (Source: Union Leader) In March, a judge dismissed another suit brought by Fojo against the city of Nashua for exceeding its authority during the pandemic. The suit was dismissed because the judge found that Fojo had failed to prove any actual injuries resulted from the city’s actions.

  10. Here's How Portsmouth Schools Might Look in 2021-22. The city school district's Reopening Advisory Committee is recommending Portsmouth students continue five full days a week in the 2021-22 school year, with a fully remote option being offered by a third-party platform for families wishing to keep children out of the classroom. The committee's findings were presented to the Portsmouth School Board Tuesday night, emphasizing “commitments” such as having more extracurricular activities, increasing focus on wellness and following recommended health protocols. Plans focused on largely returning to normal following a school year heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The district will continue to abide by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and local officials' public health recommendations. But the exact nature of those recommendations—including mask-wearing—is still up in the air. School Board Chair Kristin Jeffrey said, “And I would be wary to assume that we would not be wearing masks because many of our children will not be vaccinated given the access and just the age of the kids.” (Source: Seacoast Online)

  11. Mass. Requiring In-Person K-12 Learning in the Fall. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's health and safety requirements will be lifted for the new school year, with all Massachusetts schools and districts required to hold in-person classes. "With the State of Emergency ending June 15, 2021, and as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to fall as vaccination rates increase, for the fall, all districts and schools will be required to be in-person, full-time, five days a week and all DESE health and safety requirements will be lifted," the guidance says. "This includes all physical distancing requirements." Schools will not be able to offer remote learning "as a standard learning model" in the fall, per the guidance, but pre-pandemic virtual learning options for "individual students in limited cases" will remain available, including home or hospital tutoring because of a medical condition and single-district virtual schools. (Source: NECN)

  12. Canobie Lake Park, Storyland, Funtown Splashtown USA All Reopening This Weekend. Three popular New England theme parks are scheduled to reopen over Memorial Day weekend. Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire, Storyland in Glen, New Hampshire, and Funtown Splashtown USA in Saco, Maine are all set to reopen for the first time following the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday. Six Flags New England in Agawam, Massachusetts, had previously reopened, and Water Country in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is expected to reopen next month. More information here on health precautions and advance purchase rules. (Source: NECN)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Thursday, May 27

Earlier this week, planters designed and built by Portsmouth High CTE students started making their appearance atop freshly painted concrete barriers as part of an effort to beautify Portsmouth’s outdoor dining experience while ensuring the safety of diners.

Earlier this week, planters designed and built by Portsmouth High CTE students started making their appearance atop freshly painted concrete barriers as part of an effort to beautify Portsmouth’s outdoor dining experience while ensuring the safety of diners.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced 67 new positive test results for COVID-19 and two additional deaths on Wednesday. There were 49 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 And 416 active cases statewide. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Thursday.

  1. With Half of US Adults Now Vaccinated, New Study Finds Majority of Severe COVID-19 Survivors Had Longterm Symptoms. Half of the adult population is now fully vaccinated, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the past week, the US averaged about 28,000 daily new cases, a 19% drop compared to the previous week, according to the CDC. However, a new study underscored the importance of vaccinating more people as it detailed how some of those who had Covid-19 can suffer from symptoms months later. Nearly three-quarters of patients with moderate-to-severe Covid-19 had at least one long-term symptom, according to the analysis published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. Researchers from Stanford University conducted a review of 45 existing studies that followed 9,751 patients in the months after a Covid-19 infection. They found 73% of the patients had at least one symptom 60 days after diagnosis, symptom onset or hospital admission. That finding was consistent even in studies that followed patients up to six months. The researchers also found across the studies that 40% of participants experienced fatigue, 36% had shortness of breath and another 25% reported an inability to concentrate, often referred to as brain fog. (Source: CNN)

  2. Experts Say Those Who Are Not Inoculated Against COVID-19 Shouldn't Rely on Protection From Those Who Are. The US is hitting major COVID-19 vaccination milestones, but health experts say those who are not inoculated should not rely on protection from those who are, as their infection risk hasn't gone down in response to declining cases. "The work ahead of us Is going to be really challenging because while the people who are fully vaccinated are well protected, we still have to keep on convincing individuals who are not yet vaccinated that they are not safe," CNN medical analyst Leana Wen said. "The pandemic is not over for them.” The risk for unvaccinated people is in fact about the same as it was in the middle of the January surge, Wen said citing an analysis from the Washington Post that found the rate of COVID-19 cases among the unvaccinated is 69% higher than the standard national rates. (Source: CNN) Unvaccinated people "think it's safe to take off the mask. It's not," Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, said. "It looks like fewer numbers, looks like it's getting better, but it's not necessarily better for those who aren't vaccinated."

  3. Nashua Lifts Mask Mandate. In place for nearly a year, Nashua’s mask mandate was lifted on Wednesday. “I think the people of Nashua are ready for this to be lifted,” Alderwoman Jan Schmidt said Tuesday night as the Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to repeal the ordinance. “I think it is past time.” Nashua’s Board of Health recommended last week that aldermen rescind the requirement. Aldermen are recommending that schools still require masks until students are vaccinated, though that decision is up to the Nashua Board of Education. They are also recommending that those who are not fully vaccinated continue to wear masks inside public spaces and socially distance, and that anyone traveling on public transportation, attending large indoor gatherings or visiting health care facilities wear a mask. City businesses will have the option to require masks inside their facilities. If they do opt to mandate masks, customers in violation could be subject to a charge of criminal trespass. (Source: Union Leader)

  4. Some New England States Seeing Heart Issues Among Vaccinated Teens. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently investigating after a small number of teens and young adults reported having heart problems after being vaccinated against coronavirus. CDC safety committee released an advisory last week to alert doctors about myocarditis among younger vaccine recipients after a “relatively few” cases of the unusual heart symptom surfaced. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that minimizes its ability to pump blood normally and can cause increased or abnormal heart rhythms. Health officials said the reported cases appear to be mild and typically begin within four days after the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The CDC has yet to determine if the vaccines were the cause of the reported heart condition. At least 18 teens and young adults in Connecticut have shown symptoms of heart problems after receiving the vaccine, according to the state's acting health commissioner. Cases have also been reported in Maine and Rhodesia island. New Hampshire health officials said they are "not aware of any cases" of myocarditis in patients after receiving COVID-19 vaccine. (Source: NECN)

  5. Monthly Child Tax Credit May Arrive as Some States End $300 Unemployment Boost. Nearly two dozen states—including New Hampshire—are ending federal unemployment benefits early, meaning millions of people will soon see their aid reduced or eliminated. But families can expect a cash infusion from a different source — the child tax credit — roughly around the same time their jobless benefits dry up. The IRS will start sending monthly payments of the tax credit starting July 15, the agency said last week. Eligible households will get up to $300 per child under age 6 and $250 for older kids under 18. Funds from the child tax credit may help offset some of a household's lost income if laid-off workers lose unemployment benefits but aren't able to find a job or return to work. Roughly 46% of households receiving unemployment benefits also have kids under age 18, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey. (Source: NECN)

  6. NH COVID ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill Amended to Address Discrimination Concerns. An amended version of a “religious liberty” bill up for a New Hampshire State Senate vote Thursday preserves a church’s right to stay open during a future state of emergency but eliminates what civil rights advocates said would allow for discrimination on religious grounds. Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican and House Bill 542’s sponsor, supports the change. “The bill that was passed is far superior,” he said. “The intent of the original one filed was to establish that churches are essential in a state of emergency. That’s what we got through, and it got improved in the process.” The bill’s supporters were upset to see businesses like Home Depot and liquor stores remain open during the pandemic while attendance restrictions were placed on churches. The section removed by the committee had been flagged by the state Attorney General’s Civil Rights Unit. In a May public hearing before the committee, Sean Locke, the unit’s director, said the bill “would allow secular businesses and secular service providers to cite religious beliefs and evade compliance with the state’s anti-discrimination laws, which provide protection from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and public education.” (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  7. Justice Department Sides with Massachusetts in Cross-Border Tax Fight With N.H. The U.S. Justice Department says a lawsuit brought by the State of New Hampshire against Massachusetts over its cross border income tax collection practices during the pandemic does not warrant the involvement of the nation’s highest court. The lawsuit centers on a Massachusetts emergency provision that caps how much income out-of-state residents who work for Massachusetts-based companies can deduct on their income taxes while working remotely. The measure, which will expire later this year, negatively impacts up to 100,000 Granite State residents, New Hampshire contends. In a 28-page brief filed Wednesday, Acting U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court the suit is not of enough significance to trigger a legal remedy known as original jurisdiction, which gives the Supreme Court the ability to settle inter-state feuds. Before the pandemic, Massachusetts allowed out-of-state residents who worked for Massachusetts-based entities to deduct whatever portion of their income was derived while working outside the state. Last spring, the state passed an emergency provision that capped those deductions at the proportion of time spent working remotely before the pandemic. New Hampshire’s attorney general at the time, Gordon MacDonald, argued this was a violation of the state’s sovereignty, and would potentially harm the tens of thousands of workers now performing their jobs from home. The Justice Department’s brief rejected the argument that New Hampshire, as a whole, was injured by its neighbor’s actions. (Source: NHPR)

  8. Student-Made 'Portsmouth Planters' Spruce Up Downtown and Get Rave Reviews. Portsmouth’s downtown became even more attractive this week when planter boxes designed and built by a group of Center for Technical Education students started appearing on top of newly painted concrete barriers next to outdoor restaurant seating. The initial idea for the planters came from the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Reopening Portsmouth as another way to beautify the barriers that protect outdoor diners. But the planters, which were distributed in multiple locations downtown on Monday, were totally designed and built by a group of 15 CTE students from Portsmouth High School. Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine walked by some of the planters Monday and could not have been more impressed.“They are beautiful, I could not expect anything better than what they did,” Splaine said. “It just shows what can happen when Portsmouth comes together.” (Source: Seacoast Online)

  9. As Guidelines Evolve, Kids’ Camps Prepare for Pandemic-Altered Season. After the COVID-19 pandemic led YMCA Camp Takodah to cancel last year's summer season for the first time in more than a century, campers will be back on-site in Richmond in just over a month. And for the most part, camp will feel fairly normal, Director Ryan Reed said, with plenty of sports, swimming and arts and crafts, all mostly outdoors. "The camp experience will remain largely the same, there will just be masks now, and some testing, and things like that," he said. "... So if you’re a camper who’s come to camp in the past, this summer will feel very similar." The state health department's best practices for overnight camps, issued April 29, include asking campers and staff members to get tested before their arrival, the day they arrive and again within their first five to seven days at camp. Additionally, the guidance says overnight camps should keep small groups of campers and staff separate from each other so cabins can act like individual households. (Source: Keene Sentinel)

  10. Gap Between Jobs and Workers Leads Upper Valley Employers to Cut Back Operations. Many New Hampshire employers continue to have trouble filling open positions. Whether it’s the added $300-per-week unemployment payment many business owners have cited as the cause or an overall reluctance of low-wage employees to return to often-precarious work settings amid COVID-19, many businesses report they have a surfeit of jobs and shortage of workers. The problem is especially acute in less populous areas like the Upper Valley. The ongoing inability to find new workers is hampering businesses hoping to recover as they emerge from the pandemic. Business owners aren’t the only ones grasping for solutions to the disconnect between available jobs and available workers. Last week, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu notified the U.S. Department of Labor that the Granite State would no longer participate in the federal $300-a-week supplemental unemployment program but instead direct those funds into one-time stipends of $500 or $1,000 for people once they’ve returned to the workforce for at least eight weeks. Whether a stipend or the end of weekly supplemental payments actually will drive low-wage earners back into the fold remains to be seen. Studies during the pandemic have found scant evidence that increased unemployment payments have disincentivized workers from seeking jobs — many analysts say it’s the quality and wages of the jobs on offer, or larger questions brought on by the pandemic about what people value in an employer. (Source: NH Business Review) Worth noting is the stipends come with some caveats. To be eligible, workers must remain on the job for at least 8 weeks and, if their application comes in after the $10 million allocated to the program has run out, they will receive nothing.

  11. How to Address Shortage of Service Workers? As seasonal businesses gear up for the summer tourist season, a shortage of workers looms. Rep. Chris Pappas is calling on the Biden administration to make it easier for seasonal businesses to hire immigrant workers on temporary visas. In a statement this week, Pappas praised the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rule raising the annual cap on seasonal worker visas, but said seasonal businesses need it to be easier to bring in temporary help this year. Meanwhile, a group of activists demonstrating in Nashua Wednesday afternoon is arguing the problem is tougher-than-ever conditions, and wages that don’t match. State Rep. Maria Perez (D-Milford) is an organizer in New Hampshire with One Fair Wage, a group advocating against the separate lower minimum wage for workers who make tips. Perez said restaurant workers are leaving the industry because the pay is too low to pay rent, buy food and afford child care. She said she knows of people who have left the industry because they see no future in hospitality. “It’s not a worker shortage, it’s a pay shortage,” she said. (Source: Union Leader)

  12. Not Just Service Workers: The Pandemic Has Revealed How Much Some Office Workers Hate Their Jobs. Now We Have a Chance to Reinvent Work. As the post-pandemic great reopening unfolds, millions are reassessing their relationship to their jobs. The modern office was created after World War II, on a military model – strict hierarchies, created by men for men, with an assumption there is a wife to handle duties at home. Now, there’s a growing realization that the model is broken. Millions of office workers have spent the past year re-evaluating their priorities. How much time do they want to spend in an office, versus working from home. Where do they want to live, if they can work remotely. Do they want to switch careers. For many people, this has become a moment to literally redefine what is work. More fundamentally, the pandemic has masked a deep unhappiness that a startling number of Americans have with the workplace. During the stressful months of quarantine, job turnover plunged; people were just hoping to hang on to what they had, even if they hated their jobs. For many more millions of essential workers, there was never choice but to keep showing up at stores, on deliveries, and in factories, often at great risk to themselves (with food and agricultural workers facing the greatest risk of death from remaining on the job). But now millions of white collar professionals and office workers appear poised to jump. Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University, set off a viral tweetstorm by predicting “the great resignation is coming.” SHRM, the society of human resource professionals, predicts a “tsunami” of turnover. But in a sense those conversations miss a much more consequential point. The true significance isn’t what we are leaving; it’s what we are going toward. In a stunning phenomenon, people are abandoning not just jobs but switching occupations. This is a radical reassessment of our careers, a great reset in how we think about work. A Pew survey in February found that 66% of unemployed people want to switch occupations – and significantly, that phenomenon is common to those at every income level, not just the privileged high earners. (Source: Time)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Wednesday, May 26

As communities end or consider ending local mask mandates, business owners face a tough decision—whether to continue to require customers and employees to wear masks and observe other safety precautions, or to pull the plug? Either way, the decision will not be in the hands of the state. It will be up to individual business owners.

As communities end or consider ending local mask mandates, business owners face a tough decision—whether to continue to require customers and employees to wear masks and observe other safety precautions, or to pull the plug? Either way, the decision will not be in the hands of the state. It will be up to individual business owners.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced 76 new positive test results for COVID-19 and no new deaths on Tuesday. There were 421 active cases statewide and 46 people were hospitalized. Here is the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Wednesday.

  1. NH House Panel Splits on Banning Vaccine Questions, Mandates. A New Hampshire House committee split evenly along party lines Tuesday on a proposal to prohibit most businesses from asking customers or employees whether they’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus. The committee on executive departments and administration voted 9-9 on amending a Senate-passed bill to add several vaccine-related provisions favored by Republicans. It reached the same outcome on a Democrat-backed amendment, meaning both versions will go to the full House next month with no committee recommendation. Under the GOP-led amendment, businesses could not inquire about someone’s vaccine status or require employees to be vaccinated against the virus, with some exceptions for hospitals and long-term care facilities. It also would give the Legislature control over whether schools could require students to receive any future vaccines. As for businesses, the Republican amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, argued that allowing them to require or inquire about vaccinations would open the door to further intrusions, such as requiring workers to fall within a certain range for weight or body mass. “If we allow businesses to decide what people have to do to their body to be employed or to be customers, we have to look at other things.” “There’s no limit to what businesses could do to citizens who need a job, or a place to shop or to eat. We have to draw a line in the sand that people, their bodies, are autonomous.” Democrats argued that public health officials, not lawmakers, should decide which vaccines should be required for school enrollment and that businesses should be allowed to make decisions based on public safety. (Source: Associated Press)

  2. SAU 16 Teachers Told Not to Ask Students if They Got COVID Vaccine. An Exeter Region Cooperative School Board member said she has heard a number of complaints about teachers asking students if they are getting vaccinated for COVID-19, which administrators said was inappropriate. Board member Melissa Litchfield, of Brentwood, brought up the issue during last week’s School Board meeting. She asked Cooperative Middle School Principal Patty Wons if she was aware of teachers asking about students’ vaccination status and their intention of getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Litchfield said she was contacted by “multiple, multiple” families. SAU 16 Superintendent David Ryan said he would send notice to all building administrators to remind their respective faculty members not to ask about students receiving the vaccine. “I don’t know why it’s happening, or if it’s just curiosity, but the teachers have been questioning the students about which students have or have not had the vaccination,” Litchfield said. “And whether or not they plan to get it, and if so, when. It’s widespread across the schools … it’s been pretty detailed.” Ryan said two families have contacted his office with concerns about teachers at CMS and EHS asking about students’ vaccination status. He said the act of asking about a person’s vaccination status does not constitute a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. (Source: Seacoast Online) While the state doesn’t report vaccination numbers for school students, an update released yesterday shows 16.4% of New Hampshire children ages 0-15 have received at least one dose and 17.9% of the been vaccinated and 11.6% of the population ages 16-29. (Source: N.H. DHHS) Meanwhile, in other parts of the country, a growing number of public schools are using mascots, food trucks and prize giveaways to create a pep-rally atmosphere aimed at encouraging students to get vaccinated against the coronavirus before summer vacation. (Source: WMUR)

  3. House Committee Votes To Exempt PPP Grants from Business Taxes. After spending a month parsing the details of a bill to exempt Paycheck Protection Program grants from business profits tax liability, the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the unamended bill. Senate Bill 3 would put New Hampshire in step with about 40 other states and the federal government in exempting the money from forgiven PPP loans from business tax liability and to allow the business expenses paid to qualify for loan forgiveness to offset revenues. The bill will go before the House next week. If it passes as the committee recommends, it will go to the governor, who is expected to sign it. (Source: InDepthNH)

  4. Portsmouth City Council Speeds Up Mask Mandate Repeal. The City Council has scheduled a special meeting on Tuesday, June 1 to begin the process to repeal its mask wearing ordinance. Mayor Rick Becksted said the City Council will vote on the first reading to repeal the ordinance, which he believes will pass overwhelmingly, at the June 1 meeting. At its regularly scheduled June 7 meeting, the council will then be able to suspend the council rules and vote to pass second and third reading to repeal the ordinance, Becksted said Tuesday. Exeter and Newmarket have repealed their ordinances and Portsmouth’s is set to expire on June 30th unless the council accelerates the process. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  5. UNH Eases COVID Restrictions to “Green Mode But Some Precautions Still in Place. With the latest report from the UNH COVID-19 Dashboard showing only six active cases on campus, UNH officials have announced the transition to less-restrictive “green mode.” In a letter posted to the university’s Twitter account, President James W. Dean provided updated guidance that includes ending the campus requirement for outdoor masking, except in gatherings of 20 or more people. Dining halls have returned to self-service food stations and Dean also announced that the university’s outdoor pool will reopen in June. However, masks must continue to be worn indoors except in situations where individuals are alone in a room. (Source: UNH)

  6. Workers Say Bull Moose Fired Them Over Mask Concerns, Harassment By Customers. Employees at a Salem record store say they were fired after raising concerns about the end of the store’s mask mandate and a lax response to customers who harassed workers. They’re now calling for a boycott of the Maine-based Bull Moose chain, which was founded in 1989 and sells music, books, movies, games and art at several locations in Maine and New Hampshire. Several former workers at the company’s Salem location told NHPR they frequently experienced upsetting and even unsafe interactions with customers, with little or no response from management. Workers say female employees were often sexually harassed, physically and verbally, by customers. Some were regulars, who were allowed to keep shopping while targeted workers hid in the back of the store. Workers said the company did not enforce New Hampshire’s mandatory statewide mask mandate well into last summer. “We were getting in near-daily altercations with customers, screaming matches and having to call the police on people, and it was really just a huge mess,” said Mackenzie Keefe, a former manager at the chain's Portsmouth location who quit last fall. “It was like pulling teeth a lot of the time trying to get support from the office...There was always pushback.” Bull Moose did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but posted a statement on social media saying the company hoped to reopen the store as soon as it could and that its closure “had absolutely nothing to do with masks.” (Source: NHPR)

  7. Closed to Visitors During COVID-19, Star Island Prepares to Reopen for Summer Season. Like a lot of New Hampshire summer landmarks, Star Island — the historic Seacoast destination for artists, daytrippers, environmentalists and others drawn to its idyllic shores — closed to the public last summer due to the pandemic. But now, it’s getting ready to open back up to visitors. Some safety measures will still be in place. While the island will be open for day trips and a full lineup of summer conferences, it will not host individual visitors for “personal retreats” as it has in past years, according to its website. The island’s conference center will only host about 60 percent of its typical overnight guest capacity, and all overnight visitors will need to provide “a recent (within 72 hours), negative COVID-19 PCR test result immediately prior to arrival on the island.” Masks will also be required in all indoor settings, Watts said, regardless of someone’s vaccination status. But masks will not be required outdoors, where most of the island’s activity takes place. (Source: NHPR)

  8. New Charge for Maskless Woman Arrested at Timberlane School Meeting. A woman who was arrested after she entered a Plaistow school building without a mask last week is facing a new charge and hefty fines. Kate Bossi, who was initially charged with disorderly conduct for defying the Timberlane Regional School District’s school mask policy and ignoring police orders not to enter, also will be charged with criminal trespass, Plaistow police prosecutor Kevin Coyle said. Both charges are Class B misdemeanors and carry fines of up to $1,200. Bossi, 57, was arrested after showing up at a Timberlane school board meeting on May 20 with a group of people who were not wearing masks, as required by school policy. (Source: Union Leader)

  9. CDC Data Shows Vermont is Close but is Still Short of 80% Vaccination Goal. Over the weekend, Gov. Phil Scott tweeted graphics of Vermont’s high vaccine rate, sharing his excitement with how close the state was to his 80% vaccinated goal for reopening. On Tuesday, officials walked back those numbers, saying federal data had slightly overreported the rate of eligible Vermonters who have received at least one dose. Instead, the state stands at 76.9% — still close to the 80% threshold that would trigger a massive relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions. “Even with this adjustment, our goal from Friday has been reduced by approximately 10,000 Vermonters,” said Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services. “This is exciting,” he said of approaching the 80 percent goal, “but there is still much work to do.” Vermont needs to reach an additional 17,250 people to hit 80%, Smith said. According to data from a state report, about 0.5% of the population is starting vaccination each day. Scott believes that Vermont could hit the 80% target as soon as Memorial Day if it has “good days,” but next week is more likely. (Source: Vermont Digger)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Tuesday, May 25

An outdoor dining area on Congress Street getting a thorough cleaning at 6 a.m. in preparation for a new day.

An outdoor dining area on Congress Street getting a thorough cleaning at 6 a.m. in preparation for a new day.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced 52 new positive test results for COVID-19 and no new deaths Monday. There were 411 active cases statewide and 48 people were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Tuesday.

  1. 7-Day Average for Daily New COVID-19 Cases in NH Down 68% in One Month. In Monday's daily report from the state Department of Health and Human Services, officials announced 52 new diagnoses, the lowest daily total since Oct. 4, 2020. The 7-day average for daily new cases is down to 111, which is a decrease of 68% in one month (this number was at 345 on April 23). Doctors have urged everyone to get vaccinated when it is available to them. They said masking and social distancing will continue to be good steps to take to prevent asymptomatic infection. "We may be seeing a trend for improvement because we are able to do things outdoors now, and as we go back into the fall and winter, we wouldn't want to see another surge by us not being cautious," said Dr. Jose Mercado from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Doctors at Catholic Medical Center said at the pandemic's peak, they had around 50 COVID-19 patients and their ICU's were full. Now, they said they have not had a COVID-19 patient in the ICU for weeks. "We are absolutely seeing the tangible effects of a successful vaccination program," said chief medical officer Dr. Michael Gilbert. (Source: WMUR)

  2. Sullivan County Nursing Home's COVID-19 Outbreak Widens. The COVID-19 outbreak at the Sullivan County Health Care nursing home facility in Unity continues, now with 21 positive cases among the residents. County Manager Derek Ferland said Monday that nearly all of the resident population has been vaccinated against COVID-19 and about 75% of employees have been vaccinated. The home’s executive director, Ted Purdy, reports that three new cases were found on Friday to bring the number of total cases among residents up to 21. The five employees who had tested positive during this outbreak are now cleared to return to work. The Sullivan County Commissioners considered requiring all staff to be vaccinated, but scrapped the idea fearing that employees might decide to leave if they are forced to get vaccinated. (Source: Union Leader)

  3. Maine Lifts Mask Mandate, Relaxes COVID Restrictions. The day has arrived for Maine residents who want to stop wearing a mask. The state’s new guidance about mask use during the coronavirus pandemic took effect on Monday. Mainers no longer have to wear a face covering in most indoor settings, except for schoolchildren 5 and older. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, made the decision in mid-May to align the state rules with the latest guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state is also lifting physical distancing requirements at indoor public settings where people are eating or drinking, such as bars and restaurants. Monday is also the first day for several other newly relaxed pandemic requirements. That includes a removal of all capacity limits in public settings, whether indoor or outdoor. Maine officials are still recommending that people who are not yet vaccinated against coronavirus wear a mask indoors. (Source: NECN)

  4. GOP Governors' Cutoff of COVID Benefits Hits Hard in Rural America. In at least 22 states, including New Hampshire, federal unemployment assistance is being retracted by Republican governors, who plan to end the pandemic-related aid as early as June. We know [communities of color in rural areas] suffer from chronic high unemployment and have been really hurt by the pandemic, so I do think that this is an issue that’s gonna be hitting different communities harder,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning independent think tank. “We saw in the data that African Americans are really taking advantage of these programs,” he said, “and they’re going to be hurt by the revocation of some of these programs. I would say economic distressed communities, writ large, are going to be losing out on a lot of these benefits.” About 16 million people nationwide would receive a total of $100 billion in benefits if all states continued federal unemployment funds through their set expiration date of Labor Day, Sept. 6, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Labor data by The Century Foundation. Of the states that planned to pull benefits, almost $11 billion in unemployment benefits could be lost, affecting nearly 2 million workers, the analysis found. States have never before made this reversal—accepting the federal funds, then turning them down—Stettner said. Montana was the first state to announce it would end the program, on May 4, cutting off the benefits June 27. Other states followed suit, including Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Some of the governors and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—which also called for an end to the $300 weekly extended benefits—opposed the extra support because, they said, benefits would disincentivize people to go back to work in industries such as food service and hospitality. However, there is no evidence that federal pandemic unemployment benefits had a substantial effect on employment after the $600 benefits expired in July 2020, according to a February 2021 study by a researcher with the National Bureau of Economic Research. (Source: Pew Research Center) In New Hampshire, Gov. Sununu is terminating the $300 weekly federal benefit for anyone collecting unemployment on June 19. But the decision will also push nearly 15,700 Granite Staters off all unemployment aid. Dawn McKinney, policy director for New Hampshire Legal Assistance, said Sununu’s decision to end federal benefits 11 weeks early disregards the most vulnerable. She estimates individuals and families will lose $11.4 million a week in assistance they would have received if Sununu didn’t cut it short. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  5. COVID Vaccine Profits Mint 9 New Pharma Billionaires. COVID-19 vaccines have created at least nine new billionaires after shares in companies producing the shots soared. Topping the list of new billionaires are Moderna (MRNA) CEO Stéphane Bancel and Ugur Sahin, the CEO of BioNTech (BNTX), which has produced a vaccine with Pfizer (PFE). Both CEOs are now worth around $4 billion, according to an analysis by the People's Vaccine Alliance, a campaign group that includes Oxfam, UNAIDS, Global Justice Now and Amnesty International. Senior executives from China's CanSino Biologics and early investors in Moderna have also become billionaires on paper as shares skyrocketed, partly in expectation of profits earned from COVID vaccines, which also bode well for the companies' future prospects. The analysis was compiled using data from the Forbes Rich List. (Source: CNN)

  6. Cruise Line Working Through COVID Delays to Return Mount Washington to Service. The MS Mount Washington, Lake Winnipesaukee’s iconic excursion vessel, will be entering service later than usual this year, another instance of how COVID has disrupted the normal flow of business. Traditionally, the 230-foot Mount Washington inaugurates its season on Mother’s Day, but the vessel’s operator is aiming to return it to service by the time the summer tourist season gets underway in earnest. “We hope to have her back in service by the end of June,” Jared Maraio, director of sales and marketing for the Winnipesaukee Flagship Corp., said Monday. Two new propellers were due to be installed last year, but that job had to be postponed until this year when the contractor, located out of state, was unable to do the work when originally scheduled because of COVID, which consequently delayed the start of the Mount’s season, Maraio explained. (Source: Laconia Daily Sun)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Monday, May 24

Source: N.H. DHHS

Source: N.H. DHHS

Over the weekend, new cases, active cases statewide, and hospitalizations continued to trend downwards in New Hampshire. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Monday.

  1. Active Cases of COVID-19 in New Hampshire at Lowest Level Since October. There were no new deaths associated with COVID-19 reported Sunday in New Hampshire, leaving the death total at 1,344 throughout the pandemic or one percent of the state's COVID-19 cases. There were 79 new COVID-19 cases statewide Sunday, which is the tenth day in a row where there are less than 200 new cases. This was the first time since Nov. 1 that less than 100 new cases were reported. The number of active cases dropped by 441, according to officials. There are now 513 active cases in N.H., which is the lowest number of active cases since Oct. 6, 2020. (Source: WMUR) New cases in New Hampshire over the past seven days have declined 26%. Sunday’s total represents less than 7% of cases the state saw at the pandemic’s one-day high point for new cases—1,145 on December 23.

  2. Half of US States—Including NH—Have Fully Vaccinated at Least 50% of Adults. At least 25 states -- plus Washington, DC -- have now fully vaccinated at least half of their adults, data published Sunday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. Those states are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington state and Wisconsin. The state with the highest proportion of adults who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is Maine -- with more than 62% of people 18 and over having completed their shots. Across the US, roughly 61.3% of American adults have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose and about 49.6% are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. The impact of vaccines is now obvious: the country is recording some of the lowest Covid-19 metrics in roughly a year and officials say it could soon get even better than that. "Across the country, cases of Covid-19, serious illness and loss of life are all down dramatically," White House senior Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said during a briefing on Friday. "And they can be brought down even further and the risk of a future wave in your community significantly reduced if we keep up the pace of vaccinations." (Source: CNN)

  3. COVID Testing Shrinks as Vaccines Beat Back Virus. Federal health officials’ new, more relaxed recommendations on masks have all but eclipsed another major change in guidance from the government: Fully vaccinated Americans can largely skip getting tested for the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don't need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone infected. The change represents a new phase in the epidemic after nearly a year in which testing was the primary weapon against the virus. Vaccines are now central to the response and have driven down hospitalizations and deaths dramatically. On a national level, the supply of COVID-19 tests now vastly surpasses demand. U.S. officials receive reports of about 1 million tests per day, down from a peak of over 2 million in mid-January, though many rapid tests done at home and workplaces go uncounted. But for now, testing appears to be continuing unchanged in places that adopted the practice, from offices to meatpacking plants to sports teams. (Source: NECN) Worth noting is that earlier this month, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services quietly dropped providing testing data in its daily COVID-19 summaries.

  4. Sununu Cool to Offering Cash Incentives for Vaccination. As other states compete in a game-show frenzy to increase COVID-19 vaccinations, Gov. Chris Sununu remains dead set against offering cash and fabulous prizes to lure hesitant New Hampshire residents. New Hampshire is making it as easy as any state to get a vaccine, Sununu said, but “what your health is, how you protect those you covet the most, I don’t feel comfortable attaching a financial incentive to it.” Meanwhile, many of Sununu’s fellow governors are moving aggressively to offer incentives for vaccinations in what is starting to resemble a bidding war. Two weeks ago, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine turned heads by offering newly vaccinated residents a chance to win $1 million in one of five weekly “Vax-a-Million” lottery jackpots in May and June. To get younger residents to sign up, DeWine is also offering five full scholarships to any state-run college. Not to be outdone, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo upped the ante last week with the “Vax-N-Scratch” program, which offers 13 different prizes ranging from $20 to $5 million. On Friday, Oregon became the latest state to join the sweepstakes, with a lottery open to any resident who has at least one shot by June 27. On June 28, one winner will get $1 million, five students will win college scholarships and one resident from each of the state’s 36 counties will get $10,000. (Source: Union Leader)

  5. Stark Racial Disparities Persist in Vaccinations, State-Level CDC Data Shows. Black Americans’ covid-19 vaccination rates are still lagging months into the nation’s campaign, while Hispanics are closing the gap and Native Americans show the highest rates overall, according to federal data obtained by KHN. The data, provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response to a public records request, gives a sweeping national look at the race and ethnicity of vaccinated people on a state-by-state basis. Yet nearly half of those vaccination records are missing race or ethnicity information. KHN’s analysis shows that only 22% of Black Americans have gotten a shot, and Black rates still trail those of whites in almost every state. Targeted efforts have raised vaccination rates among other minority groups. Hispanics in eight states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are now vaccinated at higher rates than non-Hispanic whites. Yet 29% of Hispanics are vaccinated nationally, compared with 33% of whites. “Every day we do not reach a person or a community is a day in which there is a preventable covid case that happens and a preventable covid death in these communities,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California-San Francisco. (Source: Kaiser Health News) In New Hampshire, the percentages of fully vaccinated Whites and Asians are similar. But rates for Black and Hispanic/Latino residents continue to trail significantly. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

  6. Who Lobbied to Get Moved Up in Vaccine Line? By now, vaccine prioritization is probably fading farther from the front of your mind. Nearly two-thirds of people in New Hampshire who are eligible to get a vaccine have received at least their first dose. With the state now having more vaccines than it knows what to do with, no one is clamoring, begging, or lobbying to get moved up in the vaccine line, unlike in February when the Concord Monitor requested documents that related to vaccine prioritization from the Governor’s office. Those documents have finally been released and they show the Governor received a horde of letters from lobbyists requesting prioritization for a wide variety of workers including animal control officers, election officials, beauticians, parks and recreation staff, convenience store workers, and waste water workers. Some of the most intense lobbying came from those representing correctional officers, who were excluded from the first phase of vaccination, despite the fact that all other law enforcement officers in the state were eligible during phase 1A. School unions, as well as several individual teachers, were also staunch advocates for their prioritization in the vaccine plan. K-12 educators were placed into Phase 2A, making New Hampshire one of three states to not include teachers in Phase 1B. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  7. Portsmouth City Council to Consider Ending City’s Mask Mandate. Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine thinks it’s time “to consider ending” the city’s mask ordinance, which is scheduled to remain in effect until June 30. “I have asked the city clerk to place an item on the (City) Council agenda for Monday, June 7 under my section of the agenda to do so, and I have asked City Attorney Bob Sullivan to advise the council on the proper procedure to act that night if we decide to,” Splaine said. “Otherwise, the ordinance will expire on June 30th. A few months back, I had suggested the expiration date be June 1, but the council voted for June 30th. Now we need a chance to consider ending it sooner.” Portsmouth’s mask ordinance requires that “all persons wear face coverings whenever they are in indoor or outdoor places which are accessible to the public, in which a physical distancing of 6 feet between people who are not members of the same household is not maintained.” However, on Thursday, Mayor Rick Becksted said because it’s an ordinance, the City Council would have to go through three readings – which could take as long as a month – to change or repeal the mask ordinance. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  8. Market Square Day Festival and Road Race to Return This Fall. Pro Portsmouth has announced that the Market Square Day Festival and 10K Road Race will both return on Saturday, Sept. 18. The decision to hold Market Square Day in September, postponed from its traditional date, the second Saturday in June, was made in the hope that larger numbers of vaccinated people and lower COVID-19 numbers will make people more comfortable with attending. “We’ve been working with city staff for months, and will continue to do so to ensure that our neighbors and local businesses, runners and race walkers, vendors and visitors, all enjoy a safe event,” Barbara Massar, executive director of Pro Portsmouth, said. (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Friday, May 21

On Thursday, New Hampshire public health officials announced one additional death and 149 new cases of COVID-19. Active cases statewide totaled 1,086 and 53 patients were hospitalized with the virus. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Friday.

  1. Police Arrest Unmasked Attendee as Maskless Group Shows Up at Timberlane School Meeting. Tempers flared at Thursday night’s Timberlane Regional School Board meeting after a Sunday school teacher was arrested moments after she and several other unmasked attendees showed up to demand an end to a school mask mandate. The meeting was planned to be held in person at the district’s Performing Arts Center, but board Chairwoman Kimberly Farah quickly shut it down before it began and required that it be held remotely. “I didn’t want to jeopardize the health of the staff and the students,” Farah said as several Plaistow police officers and state police troopers swarmed inside and outside the auditorium. The abrupt end to the 7 p.m. in-person meeting happened shortly after Atkinson resident Jackie Wydola watched as police arrested her mother, Kate Bossi, when they entered the building without masks as required by school policy. Police on-scene declined to comment on the reason for the arrest at the scene, but Wydola, who identified Bossi, said she was told that her mother was arrested for disorderly conduct. (Source: Union Leader)

  2. Nashua Health Workers Engage With Community to Vaccinate More People. With nearly 45% of all Granite Staters now fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 57% with their first shot, many communities are expanding vaccine outreach efforts. Health workers in Nashua are engaging with businesses and faith organizations to provide information about the COVID-19 vaccine to people who might be hesitant. "What we are trying to do is try and create a good connection between the health department and local businesses," said health worker Robert Ortiz. The team is going door to door and starting up conversations about holding small clinics. "If we have enough people that are willing to participate, we will create a pop-up clinic," Ortiz said. "We will get a couple of public health nurses to help and join in, and then we will show up to that local business." Health workers are also working with religious organizations. Two clinics will be held Friday, one at 2 p.m. at a mosque on Pine Street and the other at 3 p.m. at the Cave Church on Bridge Street. (Source: WMUR)

  3. Navigating Pandemic Unemployment and Weighing the Risks of Rejoining the Workforce. Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision to end the flow of federal pandemic unemployment benefits into New Hampshire next month means around 35,000 Granite Staters will lose the $300 weekly enhanced benefits that have been in place for the past year. Almost 10,000 more will lose access to a federal unemployment program for gig workers and the self-employed. While the expanded federal benefits have allowed many Granite Staters to stay afloat during the pandemic, women have been hit disproportionately hard. Women are more likely to work in sectors that suffered the most over the past year, like retail and hospitality. Many women also dropped out of the workforce to care for children, and now, even as they search for work, many are struggling to find jobs that pay them enough to afford childcare. Here are the stories of three New Hampshire women who’ve had to navigate unemployment through the pandemic. (Source: NHPR)

  4. NH Communities Reconsider Mask Mandates in Light of New CDC Guidance, Newmarket Repeals Mask Ordinance Effective Immediately. The Newmarket Town Council voted 7-1 Wednesday night to immediately repeal the emergency ordinance requiring face masks.The ordinance required individuals in public settings to wear face coverings if they were unable to maintain a distance of 6 feet between other people due to the coronavirus pandemic. The mask ordinance was adopted Aug. 5 and it had been set to sunset June 7. Durham this week announced it is easing its mask ordinance. Portsmouth's mask ordinance remains in effect. (Source: Seacoast Online) Meanwhile, Keene's mask mandate will expire on June 1, and the outdoor requirement has been removed from the ordinance effective immediately. After weeks of discussion about the future of the mask ordinance, the Kenne City Council voted 13-2 Thursday night to amend it so it ends in a little more than a week, rather than having its expiration tied to New Hampshire's COVID-related state of emergency as originally written. The council's decision follows new recommendations from public health officials and increasing rates of vaccination. (Source: Keene Sentinel) The Plainfield Selectboard voted to drop its mask mandate on Wednesday night, and Lebanon moved one step closer to rescinding its own ordinance as the City Council voted to schedule a public hearing for June 2 to discuss whether to amend or drop mask regulations as vaccines play a bigger role in protecting the public from COVID-19. (Source: The Valley News)

  5. New Hampshire Eateries Urged to Apply for COVID Aid Funds. The nation’s restaurants have requested more than twice the amount available in the $28.6 billion federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund, but both the U.S. Small Business Administration and the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association are urging businesses to continue submitting their applications before it stops accepting them at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 24. As vaccinations grow and COVID restrictions fall away, restaurants are doing better, said Mike Somers, president of the NHLRA, but “we are not at 2019. We are not even close.” Applying to the RRF, with set-asides for smaller restaurants and priorities for owners inn disadvantaged groups, is easy and can be done online. Most establishments simply have to subtract their 2020 revenue and whatever they received from the Paycheck Protection Program from their 2019 revenue and you are entitled to the difference, up to $10 million. So far, 67 percent of the applications have come from priority groups — 122,000 women-owned restaurants, followed by 71,000 in the economically disadvantaged group and 14,000 veterans. (Source: Laconia Daily Sun)

  6. Judge Grants Preliminary Approval for SNHU's $1.25 million Settlement With On-Campus Students Over COVID Closure. A judge granted preliminary approval for a $1.25 million settlement offered by Southern New Hampshire University to students who were booted off campus when the university went all-online in response to the pandemic last spring. Tuition for the university’s on-campus students is higher than for online-only students, but the university did not refund students’ tuition when campus closed in March 2020 and on-campus students started taking all-online classes. A Southern New Hampshire University student sued over the difference between in-person and online tuition, with her attorneys arguing students paid extra for the on-campus experience. Any on-campus student who paid tuition and fees to Southern New Hampshire University for the spring semester is eligible to get a piece of the settlement. But the biggest slice — up to one third of the total, or as much as $416,000 — will go to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, according to the settlement agreement. The lead plaintiff, Brianna Wright, will get $5,000. If all 3,000 on-campus students join the suit, the average settlement amount from the $828,000 left in the settlement fund would be about $276. (Source: Union Leader)

  7. Maine's Mask Mandate to End for All Except Students Ahead of Memorial Day. Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed an executive order ending the state's mask mandate effective next week, ahead of the Memorial Day weekend that marks the unofficial start of the summer tourism season. The governor originally said her order would allow fully vaccinated Mainers to forgo masks indoors. But the administration decided it would be impossible to differentiate who has been vaccinated. The executive order signed Wednesday lifts mask requirements for everyone in the state except children 5 and older in school. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  8. Sun, Shades and Shots: COVID Vaccine Clinic Sets Up Shop on Busy Vermont Beach. A busy beach in Vermont’s largest city played host to a vaccine clinic unlike most you’ve probably seen. The mission was the same as all the others, but the location was certainly more laid-back. North Beach in Burlington, where the temperature hit 90 degrees Thursday, was the place to cool off in Lake Champlain, play some games and even get your COVID-19 vaccine. “I just planned on reading on the beach, just doing my thing,” said Sam Parks, 21, who learned about the pop-up clinic on her way to the beach’s snack bar. Parks signed up right away for the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “When I pulled up and found out what was happening, I was like, ‘This is so smart,’” Parks said. “This is the perfect place to target people in my age group.” Walgreens set up shop at the beach through a partnership with the state of Vermont and Burlington’s Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront Department. The Burlington Fire Department was on-hand as well, providing EMT services in case they were needed. (Source: NECN)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Thursday, May 20

Although the state continues to classify COVID-19 transmission rates in every New Hampshire county as “substantial”, active cases, new cases, and hospitalizations all continue to drop. On Wednesday, public health officials announced one additional death and 124 new cases of COVID-19. Active cases statewide dropped to 1,104 and hospitalizations fell to 50. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Thursday.

  1. Uneven Vaccination Rates Across the US Linked to COVID-19 Case Trends, Worry Experts. Tuesday was a "landmark day," as the United States reached a new Covid-19 vaccine milestone: 60% of adults have now received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to the US Centers and Disease Control and Prevention. But vaccination rates across the United States are uneven -- a worrisome trend that could obstruct efforts to end the Covid-19 pandemic. Rates range from more than 78% of adults in Vermont with at least one vaccine to less than 45% of adults in Mississippi. And over the past week, states with higher vaccination rates have generally had lower Covid-19 case rates, a CNN analysis of data from the CDC and Johns Hopkins University found. Seven states have already reached the Biden administration's goal of vaccinating at least 70% of adults with at least one shot by July 4, data from CDC shows: Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont. Over the past week, those seven states reported per capita case rates that were about 10% lower on average than those states that haven't yet vaccinated as many adults, according to JHU data -- an average of about 66 new cases per 100,000 people, compared to about 73 cases per 100,000 people. And the gap in case rates widens along with disparities in vaccination rates. Ten states have vaccinated less than half of their adult residents with at least one dose, and their average per capita case rate was about 19% higher than those seven states that have already reached the Biden administration's goal. The 10 states that have vaccinated less than half of their adult residents -- Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming -- reported an average of more than 78 new cases per 100,000 people over the past week. (Source: CNN)

  2. NH Lawmakers Take Up ‘Vaccine Freedom’ Measures. A Senate committee put limits around one “vaccine freedom” bill Wednesday, but another much broader one may be headed over from the House. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee passed an amended version of House Bill 220, which seeks to allow most people to refuse any vaccine or medical intervention. The amended version limits the bill to COVID-19 vaccines; eliminates the right to refuse medical intervention; covers only governmental entities, not private employers; and allows county nursing homes, the state hospital, and the state prison to still mandate vaccination and medical interventions. The amended bill also creates a committee to study policies for medical intervention and immunizations. Next up is Rep. Terry Roy’s last-minute, unrelated amendment to Senate Bill 155, which addresses the governor’s pandemic-related emergency orders. The House Executive Departments and Administration Committee took nearly three hours of testimony on the amendment Tuesday. Roy, a Deerfield Republican, chaired Tuesday’s public hearing over objections of committee members and refused to take questions after testifying on his amendment. Roy’s amendment is wide-reaching: It prohibits private and public K-12 schools, colleges, and employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations and prevents most public and private “entities” from asking about a person’s vaccination status. When Dr. Beth Daly, chief of the state Bureau of Infectious Disease, called the testimony “psuedo-science” and inaccurate, Roy asked her to refrain from characterizing others’ testimony and to “stick with what you know.” Daly replied, “I do think it’s within the realm of my testimony to tell you when things are not true. It’s not true, and it’s dangerous to imply or say otherwise.” Sen. Tom Sherman, a Rye Democrat who is also a gastroenterologist, testified against Roy’s amendment and raised the same concerns in committee on Senate Bill 155. An individual’s liberty, he said, should end where it puts others in danger. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  3. Registration for Saturday’s COVID Vaccination Clinic for Hearing-Impaired Ends Today. A special vaccination clinic for hearing-impaired people with be held in Manchester at Elliott Health Systems on Mammoth Road from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Registration ends today. Call 603- 271-9097 or (video phone) 603-546-7882 or email equityvaccine@dhhs.nh.gov with name and birthdate. The Pfizer vaccine will be distributed. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

  4. State Looks to Partner With Businesses, Faith-Based Organizations to Administer Vaccines. State health officials say they are looking to set up vaccination clinics with businesses and faith-based groups to reach more people who may be facing barriers. With the state transitioning at some point from larger vaccine sites to holding smaller clinics, the state is having discussions with businesses and religious groups about ways to reach members of vulnerable populations. “We have been doing outreach churches, synagogues, any faith-based organization to see if they interest in hosting a clinic and really they have been really quite generous with the use of their space,” said Chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control Dr. Beth Daly. The state has already held several clinics at workplace locations and they are interested in expanding that over the summer.As of Wednesday, there were 17,000 open vaccination appointments at state-run sites available through the end of May. Those appointments are open between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. every day except Sundays. (Source: WMUR)

  5. Sununu, GOP Lawmakers Reach Deal Over Emergency Powers. Legislative leaders took a major step Wednesday toward resolving a glaring schism between Gov. Chris Sununu and the Republican-led House of Representatives over gubernatorial power in future emergencies. Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, brokered the agreement, which would give state lawmakers a greater role in responding to states of emergencies after the COVID-19 pandemic is over. The compromise would make the length of a state of emergency 30 days, which could be extended. It would permit the Legislature, if it chooses, to weigh in on any executive orders issued by a governor during the emergency. In turn, it would compel a governor to ask for permission from the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee to spend more than $100,000 in response to any emergency. The Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee voted unanimously for the compromise, which replaces a more aggressive House-passed bill (HB 417) that would automatically end any future state of emergency declarations unless the Legislature voted to extend them. The changes, if approved by the full legislature and signed by the governor, would not go into effect until after the currrent State of Emregency has ended. (Source: Union Leader)

  6. Nashua Board of Health Recommends that City Rescind Mask Mandate, With Some Exceptions. In light of new recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or remain socially distant inside or outside, Nashua’s Board of Health is suggesting that city officials take similar action, with a few exceptions. Under the ordinance currently in effect, people are required to wear masks inside public buildings, restaurants, stores and more. On Wednesday, health officials unanimously recommended that the city’s mask ordinance be lifted and that local businesses individually weigh how to protect their patrons and staff. If Nashua establishments do opt to require masks, the Board of Health said, those businesses must require them for everyone — fully vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals — since it is difficult to distinguish between the two. Asking patrons to show their vaccine status “wouldn’t go over well,” said Chuck Cappetta, a Board of Health member. The Board of Health recommended that masks still be required on public transportation, in health-care facilities or in large gatherings. In addition, the board recommended that those who have not been vaccinated continue to wear masks indoors for their protection and others’, and avoid large indoor gatherings. The board also said those with weakened immune systems should take precautions and consider wearing masks. (Source: Union Leader) Meanwhile, in Lebanon, city councilors also considering how to move forward. Nearly 40% of the county they're in has been vaccinated. Lebanon plans to hold a public hearing on the mask ordinance June 2 before deciding. (Source: WMUR)

  7. Laconia School Board Stands Firm on Mask Policy. Students in Laconia’s public schools will continue to be required to wear face masks through the end of the school year after the School Board rebuffed the move by one of its members to abolish them. The board voted earlier to his week to keep the requirement that students and staff wear face masks when they cannot maintain social distance. The vote followed a sometimes tense discussion prompted by member Dawn Johnson’s request to scrap the mask policy contained in the district’s COVID precautions policy, which the board approved last August. (Source: Laconia Daily Sun) Meanwhile, a select board meeting in Danville had to be canceled after three members walked out over a mask ordinance not being followed. (Source: WMUR)

  8. N.H. Senate's Top Budget Writer Says Some Federal COVID Relief Aid Should Go Towards Mental Health Services. The president of the New Hampshire Senate is indicating a chunk of the nearly $1 billion in federal aid heading to the state will be spent on mental health needs. Senate President Chuck Morse told colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday that he didn’t expect policymakers to begin spending the half-billion dollars of federal aid set to flow to the state this year until later this summer, but he wants officials with the state health department to have a complete plan for mental health, pronto. Morse’s push comes a week after the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled the state can no longer detain people indefinitely in emergency rooms while they wait for inpatient mental health treatment. In the wake of the ruling, which addressed a longstanding practice, Gov. Chris Sununu granted state health officials new powers to make changes. Senate budget writers are working through spending priorities this week, refashioning the budget plan passed by the New Hampshire House last month. Though both chambers hold Republican majorities, differences are emerging between the two. For example, senators reversed a House proposal requiring the state Department of Health of Human Services cut spending by $50 million over the next two years. Family planning services continue to be a partisan flashpoint in the budget process. Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee rejected an effort by Democrats to add $1.2 million to fund family planning clinics. The parties were also at odds over language House Republicans put in their spending plan that would require entities that provide state-funded family planning services to keep their health care services separate “financially and physically” from any services related to abortion. (Source: NHPR)

  9. House Ways And Means Committee Considers Cap On PPP Loan Forgiveness. Capping the deductions companies receiving Paycheck Protection Program grants could receive from the federal money may be a possible compromise on Senate Bill 3. The House Ways and Means Committee members raised their concerns about the Senate bill that would exempt PPP grants from business profits tax liability as well as what might happen if the bill does not pass. The bill passed the Senate on a 23-0 vote but it has stalled in the House committee as some members believe the bill provides a double benefit for some companies and does not help the businesses struggling to survive. The committee has discussed a proposed amendment by Rep. Walter Spilsbury, R-Charlestown, saying if a company meets the criteria to convert the loan into a grant by paying to keep employees on the payroll, making mortgage or rent payments, and covering utility costs, then the business would not be able to use the same business deductions to offset gross income under the business profits tax. (Source: InDepthNH)

  10. State Hosts Virtual Job Fairs and Offers Incentives to Match Employers with Job Seekers. In advance of Gov. Sununu’s decision to end New Hampshire’s participation in the weekly $300 federal unemployment supplement on June 19, officials say they are taking steps to find jobs for those receiving unemployment benefits and to help businesses boost their staff. New Hampshire's unemployment rate sits at 2.8%, a drop from the pandemic high of 16%. "There's never been a demand like this for workers," said Deputy Commissioner of New Hampshire Employment Security Richard Lavers. "We had an event this morning for the Seacoast, I had a thousand people register so we're seeing great participation. There were 2,100 jobs available and we had a thousand job seekers there." On Tuesday, Gov. Sununu announced a Summer Stipend program to give unemployed residents an incentive to return to work. As part of the effort, the state has set aside up to 10 million federal relief dollars to pay cash incentives for the 33,000 people now on unemployment to return to work. After eight weeks on the job, they can apply for a $500 bonus for a part-time job, or $1,000 for full time. The back-to-work bonuses will be paid until the money runs out. (Source: WMUR)

  11. Portsmouth Mayor Sees 'Light at the End of the Tunnel' After COVID, Public Can Attend Council Meetings In-Person Again in June. Portsmouth Mayor Rick Becksted believes “there’s a light at the end of the tunnel” after spending much of his first year as mayor dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Becksted spoke to members of the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth during a State of the City event via Zoom video conference. He said the public will be allowed to resume attending city municipal meetings in person in June. The City Council met in council chambers Monday for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The city’s Independence Day fireworks celebration will return July 3 after being canceled last year. In response to a question about the city’s top priorities for spending the roughly $12.8 million it expects to receive from the $1.9 trillion American Relief Plan, Becksted said the funds should be spent on “community-based” projects. But, he added, Portsmouth leaders are still studying the guidelines about how the money can be spent. City Manager Karen Conard also spoke, crediting the work done by the city’s health department and firefighters in terms of holding vaccination clinics, which has led to the vaccination of about 2,500 people. She also noted that beginning Monday, residents will no longer have to make appointments to visit City Hall, which had been the practice during the pandemic. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  12. Pandemic Driving Up New and Used Car Prices in NH. Those looking to purchase a new or used car right now may notice some are more expensive, and on some lots, there is a lack of inventory. Experts have pointed to COVID-19 and technology backups as the problem. Pete McNamara from the New Hampshire Automobile Dealers Association said the biggest issue in the new car market was the drop in production of computer chips, a major component of most vehicles. “As the summer progresses and there’s less production happening at facilities across the world, that’s ultimately resulting in less inventory on the ground at dealerships,” McNamara said. “It also, for consumers, it also is going to result in higher prices of vehicles.” The used car market is in a similar situation, according to McNamara. He said they rely heavily on rental cars sold at auction and with fewer people traveling and renting cars because of the pandemic, rental car companies were holding on to their fleets longer. Which in turn dried up the supply of new used vehicles. (Source: WMUR)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Wednesday, May 19

(Image Source: WMUR)

(Image Source: WMUR)

On Tuesday, New Hampshire public health officials announced one additional death and 139 new cases of COVID-19. Active cases statewide stood at 1,118 and 48 people were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Wednesday.

  1. Sununu Opts Out of Feds' $300 Unemployment Boost, Adds Back-to-Work Bonus. Gov. Chris Sununu said Tuesday he will end the extra federal unemployment benefits on June 19, including the $300 weekly payment being collected by nearly 35,500 people in the state. He also announced he has set aside $10 million to pay stipends of $500 and $1,000 to people who come off unemployment and get a job they keep for at least eight consecutive weeks. Sununu said last month he would be setting gradual restrictions on unemployment benefits, beginning with a May 23 return of the job-search requirement for anyone receiving unemployment. Sununu said there are currently nearly 14,240 job listings in New Hampshire and a 2.7 percent unemployment rate. COVID-19-related health concerns should no longer keep people from working, he said. “If folks are concerned about re-entering the workplace because of COVID, go get vaccinated,” he said. “I mean, that’s what the vaccine’s for. It’s a key mitigation measure. If you’re not willing to get vaccinated and you’re still concerned about re-entering the workforce. . . . If not now, then when?” The stipends, which will be paid for with federal pandemic aid, will be awarded first come, first served until the $10 million is gone. Part-time workers will receive a $500 bonus. Full-timers will get $1,000. The stipends are available only to people who earn less than $25 an hour. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  2. State Epidemiologist Parts with CDC and Recommends All People Keep Wearing Masks Indoors. State health officials are recommending guidance on wearing masks and social distancing that differs from recent recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC said those who are fully vaccinated do not have to wear a mask or socially distance in most circumstances, but state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said Tuesday that with the current rate of infection and vaccinations, that's tough for businesses to follow. He is recommending everyone, regardless of their vaccination status, wear a mask and socially distance indoors when around people who are unvaccinated or if their vaccination status is unknown. "The CDC guidance was difficult, if not impossible, for businesses and organizations to figure out how to implement, and so we need to help our businesses and organizations figure out how to implement guidance in protective layers, in the interest of protecting their employees and patrons in the store," Chan said. Speaking at the governor’s weekly press briefing, Chan said an increase in vaccinations along with mitigation measures will end the pandemic faster than either step alone. (Source: WMUR)

  3. Upper Valley Area Public Health Experts Fault CDC Timing and Messaging on New Guidelines. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new guidelines last week, indicating that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in public indoors, except in certain settings such as in hospitals or when required by law or regulation. But some doctors and public health experts said the guidelines could have included more examples of how best to implement the new mask guidelines in different settings. In addition to health care settings, masks are still required even of fully vaccinated people on public transportation and in correctional facilities and homeless shelters, but the new guidelines don’t address other settings. Anne Sosin, a policy fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, said she thinks the CDC ought to have waited a few weeks before rolling back the mask requirements. While she agrees that the risk to vaccinated individuals may be low, she dislikes the message some people may get from the new guidance: “You’re on your own.” Sosin said that the new guidance relies on people voluntarily disclosing their vaccination status and that lifting mandates before everyone has had a chance to be fully vaccinated is a mistake that “disproportionately burdens people who have not yet had the opportunity to become vaccinated.” Sosin, who contracted Covid-19 this spring and marked her first day of full vaccination Monday, said she is especially concerned about younger workers, who are being asked to work in settings such as restaurants where precautions such as masking have been lifted, as well as those who are immunocompromised and for whom the vaccines may not work as well. “We haven’t thought about who is going to be left behind,” she said. (Source: The Valley New and VT. Digger)

  4. Vaccination Update: 44% of Eligible NH Residents Are Fully Vaccinated As Vaccine Equity Efforts Continue to Sputter. At the same press conference, Dr. Beth Daly, who heads up the N.H. Bureau of Infectious Disease Control, said 68 percent of the state’s eligible residents have signed up to get vaccinated. There have been 1,310,000 vaccine doses administered in total, including 56 percent of the total eligible population getting at least one dose. About 44 percent of the state’s eligible residents are now fully vaccinated, she said. Last week, the state began administering the Pfizer vaccine in children ages 12 to 15 years old and so far about 5,000 have received their first dose, about 9 percent. Meanwhile, the state continues to struggle to vaccinate people who are medically vulnerable and/or disadvantaged. The has vaccinated 35,000 people from its equity allocation which is less than the 10 percent of the vaccines the state targeted. Daly said there are ways to expand that program and that the state is trying to get creative, including partnerships with food banks, the faith-based community, and employers. A vaccination clinic for the deaf is May 22 in Manchester with Elliott Health System and appointments are required. Those who want to sign up can use video phone at 603-546-7882, by phone at 603- 271-9097, or email equityvaccine@dhhs.nh.gov by May 19. Interpreters will be available. (Source: InDepthNH)

  5. Outbreak Closes Monadnock Regional Middle/High School. Monadnock Regional Middle/High School will hold classes remotely on Tuesday and Wednesday, after high school students were sent home late Monday morning due to several COVID-19 cases. Superintendent Lisa Witte said the school district was aware Monday of seven cases of the viral disease, six of them involving members of the high school community, though she said the district was also awaiting the results of outstanding tests. The decision to dismiss high school students Monday morning was made after officials learned of three cases that morning, bringing the total to seven. Students are expected to return to in-person learning on Thursday, according to a news release from the district Monday. "I think it's a good reality check," Witte said. "We are still in this. And it's not just us. Everybody in the state is still in this." (Sources: Keene Sentinel and WMUR)

  6. After a Challenging Year, Educators Float Ideas to Address Teacher and Student Burnout. As schools have reopened their doors to full five-days-a-week instruction, and raced to line up expanded summer programming and tackle fears of COVID learning loss, many educators are raising alarms about exhaustion – among students and staff. Teachers, who have ping-ponged through different instruction models, are contemplating retirement. Students, isolated from friends and meaningful connections with instructors, are dealing with anxiety and frustration. The issue came front and center at a key Department of Education meeting this week. In its first time convening since June 2020, the New Hampshire School Transition Reopening and Redesign Task Force met Monday to check in with education stakeholders about what issues remained for schools and how to resolve them. Burnout was high on the list. Dellie Champagne, community engagement coordinator at the New Hampshire Children’s Behavioral Health Program, said her own conversations with teachers had painted a dark picture about the current mood. To Champagne, one approach lies with the state’s community mental health centers. The Department of Education could devote money to create partnerships between schools and mental health centers, “a community care team of school staff and outside mental health professionals,” Champagne said. Community mental health centers in New Hampshire already face a shortage of around 200 employees in total. Schools are struggling to retain guidance counselors and support staff. There’s also the matter of funding initiatives that might help. While New Hampshire’s Department of Education has received over $500 million in federal “Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief” funds, the majority of that money has been passed along to school districts. The money that remains has a shelf life. Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, for his part, said he understood the need for more counseling and mental health support. But he urged caution when it comes to any major expansions. “Part of the difficulty that we have is that this is kind of one-time funds, right?” he said. “We get it, and it doesn’t sustain itself beyond a couple of years.” (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  7. COVID-19 Variant From India Found in Maine. A coronavirus variant first detected in India has been discovered in Maine, state officials said. Only one case of the variant has been found so far in York County, the Maine CDC reported. English health officials have classified it as a “variant of concern” because of it’s easier to transmit. So far, 11 types of variants have been discovered in Maine COVID cases. Most have been the United Kingdom variant. (Source: NECN) https://www.necn.com/news/local/covid-19-variant-from-india-found-in-maine/2468815/ Experts say it's not likely to cause much harm here because of high vaccination rates and because the US health care system is not under stress. There is also evidence that the vaccines are effective against the Indian variant. "We have no reason to believe the vaccine response to this strain will be a problem," said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. "This has already been assessed in Israel and other places, and the mutations don't seem to be able to evade the vaccines." But with a virus that has defied expectations and the variant infecting hundreds of thousands of Indians every day, researchers are keeping an eye on it. (Source: USA Today)

  8. NH Lawmakers Get An Earful From Public Health Officials During Hearing on Amendment to Ban Vaccine Mandates. New Hampshire House lawmakers are considering an amendment to a Senate bill that would prevent employers and schools from mandating the COVID-19 vaccine. During Tuesday's hearing, officials from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services opposed the amendment, calling it dangerous. "Vaccine requirements are essential to the health and safety of our communities," said Dr. Beth Daly, chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control. "Letting kids attend school without vaccine requirements will set us back over 100 years before we had safe and effective vaccines, when millions of children were infected and disabled by vaccine-preventable diseases and thousands died each and every year." The amendment would prevent K-12 schools and employers from mandating the vaccine and would keep the state from passing any law mandating vaccines or the creation of registries that keep track of those immunized. (Source: WMUR) The committee adjourned without taking a vote on the amendment.

  9. Performing Arts Venues Prepare to Get Back in Business. The performing arts community in New Hampshire is preparing for a post-pandemic rebound after venues were shut down or dealing with limited capacity for the past year. After an initial shutdown for three months as nonessential, performing arts centers struggled through another 10 months at about one-quarter of total capacity. Industry representatives said that before the pandemic, there were about 3,500 workers in the state. How many of those can be rehired is yet to be seen. The performing arts have a major impact on the state’s economy and the success of other business. Officials said for every dollar spent on a ticket for a show, about $12 is spent in the community for things such as dining, lodging and parking. People who go to shows will notice some differences. Venues encourage people to check first to know the rules since they can vary from place to place and show to show. "Will masks be required, recommended or optional? Will there be 3 or 6 feet of social distancing in effect for audiences, or will the capacity be at full capacity with no social distancing?" said Beth Falconer, of 3S Artspace. New signs will be in place to explain masks, distancing and vaccine status rules for audience, staff and performers. Officials said it might be a little confusing, but it's the safest way for the show to go on. (Source: WMUR)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Tuesday, May 18

On Monday, New Hampshire public health officials announced one additional death and 104 new cases of COVID-19. The number of active cases statewide stood at 1,169 and 46 people were hospitalized with the virus. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Tuesday.

  1. Massachusetts to Lift All COVID Restrictions on May 29, State of Emergency on June 15. All COVID-19 restrictions in Massachusetts, including the state's mask mandate, will lift on May 29, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Monday. Baker’s decision to fully reopen the state about two months early came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance Thursday, which says fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors in most situations. Face coverings, first advised by the state in April of last year, will still be mandatory for anyone taking public and private transportation including rideshares, taxis, ferries, the MBTA and the Commuter Rail as well as in transit stations. Masks will also be mandatory inside schools, child care programs, health care facilities, nursing homes and other settings that host vulnerable populations. Baker also announced Massachusetts state of emergency will end June 15. He cited the state's nation-leading vaccination process in his decision to hasten the reopening timeline. Massachusetts is on track to meet its goal of vaccinating 4.1 million residents by the first week of June. (Source: NECN) In New Hampshire, Governor Sununu lifted most business restrictions and allowed the state’s mask mandate to expire earlier in the month. However, in April Sununu said that the state of emergency in New Hampshire may last until the end of the year. At the time, he said much of the federal aid coming into the state is tied to the state of emergency, so it might be necessary to keep it in effect, even if no restrictions are in place. (Source: WMUR) This raises a question about why states that are ending their states of emergency—like Massachusetts and Florida—would take an action that could jeopardize their federal funding. Worth noting is that under N.H. law (Section 4:45), a state of emergency 1) must be renewed every 21 days by the governor to remain in effect 2) allows the governor to issue and rescind enforceable emergency orders that have the power of law and 3) gives the governor extraordinary authority to accept and distribute emergency funds from the federal government without oversight from the legislature or Executive Council. In short, should the state of emergency be rescinded, the governor’s powers would be considerably weakened. The most recent 21 day extension expires on May 28.

  2. Target, Walmart Among Stores Not Requiring Masks for Fully Vaccinated. Target on Monday joined other retailers no longer requiring fully vaccinated customers and employees to wear masks in their stores, unless there are local ordinances. Target joins other companies, including Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Costco and CVS. “Face coverings will continue to be strongly recommended for guests and team members who are not fully vaccinated and we’ll continue our increased safety and cleaning measures, including social distancing, throughout our stores,” a statement from Target reads. Walmart and Sam’s Club announced last week that vaccinated customers and members do not need to wear face coverings, unless required under state or local guidelines. The company requests that non-vaccinated customers and members wear face coverings in its stores and clubs. Fully vaccinated associates will not need to wear a mask at work starting Tuesday, according to a news release. (Source: Union Leader)

  3. Mask-Free In the 603: New CDC Guidance for Fully Vaccinated Employees. The announcement that masks—with a few exceptions—no longer need to be worn indoors or outdoors by vaccinated people has left many New Hampshire employers scrambling about what to do with their mask and social-distancing policies. Under the new guidance, unvaccinated individuals will still need to wear masks in the workplace. Additionally, guidance from OSHA has not kept pace with the CDC’s announcement. Although the White House’s announcement is an encouraging sign of how the administration will treat the issue, we still don’t know how OSHA will approach it and whether or not OSHA will find that some industries should keep practicing mask wearing. Something else worth knowing is that under EEOC guidance, employers are permitted to understand who has been vaccinated and who has not been vaccinated if the inquiry is “job-related and consistent with a business necessity.” But because of privacy concerns, employers are urged to be cautious when it comes to collections and storing information like this. (Source: NH Business Review)

  4. NHIAA Says Wearing a Mask While Competing in High School Sports No Longer Needed. With the number of COVID infections declining and the governor’s announcement last month that mask-wearing was optional in the state, the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association announced that it has changed course and now thinks high school athletes should have their choice, mask or no mask, for all upcoming state playoff games. The ruling – which followed the governor’s executive order last month – means schools are free to tell their athletes they no longer need to wear masks to compete in athletic competitions. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  5. Mask Mandate Still Applies to...Commercial Fishermen?!? Now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks “in any setting,” New Hampshire fishermen are hoping the agency will change its mandate for their industry. The CDC on Jan. 29 issued a federal order requiring all persons to wear masks on all public transportation “conveyances” and transportation hubs to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The agency’s website subsequently detailed that the mask order applies to anyone traveling on “commercial maritime vessels.” That lumped fishing vessels in with public transportation such as cargo ships, ferries, river cruise ships and charter fishing trips. “It’s a major concern,” said Linda Hunt, general manager of Yankee Fishermen’s Cooperative in Seabrook, which has 75 members. Last week, Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, urged CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky to change the mask mandate for fishermen. Murkowski likewise said the mandate is “a safety hazard” for fishermen in her state. “You’re out on a boat, the winds are howling, your masks are soggy wet,” she said. “Tell me how anybody thinks this is a sane and a sound policy,” she said. “We are in the process of finalizing industry-specific guidelines for exactly this reason,” Walensky said. (Source: Union Leader)

  6. Local School Boards Consider How to Use Relief Funds. School boards in New Hampshire are weighing how to spend millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief funds. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, said there is $350 million in relief funding available to help elementary and secondary schools safely reopen and support students. Officials with the New Hampshire School Boards Association said those funds are desperately needed. "It's really the social and emotional wellness of the students into next year," said Travis Thompson, president of the association. "I do think it's going to be a long road back to feeling safe," said Brenda Willis, of the Derry Cooperative School Board. Some districts are struggling to make necessary improvements to their school's ventilation systems. "I think some of the feedback that I hear about HVAC funding is that it probably won't be enough to do what older schools really need to have done, so that's something to consider," said Pam McLeod, of the Alton School Board. (Source: WMUR)

  7. More N.H. School Superintendents Leaving Or Changing Jobs During Pandemic. More New Hampshire superintendents and assistant superintendents are leaving their jobs this year, as part of a nationwide trend many attribute to the stress of managing school districts during the pandemic. According to the New Hampshire School Administrators Association, more than 20 district leaders are retiring or changing jobs at the end of this semester, compared to 12 last year, and nine the year before. The turnover is particularly high in Nashua, where the school board, district leaders, health officials and a group of parents have fought over how to reopen schools safely. In other districts that delayed reopening, such as Exeter, some parents who pushed for full in-person learning and opposed districts’ safety mitigation measures also called for their superintendents to resign. (Source: NHPR) In another education-related story, the New Hampshire Department of Education has launched a new version of its online portal that provides data to parents, school officials, and other members of the public about schools and districts across the state. The Department has completely redesigned parts of its iPlatform data portal including iReport and iExplore – which offer quick snapshots and advanced analyses of data – in order to be more accessible to novice users. The dashboard is now more interactive, and has a “more consistent look and feel,” according to the department. iReport, also known as the School and District Report Card, gives overviews of a school or district, and includes data related to enrollment, student achievement and growth, college and career readiness, educator profiles, school environment and financial data. iExplore lets users analyze the data across schools. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  8. Lawmakers Aim to Prevent Schools, Employers from Mandating COVID Vaccination. A last-minute amendment to a bill that protects the governor’s pandemic-related emergency orders would prohibit private and public K-12 schools, colleges, and employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccination. The amendment to Senate Bill 155 would also prevent any public or private “entity” from asking someone about their vaccination status before allowing them to use transportation or “public accommodations.” The amendment mirrors language in House Bill 220 that passed the House and is now before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. That “medical freedom” bill generated fierce debate between personal liberty advocates and medical providers during the Senate committee’s public hearing. New Hampshire public schools, like those around the country, require students to be immunized against polio, measles, mumps, and other diseases but provide religious and medical exemptions. Sponsored by Rep. Terry Roy, a Deerfield Republican, the amendment would not prohibit those existing vaccines but instead covers vaccines that have been in use for fewer than 10 years, which targets the COVID-19 vaccination. Pamela DiNapoli, executive director of the New Hampshire Nurses Association, said the group would oppose the amendment.“Currently students in New Hampshire are required to provide information to schools about required vaccines to attend school,” she said. “They are excluded from school if they do not provide the information or request an exemption. The same should be true for COVID.” Other sections of the bill are more far-reaching. It would prohibit a state or “political subdivision” from passing any law, rule, ordinance, or order that would require a vaccine or maintain any list or registry with personal identification information regarding vaccine status. It would also prohibit any “person or entity” from denying a person goods or services based on vaccination status. The House Executive Departments and Administration Committee will hold a public hearing on the amendment Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. via Zoom. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  9. New Hampshire Falls to Fifth in New WalletHub COVID-19 Safety Study. In a study released last week by the economics website WalletHub, New Hampshire had fallen from first to fifth as the safest state in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only Hawaii, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine scored higher in the study, with Michigan, West Virginia, Florida, Kentucky and Pennsylvania finishing in the bottom five of the study. The study looked at vaccination rates, rates of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 between April 28 and May 4, hospitalization rates between May 6 and May 12, COVID-19 related death rates from May 6 and May 12 and the estimated transmission rate. (Source: Manchester Ink Link)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Sunday, May 16

Starting Monday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., up to 50 doses will be available at each New Hampshire mass vaccination center location for walk-in vaccinations, including the one at the Newington Mall. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

Starting Monday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., up to 50 doses will be available at each New Hampshire mass vaccination center location for walk-in vaccinations, including the one at the Newington Mall. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

On Saturday, New Hampshire public health officials announced two additional deaths and 145 new cases of COVID-19. Active cases statewide stood at 1,331 and 52 patients were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Sunday.

  1. NH to Begin Offering Walk-in COVID-19 Vaccinations on Monday. New Hampshire will begin offering walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations at state-managed fixed sites on Monday. At least 50 doses a day will be set aside for walk-ins between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. at each location. Second dose appointments will be scheduled the same as they are for everyone else. The person receiving the vaccine will get a card with a date for their second dose appointment at the same location. Both Moderna and Pfizer will be available, in case any of the walk-ins are under the age of 18. (Source: NBC Boston)

  2. Vaccines for Younger Teenagers and Softening Hesitancy Could Put Herd Immunity in Sight. With children between the ages of 12 and 15 getting their first COVID-19 shots on Thursday and a still-climbing number of adults choosing to be vaccinated, New Hampshire may be approaching what’s often called “herd immunity,” which is reached when the number vaccinated is high enough that the virus no longer spreads quickly. Just over 41% of eligible New Hampshire residents were fully vaccinated as of Friday, according to state data, and more than 55% have had the first dose of a two-shot regimen. Vaccinating 60% of the population might be enough to really slow the virus’ spread from person to person, said Michael Calderwood, a Dartmouth-Hitchcock doctor and the hospital’s chief quality officer. Other estimates range from 55% to above 70%. Even as more people have gotten the vaccine this spring, the number of people who do not want to be vaccinated has held steady, at between 22% and 25% of New Hampshire’s adults, according to University of New Hampshire polling. Pediatrician Erik Shlesser, president of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said a lot of parents aren’t opposed to vaccinations, but do have questions. He has been getting phone calls and emails from a lot of families in recent days, asking his advice about the vaccine for their 12-to-15 year-olds. What do you recommend? Did your kids get the vaccine? Shlesser said he decided to get his children vaccinated after weighing the risks and benefits. He said it’s important to acknowledge side effects — the day or so of flu-like symptoms after the vaccine, as well as the rare allergic reactions. (Source: Union Leader)

  3. COVID Tracker: New Cases Are Slowing Down, But So Are Vaccinations—And Now That I’ve Got My Vaccine Card, What Do I Do With It? In its weekly report on key COVID-19 metrics for New Hampshire, the Concord Monitor reports that the pace of vaccinations has visibly slowed. During the two-week period at the start of April, more than 75,000 people became fully vaccinated. But during the two weeks leading up to May 3, just 22,000 people were added to the list of the fully vaccinated. While the slowdown isn’t unexpected, it’s occurring at a point where just 26.3% of all New Hampshire residents have been fully vaccinated, including children under 12 who are not yet eligible. the two-week average of new cases is 257, the lowest point since mid-March, and has declined slowly but steadily for 20 days. Meanwhile, the two-week average of new cases is 257, the lowest point since mid-March, and has declined slowly but steadily for 20 days. As for vaccination cards, keep them safe and don’t share photos of them on social media—which can allow scammers to steal your personal information. If you lose or misplace your card, you can get a replacement by calling 2-1-1 or going online if you’re registered with that federal VANS system. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  4. Sununu Pushes to Use Federal Funds For Rent Relief To Develop Affordable Housing. Gov. Chris Sununu has asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to help the state address its affordable housing shortage by allowing federal money designed to help people pay their rent during the pandemic to also be used to develop and build new rental units. In a letter to Yellen dated May 4, the governor called the permissible uses for funds distributed to states through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program – approved at the end of 2020 – as “overly restrictive.” The money can be applied against rent, utility and energy costs, as well as “other housing-related expenses due direct or indirectly to COVID-19,” which the Treasury Department takes to mean costs of security deposits, late fees and hotel stays. Sununu recommended the qualified uses of the funding provided by the program be expanded to include investment in construction of affordable housing to offset the impact of the pandemic on the stock of rental units, incentives for public-private partnerships to develop affordable housing and measures to reduce the risks to developers and lenders in undertaking projects to serve “socially and economically disadvantaged people.” (Source: NHPR) Meanwhile, the federal moratorium on evictions is set to end on June 30, and New Hampshire housing attorneys say a spike in tenants removed from their homes is likely to follow. For now, experts are hoping a new round of rental assistance in New Hampshire – and new changes to who is eligible for that system – could lessen the impact for tenants and landlords. “I’m hopeful, really hopeful, that a number of people will take advantage of the emergency rental assistance programs administered by their local community action agencies,” said Elliott Berry of New Hampshire Legal Assistance. “But there are people who won’t be eligible for that, and it’s not going to be pretty.” (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  5. Some Continue to Struggle with Long-Haul COVID-19. While optimism abounds for those seeking a return to normalcy, much is still unknown about long-haul COVID. According to a National Institutes of Health study of 3,700 self-described COVID “Long Haulers” in 56 countries, nearly half could not work full-time for six months after getting sick. While more than half say they never sought hospital care, more than 2,400 reported symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, trouble sleeping, “brain fog” or cognitive dysfunction, or memory loss persisting six months or longer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also identified joint and chest pain, depression, muscle pain, headache, intermittent fever and heart palpitations as long-term symptoms. Less common, but more serious, long-term complications include inflammation of the heart, lung function abnormalities, acute kidney injury, rash, hair loss, smell and taste problems, anxiety and changes in mood. “There is still a lot we have to learn about the disease,” says Dr. Jose Mercado, associate hospital epidemiologist for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. “We are focusing on how to prevent further complications. I’m not sure we are at a point where we have treatment for these folks,” Mercado says, especially to get them back to functioning normally at work. Mercado says that since there is no set standard for identifying long-haul COVID, the number of cases is likely underreported. Mercado also points out that 30% of patients who experience a mild form of COVID may experience acute post symptoms. “The younger-age population think they are less vulnerable. We have messaged out so far if you are young, you are less likely to have severe disease and more likely to have mild or asymptomatic disease that may make them feel less vulnerable, but there is still a good chance they will experience long-term symptoms,” Mercado says. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  6. Pandemic Fallout: Lumber Prices Hit Record Highs, Driving up Remodeling and Home Building Costs. With many people itching to take on home renovation projects during the COVID-19 pandemic, Concord general contractor Greg Baier offers advice his customers might not expect. Wait. That’s because a lack of supply continues to drive up the cost of lumber and other building materials. Most reaching out to Baier want to finish their basement, redo bathrooms or build a new deck as they spend more time working from home. Not only are the costs high, Baier simply can’t keep up with the demand. The average wait time right now: 14 months. Lumber prices are up 300% over the past year, which has caused the cost of an average new single-family home to increase by nearly $36,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders. John Harding, owner of Image Contracting in Bedford, said the volatility makes pricing a project difficult and impacts new construction more than remodeling because of the amount of lumber needed. A two-by-four now runs for about $9 or $10 compared with $3, he said. “We’ve seen prices jump 10% over the period of a week or they’ve gone up 30% over three or four weeks,” he said. “It is just so unpredictable.” (Source: Union Leader)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Saturday, May 15

A newly released infographic showing what vaccinated people can do vs. unvaccinated people based on new CDC COVID-19 prevention guidance. (Source: Centers for Disease Control).

A newly released infographic showing what vaccinated people can do vs. unvaccinated people based on new CDC COVID-19 prevention guidance. (Source: Centers for Disease Control).

On Friday, hospitalizations for COVID-19 hit their lowest point since October at 54. But the virus claimed three more lives, bringing New Hampshire’s death toll for the pandemic up to 1,329. Public health officials announced 178 new cases and total active cases statewide stood at 1,394. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Saturday.

  1. CDC Reversal on Masks Leaves States, Businesses Scrambling. If you’re going to Starbucks or Target, bring your mask. But if you swing by Costco, Trader Joe’s or WalMart, you can leave it in the car, assuming you are fully vaccinated of course. That said, if you’re taking public transportation to get there, you’ll need to mask up for the ride. After 405 days of urging every man, woman and child to wear a mask, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stunned much of the nation this week -- including health experts – with its recommendations that vaccinated Americans can mostly ditch the mask. The decision left businesses, governors and schools scrambling to respond and an emerging hodgepodge of rules for masks, depending upon which state, county or store a person is in. Governors said they weren’t briefed in advance on the plan, despite 24 states and the District of Columbia having some sort of state-wide mask mandate in place at the time of the announcement. "We were as surprised as anyone by the CDC’s announcement – learning about it through the press," said Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. In Maine, Gov. Janet Mills told reporters she was "anxious" to hear from the CDC how to distinguish between vaccinated the unvaccinated people. (Source: ABC News) But by Friday, Mills announced she was on board and Maine would adopt the CDC guidance allowing masks off indoors and outdoors as state policy. Also on Friday, Vermont Governor Phil Scott also announced residents can put away their masks, except in certain settings—such as health care and long-term care facilities, correctional centers, and homeless shelters—and when using public transportation. (Source: Burlington Free Press) John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital said one primary concern is that the U.S. is still experiencing active disease transmission with more than 35,000 COVID cases a day. Also, some vulnerable populations including children don't have the option of getting vaccinated. That puts everyone on the honor system and many people and businesses confused on how exactly to stay safe, he said. "Americans are feeling incredible whiplash," Brownstein said.

  2. NH Business, Retail Groups Don't Expect Many Mask Policy Changes for Now. While some national retailers have already scaled back COVID-19 precautions, many New Hampshire businesses are keeping things as they are for now. "I don't think it's going to change that much," said Mike Somers, president of the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association. Somers said many of his organization's members are still going to require masks. Nancy Kyle, president of the New Hampshire Retail Association, said it's the same for her organization. The two agencies said that while the CDC is saying that fully vaccinated people can ditch their masks, it's hard to tell who is actually vaccinated and who is not. Because of that, many businesses will likely keep the requirement in place. "Most folks in the industry are trying to ease out of this," Somers said. "They don't just want it to be a 'rip the Band-Aid off.' it will be a slow, gradual adjustment over a period of time." (Source: WMUR) Local mandates are also an issue. In Concord, Michael Cohen, the owner of Pitchfork Records, said he hasn’t decided what to do when the city’s mask ordinance expires on June 1. If he stop requiring masks to be worn in the store, he worries how the dynamic between customers will change. “I feel safe but I don’t know about the people that come in who are not vaccinated,” he said. “How are people going to feel if they’re wearing masks and there are people who are not wearing masks? I don’t want those divisions in my store.” (Source: Concord Monitor)

  3. What’s Next For NH Communities with Mask Mandates? The answer depends on which community you live in and how comfortable community and business leaders are with making changes. Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said a number of community members have called her office in the 24 hours since the CDC's announcement, from people planning graduation parties to business owners with mask regulation questions."Retailers and restaurants saying 'What do we do now? Are we throwing everything away?'" Griffin said. The simple answer in Hanover and dozens of other places—including Concord, Durham, Exeter, Franconia and Portsmouth—is no. Mask mandates will remain in place for the time being, with the need for higher vaccination percentages as reasoning for Griffin and others. But other municipalities are considering changing their current regulations. Plymouth Town Manager Katherine Lowe said the town's select board will discuss the issue May 24. "I was a little surprised, a little shocked," Lowe said. "I personally don't think we are ready yet." Places like Nashua, Keene and Lebanon will discuss updating mask ordinances at meetings next week, as well. (Source: WMUR) In Portsmouth, the city’s mask mandate will expire on June 30 unless it is renewed by a majority vote of the Portsmouth City Council.

  4. NH Schools Nurses Say Schools Shouldn’t Rush Into Lifting Mask Restrictions. Nurses from two New Hampshire schools say that with precautions in place, in-classroom transmission of COVID-19 is not a significant problem. At the elementary level, they said transmission appears to be rare. At higher grade levels, school nurses said student activities tend to be where the virus gets around. The nurses said masks, distancing and other pandemic countermeasures are making the difference, and they encourage schools not to rush into lifting those restrictions. "A large portion of our population in K-12 schools are not vaccinated yet, and the students far outnumber our staff, so I think we need to take that into consideration before we start removing layers too quickly," said Colleen Roy, a school nurse in Northfield. (Source: WMUR)

  5. Shaheen and Local Leaders Say Community Needs and Priorities a Key Focus of American Rescue Plan Funding. On Friday, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined with Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess, Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith and Strafford County Administrator George Maglaras to discuss the approximately $1.45 billion in state and local funding coming to New Hampshire through the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Shaheen said the primary feedback she received from municipal leaders when helping to craft the ARP was the need for flexibility in how municipalities choose to use federal assistance. Unlike the CARES Act, Shaheen said the ARP is designed to help municipalities not just with COVID-related budgetary items, but other local projects that potentially lost funding due to the pandemic. “That’s what’s important, to be able to meet the needs of each individual locality,” said Shaheen on the importance of flexibility she heard from local leaders. “I’m pleased to say that I think we’ve done that through the American Rescue Plan.” Smith noted that in Londonderry, one of the primary expected uses for the ARP funding will be PFAS mitigation while Maglaras mentioned solar farms. Donchess mentioned affordable housing, support for local business, broadband and school aid as possible uses and Craig recently released a survey asking Manchester residents how they think the approximately $43 million earmarked for Manchester should be spent. “These funds have the ability to make a historic impact on our city,” Craig said. (Source: Manchester Ink Link)

  6. Keene State, Franklin Pierce Not Requiring COVID Vaccine — For Now. Neither Keene State College nor Franklin Pierce University requires students or employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but that could change by the time the next school year starts, campus officials said. “While Keene State does not currently require the COVID-19 vaccine, we strongly encourage every faculty, staff and student to be vaccinated,” college spokeswoman Kelly Ricaurte said in an email this week. “If permanent approval of the vaccines is granted by the FDA, Keene State, in consultation with its board of trustees and the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, will make a final decision about whether the vaccine would be required for students.” Marissa Colcord, a spokeswoman for Franklin Pierce in Rindge, said the university similarly encourages its students and staff to get vaccinated, but has not mandated the shot. If Keene State does end up making a COVID-19 vaccine compulsory, Ricaurte said that decision would likely be made by the entire University System of New Hampshire, which also includes UNH in Durham, Plymouth State University and the Concord-based Granite State College. Lisa Thorne, a spokeswoman for the university system, said this week a decision whether or not to mandate a coronavirus vaccine would come “if permanent approval of the vaccines is granted by the FDA.” That could happen later this year. (Source: Keene Sentinel)

  7. Housing Affordability Takes a Hit As Housing Prices Set Records in Rockingham and Strafford County. The leap in housing prices that has continued unabated throughout the pandemic continues to surge. Single-family homes and residential condos in Rockingham County reached their highest median prices in April, making the county the priciest place to buy property in New Hampshire. April’s sales trends from the New Hampshire Association of Realtors show the median price of a single-family home in the county reached $471,500, while the median price of a condo reached $380,000. Meanwhile, the median price of a single-family home in Strafford County reached an all-time high of $328,600 in April. And there’s no indication the factors contributing to escalating prices will ease any time soon. “We are still short inventory with high demand and still seeing multiple offers well over asking, some into the six figures over the sales price.” said Lee Ann Parks, president of the Dover-based Strafford County Board of Realtors. (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Friday, May 14

Dr. Beth Daly announcing Thursday that 1,267,000 vaccine doses have been given out by the state so far. 750,000 residents (55% of the population) have gotten their first dose and 555,000 (41%) are now fully vaccinated residents. (Image Source: WMUR)

Dr. Beth Daly announcing Thursday that 1,267,000 vaccine doses have been given out by the state so far. 750,000 residents (55% of the population) have gotten their first dose and 555,000 (41%) are now fully vaccinated residents. (Image Source: WMUR)

On Thursday, New Hampshire public health officials reported four additional deaths and 222 new cases of COVID-19. The total number of active cases statewide stood at 1,450 and 62 patients were hospitalized with the virus. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Friday.

  1. With Some Exceptions, CDC Announces Fully Vaccinated People Can Stop Wearing Masks Indoors and Outdoors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear masks or physically distance — whether indoors or outdoors in most circumstances. Outside experts in infectious disease overwhelmingly hailed the move. "Today marks a true turning point in the pandemic," said a former acting director of the CDC, Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "If you're fully vaccinated, you are good to go. That's huge." There are a few caveats, however. People who have compromised immune systems, for example, should talk to their doctors about continuing with mitigation measures. And even fully vaccinated people may still be required to wear masks in certain places, such as in hospitals or other health care settings, as well as public transportation. (Source: NBC News) Worth noting is that the new CDC guidance does not change or nullify state orders, local ordinances, or individual business policies now in place requiring the wearing of masks. They will remain in effect until rescinded or changed. Meanwhile, some medical experts are urging people to be supportive of those choosing to continue to wear masks. They note the presence of breakthrough cases as well as the ongoing risk for people who have yet to be vaccinated.

  2. N.H.'s Top Epidemiologist Says He Has Concerns About CDC's Looser Mask Guidance. Dr. Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, says he’s not certain the time is right for the CDC’s new guidance that vaccinated people can go maskless or stop maintaining social distance in most settings. While Chan said moving away from mask-wearing is inevitable as more people are vaccinated, he believes now may not be the right moment to do it. “I have concerns about pulling back on some of the recommendations at this time, because of some of the issues that have been highlighted," Chan said. "There’s also a lot of logistical questions that come to mind with this kind of change. This is a big change.” One logistical challenge Chan pointed to was how business would know if unmasked people were indeed fully vaccinated or not. Chan said the state reviews CDC recommendations before adopting them and wasn’t yet sure whether the state would adopt the CDC’s new mask recommendation. He said New Hampshire health officials will review the new guidance in the context of their own data. New Hampshire had a statewide mask mandate requiring people to wear masks in all public spaces until mid-April, when Sununu allowed it to expire. At the time, Chan did not publicly question or raise concerns about that decision, though he did stress the importance of continued mask wearing. (Source: NHPR)

  3. NH to Open COVID Vaccination Sites to Walk-Ins Next Week. Starting Monday, New Hampshire will open its state-run COVID-19 vaccination sites to people without appointments. The state will make 50 doses per day available to walk-ins of all eligible ages, including children ages 12 to 15, who became eligible for the Pfizer vaccine after the Food and Drug Administration expanded its emergency-use authorization for that age group earlier this week. (The vaccine had already received approval for people 16 and up.) Walk-in shots will be available between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the state's 11 vaccination sites. (Source: Keene Sentinel)

  4. Maine to Lift COVID Gathering Restrictions This Month. Maine is removing capacity limits and easing physical distancing restrictions ahead of what it hopes will be a busier summer tourist season this year. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said Thursday the state will lift all capacity limits and requirements to physically distance in outdoor settings starting May 24—a week before tourism season officially kicks off with the Memorial Day holiday weekend. That same day, the state will remove all capacity limits in public indoor venues. Maine will also eliminate physical distancing requirements indoors, other than in settings in which people are eating or drinking such as restaurants and bars. The state is still calling for facial coverings to be worn in public indoor settings, officials said. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  5. Gov. Sununu Announces He Will End $300 Weekly Federal Unemployment Payments and Proceed with Business Tax Cuts. Following the lead of at least 14 other Republican-led states, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday he will end the additional $300 weekly federal unemployment payments before the program expires in September. Sununu cited complaints from employers who’ve said they can’t fill positions because unemployment benefits are too high. He had already announced that as of May 23, people filing for state unemployment will have to prove they are looking for work. Sununu said he expects eliminating the extra unemployment could bring 5,000 to 10,000 people back to the workforce. Sununu did not say when the federal benefit would end. The other states ending the payments have said they plan to do so between June and July. The state Department of Employment Security has recently tried to boost the workforce with job fairs, with little success. During the eight job fairs held in 2021, 305 employers tried to fill 16,500 jobs. Just over 600 job seekers attended. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin) Sununu also told reporters that the $1.5 billion New Hampshire will receive under the American Rescue Plan will not impact his plans for business tax cuts. Under federal guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department released earlier this week, states cannot use ARP money to fund tax cuts or contributions to their public employee pension plans. States that ignore the guidance must refund every federal dollar to the Treasury Department spent in violation of the rule. But Sununu told reporters that New Hampshire’s economy is doing so well, it doesn’t need the federal money—although he will accept it. He maintains that because the tax cuts were budgeted before the federal funds became available—and state tax revenues are strong—the tax cuts are not being funded by ARP and won’t be affected by his decision to accept ARP funds.

  6. School Districts, Hospitals Set Up Clinics for Vaccinating Children Age 12-15. Now that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has been authorized for 12-to-15-year-olds, some school districts and hospitals in New Hampshire have already started to offer vaccination clinics for families. "It's been a whirlwind as far as organizing and whatnot, but we will have all of our first-dose clinics done by Tuesday," SAU 48 Superintendent Kyla Welch said. The Plymouth School District started vaccinating students Thursday morning, hours after the Pfizer vaccine was approved for 12-to-15-year-olds. State vaccination sites are also accepting appointments, as are some hospitals. Officials at Littleton Regional Healthcare said they're ready to vaccinate eligible children Monday through Friday. (Source: WMUR) At Thursday’s weekly press briefing, Dr. Beth Daly, who heads up the state’s infectious disease department urged parents to make the choice to vaccinate their children. She noted some children can get seriously ill from the coronavirus. There have been 3 million sickened and 500 children have died including from multisystem inflammatory disease related to COVID-19. Daly said vaccinations will help keep teens healthy and in school. She also said the state is using mobile clinics to make vaccinations more accessible for hard-to-reach populations. The state is working with Elliott Hospital in Manchester to reach people with hearing issues, with a clinic scheduled on May 22 in Manchester. (Source: InDepthNH)

  7. Survey Shows Unvaccinated Latinos Are the Most Eager to Get Vaccinated — But Face Obstacles. Hispanics who have yet to receive a covid shot are about twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites or Blacks to say they’d like to get vaccinated as soon as possible, according to a survey released Thursday. The findings hint at fixable, though difficult, vaccine access problems for the population. One-third of unvaccinated Hispanics say they want the shots, compared with 17% of Blacks and 16% of whites, according to the survey released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The results reflect an opportunity for public health departments and local governments to reach out to Hispanics with information and vaccinating teams, said Liz Hamel, vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at KFF and director of the organization’s monthly covid vaccine surveys. “There definitely is a large chunk of the Hispanic population that’s eager to get it, but they just have either not been able to fit it into their schedule, or they have some concerns or questions or they haven’t been able to access it,” Hamel said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 13% of people in the U.S. who have received at least one vaccine dose are Hispanics, though they make up about 17% of the overall population. (Source: Kaiser Health News) According to data released Tuesday by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Health Services, 32.7% of Hispanic/Latino residents in the Granite State have received their first dose and 16% are fully vaccinated. By comparison, the first dose completion percentage in NH for Whites is 48.5%, for Blacks/African Americans 30.9%, and 57.9% for Asians. 32.4% of Whites, 14.8% of Blacks/African Americans, and 26.9% of people of Asian ancestry are now fully vaccinated. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

  8. NH State Senate Meets In-Person at State House for First Time in 2021—and Sends Four Controversial Education Bills to Governor for Signature. Observing mask-wearing and social distancing, the New Hampshire Senate met in person Thursday for the first time during the current legislative session. The Senate was meeting in Representatives Hall — traditionally the home of the New Hampshire House — as it did several times in 2020 after the start of the pandemic. The House has been meeting at a sports complex in Bedford this session. Until Thursday, this year’s meetings of the full Senate had all been conducted remotely. (Source: Concord Monitor) The GOP-controlled Senate approved several bills to expand school choice for parents and allow public money to be used to pay tuition at religious schools. One bill allows religious schools to be included in schools students could attend if their districts do not have their own high schools or other grade levels. Religious schools have long been blocked from receiving taxpayer dollars under the state constitution, but Governor Sununu, a long-time advocate for spending public tax dollars on private schools, is expected to sign them. Meanwhile, the Senate deadlocked 12-12 on a bill that would allow a landlord to evict a tenant at the end of a lease without having to provide a reason. Supporters of House Bill 227 said the bill would help ensure property rights and government should not be interfering in private contracts. Opponents said the bill would increase the odds that someone evicted may not find another place to rent because of the state’s housing shortage. (Source: InDepthNH)

  9. Eviction Worries Mount as CDC Moratorium Set to End. With the federal eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of June—or end before that because of a lawsuit—New Hampshire housing attorneys say a spike in tenants removed from their homes is likely to follow. Either way, the end of the moratorium, a last line of defense for some tenants, will have consequences, experts warn. “We’re seeing a little uptick in calls of clients just becoming more nervous about the moratorium ending, whether it’s still in effect, whether it applies to them,” said Marta Hurgin, an attorney with the Legal Advice and Referral Center, which helps tenants navigate eviction cases. “Landlords, I think, are becoming a little more antsy and motivated to try to get out tenants that have been in place throughout the moratorium,” Hurgin said. For now, experts are hoping a new round of rental assistance in New Hampshire – and new changes to who is eligible for that system – could lessen the impact for tenants and landlords. Meanwhile, Gov. Sununu confirmed this month he has no plans to add a new state moratorium in its place. This time around, as the last eviction backstop goes away, attorneys and observers hope a new state aid program can help curb the worst effects. For New Hampshire renters and landlords, December’s congressional aid package was a game-changer. Among the $900 billion in COVID relief money were funds specifically designated for housing assistance. New Hampshire received around $200 million – nearly six times the amount set aside by the state in the previous year. The resulting program, the New Hampshire Emergency Rental Assistance Program, will not only deliver a higher volume of assistance, it will also speed up how that assistance reaches landlords and relieves tenants, observers say. The system means that landlords can work with tenants and come up with payment plans that can avoid eviction, just as many did last year when tenants received IRS stimulus checks. As of May 7, the state had distributed $7.5 million of the aid, serving 1,506 households since the renewed program launched in March, according to the governor’s office. “I would certainly say that I think it’s working better this time,” Hurgin said. “The application seems more streamlined. The guidance from the federal government I think captures more people and helps more people.” (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  10. New Positive COVID Cases Dropping at Keene State After Recent Surge. Keene State College says positive cases of COVID-19 among students are dropping after a surge last week. “Last week we saw an uptick in positive test results, and this week thus far, we are seeing half the positive test results relative to last week,” said Kelly Ricaurte, director of strategic communications and community relations. The college has 58 active cases as of Thursday, with 35 among students on campus and 23 among off-campus students. The school had as many as 61 cases last week before taking action to limit the spread, Ricaurte said. (Source: Union Leader)

  11. Yes, Both Doses of COVID Vaccine Are Needed, Seacoast Doctors Say. Taking a shortcut is not the answer when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines. There is a developing school of thought where some people think getting one dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines is good enough to offer them protection. Doctors say it's not the way to go, based on a lack of real science to back up the premise. "Anyone who is saying (they need only the first of the two-shot dose) is not basing the information on any official recommendation or guideline," said Dr. David Itkin, an infectious disease specialist at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. "I have heard of people who have had COVID and so believe the development of natural immunities, plus one dose of the vaccine is enough to protect them. The truth is that we simply do not know how good the immunity is after a single shot, so the recommendation is to get both. We are beginning to learn how long the immunities from the vaccine might last, but we have no idea how long the natural immunities from having COVID will last." (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Thursday, May 13

New cases continue to decline in New Hampshire. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

New cases continue to decline in New Hampshire. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

On Wednesday, New Hampshire public health officials announced four additional deaths and 174 new cases of COVID-19. Active cased statewide totaled 1,322 and 63 patients were hospitalized with the virus. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Thursday.

  1. CDC Panel Recommends Pfizer COVID Vaccine for 12- to 15-Year-Olds. An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Wednesday to recommend Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for use in kids ages 12 to 15. The vote was 14-0, with one abstention. The vote came two days after the Food and Drug Administration amended its emergency use authorization for Pfizer's vaccine to include this age group and is considered one of the final steps needed before shots start going into arms. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is expected to quickly accept the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, recommendation — clearing the way for the shots' use in the 17 million young people in this age group. Some states, such as Delaware and Georgia, began administering the shots immediately after the FDA's action. But most major pharmacies and clinics said they would wait for the CDC's input before vaccinating kids ages 12 to 15. Vaccinating this age group is seen as a key way for middle and high schools to reopen fully by this fall. (Source: NBC News) The FDA also scheduled a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee for June 10 to discuss the potential extension of emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine to children under 12. Pfizer said last week it expects to submit for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 2 to 11 in September. Its vaccine safety and efficacy study in children ages 6 months to 11 years old is ongoing. (Source: CNN)

  2. Vaccine Appointments for 12-15 Age Group Are Now Open in NH. Children 12 to 15 in New Hampshire can get their first COVID-19 vaccination as soon as today now that emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine has been authorized and a CDC panel has recommended its use for younger teenagers. Families can begin making appointments for vaccinations at state fixed sites and Walgreens today using the state’s vaccine sign-up website at vaccines.nh.gov. Because of growing vaccine supply and slowing demand among adults, the wait for an appointment has gotten much shorter. New Hampshire has 25,000 appointments available before Memorial Day in the state vaccine system, according to the governor’s office. (Source: Union Leader) Anyone under 18 must have consent from a parent or guardian. This can be verbal consent from the parent or guardian onsite at the time of the vaccination, written consent that can be filled out by the parent or guardian in advance or while onsite, or an electronic consent form that can be signed by the parent or guardian at the time of registration. Due to FDA emergency use authorization requirements, recipients under the age of 18 years old may only receive the Pfizer vaccine. (Source: InDepthNH) WMUR reports the first 12 year-old in New Hampshire to receive a dose was vaccinated Wednesday night. Meanwhile, several school districts are planning their own vaccination clinics. The Manchester district is partnering with the city's health department to host two clinics on May 15 and 22. The Strafford County Public Health Network will host another drive-thru vaccine clinic for students in that area. (Source: WMUR)

  3. 12 Residents at Sullivan County Nursing Home Experience Breakthrough Infections. Twelve fully vaccinated residents and three workers at Sullivan County’s nursing home have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing to 169 the state’s count of infections in fully vaccinated people. More than a half-million people have been vaccinated in New Hampshire, and so-called “breakthrough” infections remain very rare. Out of about 37,000 COVID-19 infections since mid-January, less than a half-percent of those infected were fully vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Of the 169 people experiencing breakthrough infections, seven people were hospitalized. Two died; both were residents of long-term care facilities. At Sullivan County’s nursing home in Unity, 13 residents were infected with the virus between April 20 and May 4. All but one was vaccinated. One person was hospitalized, but all residents are now well, said Ted Purdy, director of the home. “It just shows that our elderly are more vulnerable, and the vaccine isn’t 100% effective,” Purdy said. “We need that herd immunity.” DHHS spokesman Jake Leon said in a statement on Wednesday that breakthrough infections are to be expected because no vaccine is 100% effective. But getting the vaccine makes a person more able to fight off the infection. “Evidence shows that vaccination may make illness less severe in people who have been vaccinated but still get sick,” Leon said. (Source: Union Leader)

  4. Newport Nursing Home Announces New COVID Outbreak. The Woodlawn Care Center has moved to outbreak status, putting visitation on hold, after two residents tested positive for COVID-19, according to a social media post. Both residents, one in the Main House and the other in the Manor House of the Newport nursing home, are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and are not showing any symptoms, Tuesday’s Facebook post said. Four Woodlawn residents died after testing positive for COVID-19 during an outbreak at the facility last year that included 33 residents and 24 employees. (Source: The Valley News)

  5. In Legislative Push for Religious Liberty and Exemptions from Pandemic Restrictions, Some See Potential for Discrimination. Like most states, New Hampshire never ordered churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship to close after COVID-19 hit the state, but it did limit how many could attend services. That was unconstitutional, several pastors told a Senate committee Tuesday, given that retailers and liquor stores were unrestricted. “We know that the churches and places of worship have been mentioned in the U.S. Constitution,” said Pastor Peter Chamberlain of Granite State Baptist Church in Concord. “And they’re mentioned in our New Hampshire Constitution. Home Depot’s not. The liquor store is not.” A “religious liberty” bill that would limit the state’s ability to put restrictions on places of worship in future emergencies has been embraced by religious leaders, rejected by LGBTQ and civil liberties groups, and flagged by the Attorney General’s Office. Opponents argue the language of the bill will extend religious protections beyond the church and allow for discrimination. Sean Locke, director of the Attorney General’s Civil Rights Unit, said the bill is concerning because it would allow secular businesses and secular service providers to cite religious beliefs and evade compliance with the state’s anti-discrimination laws, which provide protection from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and public education. Chris Erchell, staff attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), agreed and cited cases where religious freedom was used to deny same-sex couples essential health care and allow a employer to stop a transgender woman from wearing a woman’s uniform. House Bill 542’s prime sponsor, Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican, said in an interview that the bill’s opponents are misconstruing his intent. “There’s no intention of the bill to allow for the discrimination in the public sphere,” he said. “I don’t see that as a rational argument against the bill.” The bill has already been approved in the House and is now under consideration in the Senate. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  6. COVID Cases on the Rise At Keene State. On Tuesday, Keene State College reported 56 active cases and 76 individuals in quarantine. 34 of those positive cases belong to on campus students and 22 of those cases are off campus students. Cases have doubled since May 3, when 28 were reported. Director of Strategic Communications and Community Relations Kelly Ricaurte said the sharp increase in cases is alarming. In response, Keene State has moved to yellow/red operational status. The Zorn Dining Commons will accommodate take-out dining only. There will be no inside events inside the Student Center including meetings, nor will there be seating available for eating. Use of the recreation center will be limited to academic classes and COVID-19 testing only. In-person activities will be moved outdoors. However, in-person classes will continue as normal due to the spacing and masking requirements already in place. “We know the variants are there and we are continuing to see them,” President Melinda Treadwell said. “Once you see them they tend to stay because they are now in circulation in the population.” (Source: The Equinox)

  7. Sewage Testing Shows More-Contagious Virus Variant is Widespread in Keene. The COVID-19 variant first identified in the United Kingdom late last year is now the dominant strain being found in Keene’s sewage, according to the latest data from Keene State College’s wastewater testing project. The highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant was initially detected in Keene’s wastewater in early April, with rates ramping up in the ensuing weeks. “The U.K. variant has gradually been detected across the spring and is now the dominant strain in our wastewater,” said Jeanelle Boyer, a Keene State public health professor who helps lead the project. Dr. Aalok Khole, an infectious disease physician at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, said news that the B.1.1.7 variant is circulating in Keene isn’t surprising. “We should be concerned but it is not unexpected,” he said in an email. “As we have said in the past, even if we hadn’t detected these strains in large numbers, for several reasons, we had assumed they were here and circulating.” Khole and Boyer said the pandemic’s course locally will likely depend on the area’s vaccination rates. “The vaccines that are being used are very effective against the U.K. variant,” Boyer said. “My expectation is as vaccination increases, as long as people do continue to receive the vaccine ... I’d suspect SARS-CoV-2 levels to come down and with that, the U.K. levels as well.” (Source: Keene Sentinel)

  8. After A Pandemic Pause, Visits To Resume At New Hampshire Prisons. Starting this week, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections is allowing inmates to request in-person visits, which had been suspended during the pandemic, but there will be different processes depending on the inmate's vaccination status. Visitors will be screened for COVID symptoms and inmates who have been vaccinated will be able to hug their visitors. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated visitors and inmates must wear masks. The Department of Corrections said if fewer than 70 percent of residents in a facility are not vaccinated, unvaccinated residents won't be allowed in-person visits at all. The Department says visits will begin the week of June 7th. (Source: NHPR)

  9. ‘Mask-erade’ Replaces Prom at Oyster River High. Oyster River High School juniors and seniors gathered outside, on the school's turf field in Exeter, Wednesday to celebrate what was cleverly called a Mask-erade, instead of a prom. Wednesday night's mask-erade event marked the first time such a gathering has been possible since the COVID-19 pandemic began over a year ago. "I am so excited," said Evelin Ashburner. "My brother Liam was on the committee last year, when it didn't happen, so this year we worked together. We are making the best of the situation. This past year has been so weird, adjusting to school, in school, remote, all the schedule changes." (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Wednesday, May 12

Clear plexiglass barriers separate tables and counter diners at La Maison Navarre, a French bakery and restaurant in Portsmouth.

Clear plexiglass barriers separate tables and counter diners at La Maison Navarre, a French bakery and restaurant in Portsmouth.

On Tuesday, New Hampshire public health officials reported two additional deaths and 134 new cases. The current number of known COVID-19 cases in the state decreased to 1,424, the lowest since Nov. 2. Hospitalizations decreased to 71, the lowest since March 24. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Wednesday.

  1. Schools, Counties Make Plans to Start Vaccinating Children Age 12-15. New Hampshire has not started vaccinating children age 12-15 after the Food and Drug Administration greenlit the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, but school districts said they will offer the vaccine once they get the OK. New Hampshire health officials said they are waiting for authorization from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices before moving ahead with vaccinations for that age group. Health officials said ACIP is meeting Wednesday, and they expect VINI, the state's vaccination registration system, will have vaccination appointments available as early as Thursday. The Manchester school district plans is partnering with the city’s health department to offer vaccination clinics for students age 12-15 at Memorial High School from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 15 and 22. Students will be able to bring one or two family members. The Strafford County Public Health Network will host another drive-thru vaccine clinic for students in that area. Two clinics will be held on May 15, one at Oyster River High School in Durham and the other at Rochester Middle School. (Source: WMUR)

  2. N.H. Attorney General's Office Says School Masks are Allowed. The New Hampshire Attorney General's office says that school mask mandates are legal, in spite of pushback by some parents, lawmakers and school board members. School districts and private schools are receiving calls and emails alleging that requiring students to wear masks is akin to forms of child restraint prohibited by state law. But last week, the Department of Education told school districts that, according to the Attorney General's office, mask mandates do not run afoul of the child restraint law. Moira O’Neill, the director of the N.H. Office of the Child Advocate, says parents are misinterpreting a rule that was designed to safeguard children from harmful retraints that impede their movement. “Fussing about masks – a proven intervention to stop viral spread – is telling children that political nonsense is more important than children’s well-being, education, and mental health,” she told NHPR. State health officials continue to advise the use of masks to lower transmission of COVID-19. (Source: NHPR)

  3. UNH Sees Lowest COVID-19 Cases Since September 2020. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) has seen a sharp decline in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases within the community. Positivity rates are also the lowest they have been since September. Cases spiked on campus in early February, with cases peaking at a high of 506 on Feb.19. With an average of 43 daily positive cases, over 498 individual students were in isolation, with another 637 in quarantine. As of Tuesday, only 13 active cases remain within the community, with Qi students in isolation, along with one faculty member and two staff members. Quarantine numbers remain high, with 42 individuals quarantined, with 5 quarantined on campus. UNH held three vaccination clinics for community members throughout April, with over 6,000 total appointments booked between the clinics. (Sources: The New Hampshire and UNH COVID-19 Dashboard)

  4. Why is Portsmouth Getting Much More American Relief Plan Cash than Dover and Rochester? It’s Complicated. Portsmouth is getting a $12.88 million slice of the $1.9 trillion American Relief Plan funds passed by Congress. Dover and Rochester, both with much larger populations than Portsmouth, are getting significantly less. Dover is set to receive $7.5 million and Rochester $6.1 million. The entire package of money coming to New Hampshire includes about $1.4 billion, announced this week by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster. Allocation of funds is based on the 2019 Census data, looking at a formula utilized by the Community Development Block Grant program, according to the U.S. Treasury. Dover City Manager Michael Joyal said some of the formulas that determine how CDBG funds are allocated were drawn up in the mid-1970s, based on measures of communities' poverty, housing prices, population changes and other factors. Joyal said part of the explanation for Portsmouth getting more money than Dover or Rochester may go back to when these measures were put in place. It was a time when the Pease Air Force Base was active, and before the large population dip when it closed. Entitlement communities like Portsmouth, Dover and Rochester receive relief and CDBG money directly from the federal government instead of waiting for the money to be filtered through the state before distribution. This means Somersworth and other communities on the Seacoast that are not entitlement communities will receive their American Relief Plan allocation through the state of New Hampshire. Somersworth’s estimated allocation is $1.18 million, according to Scott Smith, deputy city manager and finance director. Under Treasury Department guidelines, the money can generally be used for infrastructure projects as a way to stimulate the local economy, housing assistance and homelessness services, and serve as an offset to lost revenue that municipalities have faced as a result of the pandemic. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  5. State Outlines Program to Test for COVID-19 in Schools, Overnight Camps. With a federal grant, New Hampshire will make COVID-19 tests available to children and staff in schools, overnight camps and some day care centers in the coming weeks — but regular testing will largely be limited to people at higher risk for contracting COVID-19, including students who play contact sports. More than 90 schools have already signed up to participate in the program for asymptomatic testing, according to the Department of Education. Schools in general are safe, said Jonathan Ballard, chief medical officer of the state Department of Health and Human Services, but some settings do carry higher risks of contracting the virus. Instead of regularly testing all students for COVID-19, as many colleges and universities have done this school year, Ballard said the state will focus on high-risk times. Those times will include the return from school vacations and travel, and high-risk activities like contact sports. Ballard said no one will be required to take a test. The state will also discourage testing children and school staff who have been vaccinated because it is unlikely that a vaccinated person will contract COVID-19. (Source: Union Leader)

  6. New Federal Program Aims to Help Granite Staters Get Broadband. A new federal program is about to launch to help people get broadband in their homes and computers, if they can't afford them. The Emergency Broadband Benefit program provides $3.2 billion in federal funding that's available starting Wednesday to help those who qualify with internet service. "This pandemic has made apparent like nothing before that if you want a fair shot at 21st century success, you're going to need to be connected to high-speed internet," said Jessica Rosenworcel, acting chairwoman of the FCC. Those who qualify include people who have lost income because of layoffs or furloughs and families with students on a free or reduced lunch program. "They will be eligible for up to $50 a month to help them pay for broadband services," Congressman Chris Pappas said. "There is also a one-time discount of $100 to purchase a device so you can access the internet." (Source: WMUR)

  7. As Mass. Has Rare Day With 0 New COVID Deaths as 3 Million People Are Fully Vaccinated, Some Restaurant Restrictions Eased. Massachusetts public health officials confirmed no new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, as the state reached a major milestone in its vaccination effort: 3 million people vaccinated. It's just the third time the state has reported no COVID deaths in a day since deaths were first reported in the commonwealth, according to Massachusetts Department of Public Health records. To date, 17,334 Bay Staters have died from the virus during the pandemic—more than ten times the number in New Hampshire. A total of 3,005,473 people have been fully immunized so far in Massachusetts. (Source: NECN) Meanwhile, Massachusetts has quietly lifted some of the coronavirus-related restaurant restrictions aimed at surface transmission. Restaurants can once again have reusable menus, salt and pepper shakers and other condiments like ketchup on their tables. Eateries are no longer required to use single-serve utensils and they don't have to sanitize chairs and tables after every use.

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Tuesday, May 10-11

New Hampshire now stands at #3 among states in the percentage of residents who have received a first dose and #32 when it comes to the percentage of fully vaccinated residents. (Source: CDC via New York Times Vaccination Tracker)

New Hampshire now stands at #3 among states in the percentage of residents who have received a first dose and #32 when it comes to the percentage of fully vaccinated residents. (Source: CDC via New York Times Vaccination Tracker)

On Monday, New Hampshire public health officials announced no additional deaths and 135 new cases. Active cases statewide totaled 1,492 and 77 patients were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Tuesday.

  1. $1.5 Billion in Federal Relief Headed to New Hampshire. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March is bringing at least $1.5 billion to New Hampshire. The U.S. Treasury announced Monday that the state will receive $994.5 million. The state’s 10 counties are sharing $264 million, and five qualifying cities will split the remaining $86 million. There will be an additional $112 million coming to the state’s smaller “governmental divisions,” such as towns, villages, and water precincts, but the breakdown was not released Monday. “It’s not my phrase, but I’ve heard it described as a once-in-a-generation investment,” said Becky Benvenuti, government finance adviser for the New Hampshire Municipal Association. “We have heard from communities that this is very welcome.” New Hampshire officials can use the money for a wide range of expenses related to COVID-19 response. This includes paying for vaccination clinics and mental health treatment; mitigating financial impacts to workers, households, and small businesses; replacing public sector revenue; increasing pay to essential workers; and investing in the state’s water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure. The Treasury Department said states cannot put the money into pension funds, award it to a private nonprofit, or use it to offset a reduction in net tax revenue resulting from a change in law or regulations. It also cannot be used to offset new tax cuts. Under the plan, states and localities will have even more flexibility for using any dollars deemed to be replacing revenue lost last year.“I’m not sure there’s ever been this level of investment directly to Manchester or the other communities,” Craig said. She added in a written statement, “I’m thankful these funds can be used to address many of the challenges we faced caused by COVID-19, giving us the opportunity to help residents, support small businesses, increase affordable housing options, and make investments in city infrastructure.” (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin) Under the plan, Manchester will receive $43,281,853 , Nashua $16,138,777, Portsmouth $12,880,280, Dover $7,535,686, and Rochester $6,147,502. Additionally, Granite State communities with populations of less than 50,000, will collectively receive $112,208,773 in relief funding through the American Rescue Plan.(Source: NH Congressional Delegation)

  2. Other States Catching Up—and Pulling Ahead of NH on Vaccinations. According to CDC data posted in the New York Times, in the past week Massachusetts (62%) and Vermont (61%) have pulled ahead of New Hampshire and Connecticut (both at 58%) to lead the U.S. in the percentage of residents receiving first doses. For several weeks, the Granite State had topped the chart in this category. Meanwhile, New Hampshire continues to slip in relation to other states when it comes to the percentage of residents who are fully immunized. While Maine and Connecticut are setting the pace nationally for all states with 45% of residents now fully vaccinated, New Hampshire comes in at #32 with 33%. (Source: New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker)

  3. FDA Permits Use of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid Vaccine in Kids Ages 12 to 15. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Pfizer and BioNTech's request to allow their COVID-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis, allowing states to get middle school students vaccinated before the fall. The companies said in late March that the vaccine was found to be 100% effective in a clinical trial of more than 2,000 adolescents. They also said the vaccine elicited a "robust" antibody response in the children, exceeding those in an earlier trial of older teens and young adults. Side effects were generally consistent with those seen in adults, they added.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee has scheduled a meeting Wednesday to review the shots for kids. If approved by the CDC as expected, it could be distributed to adolescents as soon as this week. Vaccinating children is seen as crucial to ending the pandemic. The nation is unlikely to achieve herd immunity — when enough people in a given community have antibodies against a specific disease — until children can get vaccinated, health officials and experts say. Children make up around 20% of the total U.S. population, according to government data. Between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population needs to be vaccinated against COVID to achieve herd immunity, experts say. Approval by the FDA for kids under age 12 could come in the second half of this year. (Source: NECN) Answers to frequently asked questions about vaccinating your children. (Source: NECN)

  4. Sullivan County Considers Vaccination Policy Changes in Nursing Home After Outbreak. A recent COVID-19 outbreak at the Sullivan County nursing home has led some officials to consider compensation changes for staff and a mandatory vaccination requirement for them. The outbreak, which started last month, has affected staff and residents at the home in Unity, including some who were fully vaccinated. Last year, the county instituted a compensation program for employees in quarantine, paying them two-thirds of wages for a missed day of work. The Eagle Times reports that under a new proposal, only vaccinated employees will still be eligible for this compensation, said Derek Ferland, county manager. Unvaccinated employees who contract the virus will have to use their sick or vacation days to still be paid. as long as there are hosts, the virus continues to do its thing. Currently, 92% of the county home residents and 75% of the staff are fully vaccinated. (Source: Concord Monitor) The outbreak has grown to include 18 people and has forced the facility to pause visitations until it goes for two weeks without new positive results. (Source: The Valley News)

  5. Unemployment in a Pandemic is Stressful – Even Before the Overpayment Notices. The New Hampshire Department of Employment Security recently announced it was dropping its effort to collect $25 million in unemployment “overpayments” from 8,000 people who did not, upon review, qualify for benefits. But those overpayment notices, which are stressful and take months to reverse, have also been going to people who not only did qualify but were underpaid benefits. “People should continue to appeal any unemployment denials or overpayment decisions – especially if they think they were entitled to benefits,” said attorney Mary Krueger. She also said anyone still unemployed should continue filing their weekly claims while they wait for their overpayment hearing. In some cases, Krueger said, people could even request ongoing benefits pending appeal. “Appealing the overpayment decision is often the only way to continue receiving benefits,” she said. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  6. New Hampshire Restaurants See Relief as Restaurant Revitalization Fund Ramps Up. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, or RRF, is part of the American Rescue Plan designed to help restaurants and other food service-related businesses recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The program, run through the Small Business Administration, officially opened up the application portal on Monday, May 3. The restaurant industry was among the hardest hit by COVID-19. According to New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, over 200 Granite State restaurants have permanently closed since the pandemic. After the pandemic hit last year, Raleigh Wine Bar + Eatery in Portsmouth shut down for nearly the entire spring. The restaurant decided to hibernate in the winter and closed its doors during January, February and part of March this year. To help offset lost revenue, the restaurant applied to receive funds from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a $28.6 billion federal aid program. “Like all restaurants, we’ve been dramatically affected,” said Nimi Idnani, owner of Raleigh Wine Bar + Eatery. The restaurant plans to use the funds to pay salaries and expand outdoor dining –something the restaurant now heavily relies on, as their indoor dining capacity was reduced by over 50% with appropriate social distancing. “I think there is a fairly good awareness of the program locally,” said Idnani, adding that the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth and distributors have reached out to organizations to ensure that businesses knew about the program and how to apply. (Source: NH Business Review)

  7. City of Concord Says You Must Wear Masks Indoors but State House Legislators Say They Don’t Have To – Who is Right? State legislators beganmeeting indoors this week without any mask mandate even though their buildings are in Concord, a city that still has an ordinance requiring masks to be worn in public buildings to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This has raised questions about whether the city’s mask ordinance covers the State House and other legislative buildings and supersedes the decision of the Republican-led Joint Facilities Committee to remove the mask requirement. The answer? Because state property is generally exempt from city ordinances, just as it is exempt from paying property taxes, the legislature is free to make its own rules regarding mask-wearing in the State House complex. (Source: Concord Monitor) Worth noting was that the action to end the mask requirement and open up the State House was made despite poor indoor air circulation inside the State House and Legislative Office Building, the fact that substantial transmission of the virus is still occurring in every New Hampshire county, and scientific proof that mask-wearing reduces the risk of infection.

  8. Republicans in Maine Eye 5-year Ban on Mandatory COVID Shots. A proposal from a group of Maine Republicans to ban mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for five years is up for consideration by a legislative committee this week. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Tracy Quint of Hodgdon, have based their proposal in part on the theory that coronavirus vaccines cause reproductive harm. Numerous medical authorities have said the claim lacks merit, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated there is "no evidence that any of the COVID-19 vaccines affect future fertility." The proposal is slated for a work session before the Maine Legislature's Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services on Tuesday. (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Sunday, May 9

After weeks of trending downward, key New Hampshire COVID numbers were up across the board on Saturday. Public health officials announced three additional deaths and 197 new positive tests for COVID-19, both up from the previous day. Active cases also ticked up to 1,932 and hospitalizations increased statewide to 89. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Sunday.

  1. New Hampshire No Longer Enforcing COVID-19 Protocols. New Hampshire dropped its enforceable COVID-19 business restrictions Saturday and replaced them with optional "Universal Best Practices." The guidance lists recommendations for local businesses on cleaning, mask-wearing and spacing. It also asks businesses for the first time to encourage employee vaccinations. Individual businesses can decide how much they want to follow the recommendations, if at all. Polly's Pancake Parlor in Sugar Hill will be following the state guidelines. Co-owner Kathie Cote said employees will continue wearing masks and customers will still be asked to, as well. Cote said not all of her employees are fully vaccinated yet. "A lot of our staff is teenagers, and they're on the last end of that wave," Cote said. "So being 100% indoors, we want to be safe. We want to keep our crew safe and our customers who have that concern." (Source: WMUR) Many local chambers of commerce are urging patrons to respect the wishes of local businesses that are continuing with mask mandates even after Gov. Chris Sununu failed to renew the state’s mandate on April 16. (Source: Monadnock Ledger-Transcript) Also worth noting is that on Friday, Gov. Sununu signed the 20th extension of New Hampshire’s state of emergency, which gives him the power to accept and distribute federal COVID relief funds as well as to enact or rescind emergency orders related to the pandemic. (Source: Office of the Governor)

  2. Nashua’s Board of Health to Revisit Mask Mandate. A Nashua Board of Health review of the city’s mask mandate could produce recommendations to modify the ordinance enacted about a year ago. Although a decision on whether to continue the mask requirement ultimately will be made by the Board of Aldermen, Alderman Tom Lopez said last week that the city’s Board of Health should have more control over the mandate “so it doesn’t turn into a political on/off switch.” If the decision lies in political hands, Lopez said economic pressures or political rhetoric could play a factor. That could lead to a situation where people with no health or medical background start to drive the conversation, he said. Instead, Lopez suggested that the Board of Health consider recommending different benchmarks that could be used to amend or alter the existing mask ordinance — an ordinance that he supports strongly. Bobbie Bagley, director of public health, said many individuals and businesses believe the statewide mask mandate was ended prematurely. The number of COVID-19 cases in the Gate City has gone down, Bagley said, but the city must continue to work to maintain that trend. Nashua was the first city in New Hampshire to enact an ordinance requiring mask-wearing to limit the spread of the virus. (Source: Union Leader)

  3. Some Parents Excited, Others Hesitant When It Comes to Vaccinating Their Children. With the Food and Drug Administration likely to soon authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for teenagers between 12 and 15 years old—and the company also expected to seek authorization for children aged 2 to 11 by September—many parents will soon need to decide whether to allow their children to be vaccinated. While many are excited by the possibility, others are less sure. According to a report by ParentsTogether, a national parent’s organization that provides education and resources for families, only 58% of parents or caregivers said in a March survey they would vaccinate their children against COVID-19, despite 71% saying they would vaccinate themselves. A more recent survey published in the April edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor found 32% of parents said they'll wait awhile to see how the vaccine is working before getting their child vaccinated, and 19% said they definitely won't get their child vaccinated. In the ParentsTogether survey from March, parents said they were concerned about short-term side effects, unknown long-term side effects, speed of the vaccine’s development and the lack of opportunity for long-term studies. One of the ways to encourage vaccinations is to change the conversation regarding vaccine hesitancy, said Dr. Clarissa Dudley, a pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital in D.C. Instead of categorizing a parent as “vaccine hesitant,” she recommends referring to them as “thoughtful” to avoid feelings of parent-shaming and blame. (Source: USA Today)

  4. COVID Testing Has Turned Into a Financial Windfall for Hospitals and Other Providers. Hospitals in some parts of the U.S. are charging up to $650 for a simple, molecular COVID test that costs $50 or less to run, according to Medicare claims analyzed for KHN by Hospital Pricing Specialists (HPS). Charges by large health systems range from $20 to $1,419 per test, a new national survey by KFF shows. And some free-standing emergency rooms are charging more than $1,000 per test. Authorities were saying “get tested, no one’s going to be charged, and it turns out that’s not true,” said Valfer, a professor of visual arts who lives in Pasadena, California. “Now on the back end it’s being passed onto the consumer” through high charges to insurers, she said. The insurance company passes on its higher costs to consumers in higher premiums. Lab companies have been booking record profits by charging $100 per test. Even in-network prices negotiated and paid by insurance companies often run much more than that and, according to one measure, have been rising on average in recent months. Regulations require insurers to cover COVID testing administered or referred by a health care provider at no cost to the patient. But exceptions are made for public health surveillance and work- or school-related testing. Testing required for travel clearance is also often not covered. Claire Lemcke, who works for a Flagstaff, Arizona, nonprofit, was tested at a mall in January and received a statement from an out-of-state lab company saying that the price was $737, that it was performed out-of-network and that she would be responsible for paying. She’s working with her insurer, which has already paid $400, to try to get it settled. Sticker shock from COVID tests has gotten bad enough that Medicare set up a hotline for insurance companies to report bad actors, and states across the country are taking action. (Source: Kaiser Health News) In New Hampshire, insurance carriers are required to cover COVID testing and the related doctor’s visit without any cost share or co-pay, according to Chris Nicolopolous, commissioner of the Department of Insurance. The testing and vaccination portion of the order is in effect until further notice. (Source: WMUR) If you live in New Hampshire and are uninsured, there is no cost for testing. You can get more information here.

  5. Long-Haul COVID-19 Treatment Clinic Opens at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has launched the first post-COVID-19 program in northern New England for patients who suffer ailments from COVID-19 long after the virus should have cleared their body. Led by Dr. Jeffrey Parsonnet, an infectious disease doctor, the team consists of 10 DHMC physicians across medical disciplines. Now called Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome, or PACS, long-haul symptoms are those that continue more than 12 weeks after the initial infection and range from manageable to debilitating. Common symptoms include shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, fatigue, body aches, and problems with memory and mental clarity, more commonly known as “brain fog.” Parsonnet said 10 disciplines of medicine will be involved in the Dartmouth clinic to address the wide range of symptoms. Much of the care will be palliative to help cope with some of the more vague complaints. We want to support patients," he said. "We want to validate what is happening to them, and to reassure them they are not alone and that we are here to support them." The DHMC post-COVID-19 program will accept referrals of adult patients who have a history of documented or likely COVID-19 infection. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  6. Scaled-Down and Virtual Commencements a Significant, If Unceremonious, Milestone for the Class of 2021. For the Class of 2021, the first of this year’s commencement ceremonies on Saturday were another reminder of the disruption that has marked their college careers and their newfound flexibility and resilience. College campuses closed in the spring of their junior year. Then COVID-19 protocols meant a senior year that looked a lot different — and involved a lot more nose-swabbing — than any of them could have imagined. “Your class has made a number of sacrifices that classes before you have taken for granted,” Colby-Sawyer College President Susan Steubner told the Class of 2021 on Saturday. “One of the most significant sacrifices of COVID is that your families are not here in person to celebrate with you.” Students sat together under a tent on the college’s New London campus, but their families had to watch a livestream of the ceremony. At SNHU’s virtual commencement on Saturday, university president Paul LeBlanc predicted the class would be more close-knit than those that spent four years on campus together. “Years from now, decades from now, they’ll have this bond. They’ll be the ones who studied, and competed and graduated during a pandemic,” LeBlanc said. (Source: Union Leader)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Saturday, May 8

IMG_2528.jpeg

213 new cases but no additional new COVID-19 deaths were reported in New Hampshire on Friday. The were 1,772 active cases statewide and 84 people were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related news you need to know to start your Saturday.

  1. For Many in Monadnock Region, India's COVID Crisis Hits Close to Home. When Vikas Budakoti traveled to India a few months ago, COVID cases were down and life was returning to normal. By late April, when the Keene resident returned there, it felt like a “totally different world.” The country was experiencing its vicious second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Of the 130 or so families living in his family’s New Delhi neighborhood, Budakoti said about 20 were infected. Even as the pandemic eases its grip on the United States, Monadnock Region residents with ties to India and neighboring Nepal — which is experiencing its own bad outbreak — are watching with anxiety as the virus spreads and, in some cases, hearing about loved ones who have gotten sick or died. “If the phone rings, it brings panic,” said Kalai Rajendran, 34, of Keene, who is from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and has family members who have been hospitalized for COVID-19. Low vaccination rates, a slow government response and people gathering in large crowds have accelerated the crisis, according to Dr. Aalok Khole, a Mumbai native and an infectious disease physician at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene. For India to come out of this second wave, Khole said residents must continue to stay home to curb the spread, and the government should implement a nationwide lockdown. He added that other countries need to lend a hand where they can, as the public health emergency doesn’t just affect India and Nepal. “This is where it’s key to look at this as a humanitarian crisis, and not as the world just signing off,” Khole said. “This may very well be a situation in other countries when you least expect it. We cannot be cushioned by the fact that we look great.” (Source: Keene Sentinel) On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that India had accounted for nearly half of all global infections and a quarter of deaths reported in the past week. Cases have also skyrocketed in countries around India, from Nepal in the north to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the south. And it's not just India's neighbors -- further away in Southeast Asia, infections are also surging in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. The Southeast Asia region reported over 2.7 million new cases and over 25,000 new deaths, a 19% and a 48% increase respectively compared to the previous week. "We need to act now and we need to act fast to have any hope of containing this human catastrophe," Alexander Matheou, the IFRC's Asia-Pacific regional director, said in a statement. "This virus has no respect for borders and these variants are running rampant across Asia."

  2. As State Relaxes COVID Restrictions And Some NH Communities Consider Ending Mask Mandates, One Community Adds One. While some New Hampshire cities and towns are pulling back their COVID restrictions, the Hopkinton Select Board passed its first mask mandate Thursday night. The ordinance, which would require masks to be worn when entering the town’s businesses or restaurants, passed 4-1 and took effect immediately. Wearing masks on public trails, sidewalks and recreational lands is “strongly encouraged” if social distancing cannot occur, according to the document that is set to expire on July 1. The select board members in favor of the restriction cited the continuously high prevalence of COVID-19 in the community and children’s limited access to the vaccine as the primary reason for instating the mandate. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  3. Republican Leaders End State House Mask Mandate. A requirement to wear masks in the State House ended Friday over the objection of Democratic legislative leaders, who said it could put State House staff at risk until more in the state were fully vaccinated. House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, and Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, said the building remains closed to the public, but that too will change “shortly.” “It is the peoples’ building, it is not our building, and it is time to let them back in,” Packard said. The Joint Committee on Legislative Facilities took this action on an 8-4, party-line vote. All Republicans were for it, all Democrats against. “I think we are doing what the public is doing, talking it out, feeling comfortable,” Morse said. “Masks should be the choice of people.” House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing of Hampton said an unidentified female lawmaker recently came down with the virus after attending committee meetings at the Legislative Office Building. (Source: Union Leader) House Minority Leader Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, noted a House member was hospitalized this week for COVID-19 and had participated in committee hearings last week. “Not everyone is fully vaccinated, and we should be as diligent as possible,” Cushing said. “We should keep the mask policy in place until we get a handle on this.” Committee member Karen Ebel, D-New London, said the ventilation system in the Legislative Office Building is broken and noted the legislature contains many senior citizens who are more at risk if they contract the disease even if they are vaccinated. And she noted the governor continues to renew the state of emergency which means the pandemic is ongoing. The universal best practices approved by the governor’s task force on reopening includes an approach using masks, she said, in conjunction with social distancing and good ventilation. “It is too early to remove the mask mandate,” Ebel said, “especially if you’re thinking about letting the public back in the building.” (Source: InDepthNH)

  4. Children in N.H. Residential Schools Have Not Been Home Since Before the Pandemic. Fifteen months into the pandemic, students enrolled in an Easterseal's residential school in Manchester for children with behavioral and mental health needs are still not permitted to return home. The school has been following state and CDC guidelines for long-term care facilities for its 70 students. Visits at the facility are allowed, but leaving to go home is not. Easterseals said they empathize with parents, but they must follow local and federal guidelines. "In order for a child to be able to go home, it's when the level of community transmission, particularly in Hillsborough County, which has remained high throughout the pandemic, it needs to be lower," Easterseals Chief Operating Officer Nancy L. Rollins said. The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services sent WMUR a statement in response to children in long-term care facilities. "The department is closely reviewing emerging guidance and expects to meet with providers in the coming weeks to update guidance and recommendations around congregate care settings," the department said in a statement. (Source: WMUR)

  5. House Dems Seek Funds To Continue Public Remote Access. On Friday, Democratic House members called on legislative leadership to ensure public remote access to committee meetings and sessions be continued in $21 million legislative budget for the next biennium. During a video press conference, House Minority Leader Renny Cushing, D-Hampton said, “Public participation in the process by any standards has been a success, with many more people observing the legislative process.” Cushing and Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, have submitted a letter to House and Senate leadership asking to make sure funding for remote access is included in the state’s next biennium budget now before the Senate Finance Committee. On Friday, Cushing said public remote access has opened the process up to many more people from those in Coos County to people with disabilities. “Sunshine is good for everyone and especially good for the process of government,” he said. (Source: InDepthNH) While full sessions of the New Hampshire House of Representatives have not had a remote participation option for legislators—a situation that continues to be battled out in the courts—public hearings and executive sessions of House committees have been conducted with some legislators attending in-person and other legislators—as well as all members of the public—able to participate remotely. The remote attendance option has made it easier for more citizens to weigh in on bills and view the proceedings. You can learn more about how the process has worked here.

  6. Some NH Schools Re-Evaluating Mask Policies. As mandatory state coronavirus guidelines switch to suggested best practices, some school districts are reevaluating policies about students wearing masks. School officials in some districts said students have been great about wearing masks, but some schools are pushing for ways to give them a safe break from the masks. While the state's top doctors recommend masks, change is underway in some schools. "A lot of the schools are reevaluating their mask policies to find additional flexibilities to really afford the opportunity to the students to be free of the mask, to breathe and be able to engage a little bit better, and they're able to do that in a safe way," said Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut. The school board in one of three town districts that make up SAU 44 is implementing a change this week. "In the most recent meeting of the Strafford School Board, the decision was made there by the school board that students whose parents gave written permission could be unmasked at recess," said interim Superintendent Monica Henson. School officials said the hope is that masks won't be necessary when students return in the fall, but Edelblut said mask policies will be a local decision. (Source: WMUR)

  7. Grafton County Jail Corrections Officers Test Positive for COVID-19. Officials with the Grafton County House of Corrections are testing inmates and staff after three correctional officers were found to be positive for COVID-19 this week. The testing will be held within the next three days, Prison Superintendent Tom Elliott said. He declined to name the officers who tested positive but said there was “limited exposure” to inmates. The officers who did go into the units where prisoners are held followed all safety protocols, including social distancing and wearing face masks, Elliott said. He also said no inmates are currently showing symptoms of COVID-19, adding that this is a “more precautionary testing cycle.” (Source: The Valley News)

  8. Seacoast Doctors Urge Confidence In the J & J Vaccine. When the use of the J&J vaccine was paused by both the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), it was a cautionary measure following reports of blood clots developing in 15 women. The pause was intended to look at the possible correlation between the blood clots and the vaccine. After about two weeks, the vaccine has been cleared again for use in the United States. "I try to reassure my patients, and other providers that the pause was a good thing," said Dr. Evangeline Thibodeau, an infectious disease doctor at York Hospital. "It was paused when six women developed blood clots. Now there have been an additional nine. But 8 million doses have been given, for perspective. We know that vaccines have side effects. I trust that the governing bodies took an appropriate pause to make sure we were doing no harm." Dr. Tom Wold, Chief Medical Officer at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, said the risk of clots is small against the chances of getting COVID. "I am confident all aspects of this were completely researched and I would get it. Having COVID is a lot riskier because there is no way of knowing how serious of a case you might get. You could end up hospitalized. You could die. To me, that risk factor is quite clear. The goal of the vaccines is to assure you are protected from the virus, so Johnson & Johnson vaccine still has an important role,’ Wold said. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  9. CDC May Roll Out Seasonal COVID-19 Boosters to Protect Against Variants. As experts grow concerned about a possible COVID-19 surge in the winter, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may roll out seasonal vaccine boosters. "We want to hope for the best, and prepare for the worst," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told actress Jennifer Garner in an interview streamed on Instagram. More than a third of the US is fully vaccinated against coronavirus, but it's still short of the benchmark of 70% to 85% of the total population that needs to be immune -- through vaccination or previous infection -- to control its spread. And many yet to receive the vaccine are those who have not decided whether they want it or have decided against it. Meanwhile variants have been spreading, threatening to mutate to a point where current vaccines may not offer enough protection against them, experts warn. (Source: CNN)

  10. Manchester Expands COVID-Era Summer Learning. For many New Hampshire schools, the warmer months of 2021 present a new challenge: a rush on summer school programs. Parents are calling constantly. Registrations are flowing in. Schools are expanding programs to meet what they expect to be major demand. “This year we really want to focus on students getting back to being a kid,” said Sherri Nichols, the Title IX coordinator for the Manchester School District. “And trying to do as much as we can with moving away from the technology and doing more of the hands-on approach to get them ready and shore up those skills that they may have had some misconceptions on with learning at a distance.” In Manchester, the state’s largest district at more than 13,000 students, officials are extending the length of summer programs – and expanding who can access them. This year, the programs are available to any student in the district. The city is building on partnerships with GEAR UP, a Concord-based organization working to prepare high school students for college, and Girls at Work, a Manchester organization focused on inspiring girls to explore construction and woodworking projects. District funding has been bolstered by COVID-related federal aid. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Friday, May 7

As of Thursday, 53 percent of New Hampshire residents had received their first dose and 36 percent were now fully vaccinated. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

As of Thursday, 53 percent of New Hampshire residents had received their first dose and 36 percent were now fully vaccinated. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

On Thursday, New Hampshire public health officials announced three additional deaths and 269 new cases. Active cases stood at 1,849 and 88 patients were hospitalized. Officials also reported the state has administered 1,190,000 doses of vaccine against COVID-19. Fifty-three percent of the population has received their first dose and 36 percent are now fully vaccinated. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Friday.

  1. COVID-19 Guidance in Effect in New Hampshire Since June 2020 Expires at Midnight. At 11:59 p.m. Friday, the state’s "Safer at Home" advisory, which has been in place since June 2020, will be replaced by "Universal Best Practices" guidance, meaning local businesses will now have more leeway in how they operate during the pandemic. Many mandated rules for business will now only be suggestions and will no longer be enforced by the state. However, city and town mask mandates still remain in effect in most if the New Hampshire communities that enacted them—including Portsmouth. Business owners also have the ability to set policies for their businesses and to ask non-compliant customers to leave. State epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said that while the mandatory restrictions are relaxing and vaccinations are helping, the current pandemic numbers in New Hampshire tell him precautions are still necessary, even as the state prepares to make the switch in guidance. (Source: WMUR)

  2. As COVID Restrictions Lift On N.H. Businesses, Many Have No Big Plans To Change. The switch from enforceable COVID business restrictions to a single voluntary set of guidelines coming into effect doesn’t mean customers and employees should expect an overnight shift. “It’s not going to be like a light switch. It is going to be more like a dimmer switch,” says Jay McSharry, a restaurateur on the Seacoast. “Things are slowly going to open up, or get brighter.” Starting this weekend, restaurants no longer need to space tables at least six feet apart, or use partitions to separate customers, but McSharry says he has no immediate plans to change the layouts at his twelve restaurants. “We are just keeping everything the same,” he says. “We are still going to follow the basic guidelines, partly because it is just a good practice for the time being.” Some performing arts halls and concert venues are also not rushing to pack their spaces. “Shows that we have already booked, and we let people know they will be socially distanced shows, will remain socially distanced,” says Monte Bohanan, communications and community engagement director at The Music Hall in Portsmouth. Under the expiring state rules, venues have been limited to either 50-percent capacity or six feet of spacing between unrelated groups. At The Music Hall, that’s meant seating just around 200 people inside their 900-seat theater. Bohanan says they may ease those restrictions this summer, with the hope of having headline acts filling the hall by this fall. (Source: NHPR)

  3. ’Back to Normal': Sununu Says He Expects NH COVID Cases to Plummet This Summer. Gov. Chris Sununu said he thinks things will go "back to normal" this summer in New Hampshire after over a year of COVID-19 related restrictions in the state. The state's "Safer at Home" COVID rules are set to expire at midnight on Friday, meaning people will no longer be required to follow restrictions put in place at the height of the pandemic. "Back to normal," Sununu said at a press conference Thursday. "I think we're going to be back to normal on Saturday. I think that's going to continue with a lot of positivity into the fall." I feel very comfortable about this summer," he said. "It's all coming together as we planned." Like last year, Sununu said he expects another spike in cases in the fall, only not as severe as in 2020. "My sense is we're going to see a similar pattern, just much less of a surge in November," he said. "The vast majority will be break-through cases and those who have chosen not to be vaccinated." (Source: NECN)

  4. Sununu Outlines Infrastructure Focus for Virus Relief Funds. Infrastructure and innovation will be the focus when it comes to spending New Hampshire’s share of the latest federal coronavirus relief act money, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday. The first half of the money is expected to arrive next week, Sununu said, though there hasn’t been any federal guidance yet on the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. In the meantime, he said he’s been working with lawmakers to be ready to make quick investments in four main areas: clean drinking water, broadband expansion, mental health treatment and state parks. Sununu also announced plans to use about $50 million from the initial coronavirus relief package to reimburse small businesses for virus-related expenses regardless of whether they lost revenue and to create funds for hotels and performance venues that hadn’t been eligible for federal relief programs. (Source: Associated Press) Also during the press conference, Sununu said some New Hampshire businesses may need to pay back some of the money provided under an earlier federal relief program. That’s because some had better revenue in 2020 than they did in 2019, and under the rules laid out for the money that went into the Main Street Relief Fund, the state must recoup the money because it was designated specifically to help cover losses. The governor said he has sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department asking for more flexibility. But Sununu said if the state must take that money back, he said he wants to use it for small business relief programs that could be aimed at covering costs, rather than lost revenues. But the U.S. Treasury Department has pushed back on Sununu's contention that he needs to recoup the funds. "The requirement to repay amounts in excess of actual revenue is not required by the Treasury guidance regarding the use of CRF funds," a Treasury spokesperson said. The governor’s office said it will follow up with the Treasury Department for clarification. (Source: WMUR)

  5. Claremont School District Plans Vaccination Clinic for Kids 12 and Up. The FDA is expected to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 in the coming days. The Claremont School District has already scheduled a vaccination clinic in the hopes that the authorization comes soon. The clinic is planned for next Friday and many parents have signed up, saying they are eager to get their children vaccinated. Parents were asked to sign up for the clinic by May 7, however the deadline is May 11. The district will send permission slips next week by email, students will be required to bring them to the clinic. (Source: WMUR)

  6. Schools Striving for Some Normalcy for Year-End Events. After last year’s anti-climatic graduation season, school officials are going to great lengths to organize end-of-year activities this spring that hopefully will capture, at least to a limited degree, the magic of those moments and define one of life’s biggest turning points. Events like proms and graduations will be similar, but not the same. COVID is lifting, but it isn’t gone. Using the federal and state guidelines as starting points Laconia and Gilford high schools have come up with plans that they feel strike the right balance between a celebration to remember at a time when restraint is still the watchword. Face masks and social distancing will be required—including at a Laconia High School senior prom that will be held on the school’s main athletic field. Three tents have been erected where graduates and their dates will eat, followed by dancing. If the weather is really bad, there are contingency plans to move the event inside, according to Principal Robert Bennett. “We can have a safe, welcoming, and enjoyable event in a safe manner,” he said. “The kids are excited that some of these things are happening,” he added. “And they realize they have to make some small sacrifices.” (Source: Laconia Daily Sun)

  7. Lebanon City Council Punts on Hearing to Discuss Mask Mandate. The City Council on Wednesday postponed a decision on whether to schedule a public hearing to rescind Lebanon’s mask mandate, instead opting to continue the discussion later this month. Councilors debated the city administration’s proposal to end the mandate on June 30, when officials estimate all residents 16 and over will have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated. Lebanon’s mask mandate, which remains in effect, requires employees to wear coverings over their noses and mouths when they are within 6 feet of co-workers and customers who are not members of the same household. (Source: The Valley News)

  8. Dartmouth COVID-19 Dashboard Now Reporting Vaccinations. After months of tracking cases and quarantine capacity, Dartmouth College’s COVID-19 dashboard has a new feature: vaccination statistics. As of Wednesday, the dashboard shows that 1,327 Dartmouth students — out of 6,670 total — and 835 faculty and staff members — out of 4,434 total — have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and have shared proof of vaccination with the College. Of the 4,026 “active” students living on or off campus in the Upper Valley, 1,085 have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, 286 of the 2,189 faculty and staff members who have been on campus at least once in the past 14 days have shared their fully vaccinated status with the College. In total, 19% of the total Dartmouth community and 22% of the “on-campus” Dartmouth community has shared their vaccinated status. (Source: The Dartmouth)

  9. NH House to return to Bedford Sportsplex for June 3-4 session. New Hampshire House Speaker Sherman Packard announced Thursday that the House will return to the NH Sportsplex in Bedford for its two-day session scheduled for June 3 and 4. Packard said the Sportsplex sessions have worked well and there is no reason to change as uncertainties about potential “variables” associated with the virus remain. He made the announcement in the weekly House calendar and thanked the members for “being flexible and working with us." The announcement comes as a legal battle over remote access to sessions continues at the federal appeals court level. A group of House Democrats who have health issues that make them particularly vulnerable to serious complications from COVID-19 have sued to require the Speaker to provide them with remote access to the sessions via Zoom or a similar platform. The state has asked for reconsideration of a ruling by the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals that the Speaker does not have legislative immunity from the lawsuit and that the U.S. District Court must hold hearings on the dispute. Attorneys for the state have written that if reconsideration is denied by the appeals court, they are likely to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. (Source: WMUR)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Thursday, May 6

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor

On Wednesday, New Hampshire public health officials announced one additional death and 198 new positive tests for COVID-19. Active cases declined to 1,814 and 85 patients were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Thursday.

  1. NH COVID-19 Guidance and Restrictions for Businesses Set to Expire Tomorrow. Mandatory state coronavirus safety guidance that has been in place for businesses for the past year is set to expire this week and be replaced with recommendations. On Friday, the Universal Best Practices document will replace the Safer at Home 2.0 business guidelines that have been in place for more than a year. "Prior to this, there were 30 different industry-specific guidelines in the Safer at Home order, and I think having one set of guidelines that everybody can follow just makes a lot of sense," said Nancy Kyle, president of the New Hampshire Retail Association. Kyle said she expects many businesses to keep some restrictions in place. (Source: WMUR) A reminder: Those who violate the policies of businesses and are asked to leave can be prosecuted for trespassing if they refuse to leave and/or for assault if they strike or touch an employee attempting to enforce the policy.

  2. CDC Projects Sharp Decline in US COVID-19 Cases by End of July. Teams of experts are projecting COVID-19's toll on the U.S. will fall sharply by the end of July, according to research released by the government Wednesday. But they also warn that a “substantial increase” in hospitalizations and deaths is possible if unvaccinated people do not follow basic precautions such as wearing a mask and keeping their distance from others. A paper issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that under the most optimistic scenarios considered, by the end of July new weekly national cases could drop below 50,000, hospitalizations to fewer than 1,000, and deaths to between 200 and 300. “We are not out of the woods yet, but we could be very close," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, while noting that variants of the coronavirus are a “wild card” that could set back progress. But under more pessimistic scenarios, with subpar vaccinations and declining use of masks and social distancing, the CDC reports weekly cases probably would still drop but could number in the hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. “Something I am asked often is when will the pandemic be over and when can we go back to normal. The reality is: It all depends on the actions we take now,” Walensky said. (Source: NECN)

  3. Vaccine Demand Slows As Eager Group Shrinks. With eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination now open to all adults in the U.S., the latest KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor shows that while the pace of vaccine uptake has continued rapidly over the past month, enthusiasm may be reaching a plateau. The share of adults who say they’ve gotten at least one dose of a vaccine or intend to do so as soon as possible inched up from 61% in March to 64% in April, while the share who want to “wait and see” before getting vaccinated – a group that had been steadily decreasing in size since over several months – remained about the same in April (15%) compared to March (17%). In the wake of news about blood clots possibly linked to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and the subsequent pause in the use of this vaccine, less than half the public expresses confidence in the safety of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and concerns about potential side effects have increased among those not yet vaccinated, especially women. Hispanic women are particularly likely to say that the news of these blood clots caused them to rethink their vaccination decision. Despite this, the trajectory of vaccine uptake and enthusiasm does not appear to have slowed disproportionately among women over the past month. Two-thirds (66%) of women say they’ve been vaccinated or will do so as soon as possible, compared to 63% of men. Meanwhile, lack of information and access continue to be barriers for some individuals, particularly people of color. For example, Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than White adults to be concerned about having to miss work due to side effects, having to pay out-of-pocket for the COVID-19 vaccine (even though it is free), or not being able to get the vaccine from a place they trust. In addition, 45% of Hispanic adults say they don’t have enough information about when they can get vaccinated and a similar share are not sure whether they are currently eligible to receive the vaccine in their state (even though eligibility is now open to all U.S. residents). (Source: Kaiser Family Foundation)

  4. Top 10 Reasons Why Young, Healthy People Need to Get Vaccinated. Young adults are now steering the course of this pandemic as the biggest spreaders of coronavirus. Yet about 36% of young adults under age 35 say they don't plan on getting a Covid-19 vaccine, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. That's a major problem because: 1) Even if life is already starting to look more normal, the US will never reach herd immunity if young adults don't step it up. Health experts say we need at least 70% to 85% of the US population immunized to reach herd immunity and get this pandemic under control. 2) More young people are suffering from "long Covid." Even healthy athletes have succumbed to long-term brain fog, chest pains and shortness of breath. 3) By not getting vaccinated, young adults could make vaccines less effective for their friends, family and everyone else. (More on that later.) Here are the top 10 reasons why young, healthy adults need to get vaccinated as soon as possible. (Source: CNN)

  5. US Backs Waiving Patent Protections for COVID Vaccines, Citing Global Health Crisis. The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it supports waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, as countries struggle to manufacture the life-saving doses. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai wrote in a statement. (Source: CNBC) Meanwhile, on Tuesday vaccine manufacturer Pfizer said it expects global sales of its coronavirus vaccine to reach $26 billion in 2021, a milestone that would make it the biggest-selling pharmaceutical product in the world and helps illustrate why Pfizer is planning to expand use of mRNA technology for other vaccines and therapies. Pfizer and Moderna, its rival in the mRNA coronavirus vaccine business, have said they intend to make a profit on vaccine sales during the pandemic. Both of the vaccines have proved that mRNA can be used to develop and manufacture a vaccine in as little as six months. (Source: The Washington Post)

  6. Federal Judge Rules CDC Had No Authority to Extend Eviction Moratorium. A federal judge has vacated a nationwide eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying the agency overstepped its authority by extending the moratorium. The eviction moratorium was set to expire next month, but the ruling has cast uncertainty on the date. The federal judge in Washington said the CDC's national eviction moratorium, aimed at helping those who have fallen behind on rent during the pandemic, exceeds the agency's authority and should be ended before its scheduled deadline. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC and the Department of Justice are appealing the decision. "Since it is being appealed, it will have very little real-world effect," said Nick Norman, of the Apartment Association of New Hampshire. "We need our focus off of eviction moratoriums and onto tenant assistance." Staff members at New Hampshire Legal Assistance said the appeals process could last through the end of June. In the meantime, they said renters who are at risk for eviction need to reach out for help by calling their local community action program or 2-1-1. (Source: WMUR)

  7. Inmate Vaccinations Under Way at Manchester’s Valley Street Jail. COVID-19 vaccinations are underway in the state's largest jail, located in Manchester. The Hillsborough County House of Corrections, known as the Valley Street Jail, says of this week that about 100 people have received the vaccine. Jails and prisons in New Hampshire have seen significant outbreaks of COVID-19 in the last year, but people incarcerated there weren't prioritized in the state's vaccination rollout. Many became eligible last month, as the state expanded vaccine eligibility to the general population. Last week the National Guard administered shots to people incarcerated at Valley Street Jail - and around of half of population is now at least partially vaccinated. (Source: NHPR)

  8. Mass. State Schools Will Require Students be Vaccinated This Fall. Will Other States Follow? Private colleges and universities in New England were some of the first to announce they'll require vaccination for all students returning to campus this fall. Some of the region's state colleges and universities have also begun to follow suit – but not all of them. State universities in Massachusetts are leading the way with vaccine mandates, while university systems in neighboring states have been less explicit. At least one has said it will wait until permanent approval of the COVID-19 vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration before considering a requirement for students. The University of Massachusetts Amherst will require all students to be fully vaccinated prior to the beginning of the fall semester. The same goes for UMass Lowell, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Boston, Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Framingham State, Salem State, Westfield Stateand Worcester State, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The University of New Hampshire has not said whether vaccination will be required for students for the upcoming semester, but it will require attendees at its graduation ceremonies this month to show proof of vaccination. Last month, UNH spokesperson Erika Mantz said vaccinations in the school community are encouraged but aren't currently required. "If permanent approval of the vaccines is granted by the FDA, the University System of New Hampshire, in consultation with its board of trustees and the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, will make a final decision about whether the vaccine would be required for students," she said. (Source: Seacoast Online)

  9. N.H. Bill Would Make Employers Pay For Any Required COVID-19 Test. Employers who require COVID-19 tests for applicants or workers would be required to pay for them under a bill being considered by a House committee in New Hampshire. The bill would prohibit employers from requiring that an employee or job applicant pay the cost of a COVID-19 test as a condition of employment. Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, a Democrat from West Lebanon, said she and other sponsors of the legislation had heard from constituents who had been required to be tested before returning to work but did not have insurance or the means to pay. (Source: NHPR)

  10. Senate Panel Considering Changes to Governor’s Emergency Powers Wants to Hear from Sununu. A state Senate committee wants to hear from Gov. Chris Sununu’s office as it considers whether to dramatically check the powers of a governor dealing with a future emergency. Sununu, a Republican, will need GOP allies in the Senate to avoid having to veto a House-passed bill (HB 417) which would require a vote from both houses of the Legislature to extend any governor-declared emergency beyond 30 days. Last month, the House endorsed the measure, 328-41, well above the two-thirds super-majority needed to sustain a veto. State Rep. Carol McGuire, R-Epsom, said it would not apply to the current COVID-19 state of emergency, no longer how long it lasts. During a public hearing Wednesday, no senators spoke against the measure. However, Rep. Peter Schmidt, D-Dover, favored forming a blue-ribbon commission to come up with a more collaborative process. “The idea the Legislature is going to get in, and sitting on the governor’s shoulder and micromanaging everything he or she does, is going to create chaos and not be effective at all,” said Schmidt, a 10-tern incumbent. (Source: Union Leader)

  11. April Revenues Continue Good News For State Finances. For April, revenues were $434.1 million led by businesses taxes which were $73.8 million over estimates at $229.3 million. For the first 10 months of the 2021 fiscal year, state revenues total $2.5 billion, which is $242.9 million above budget writer estimates, and $212 million over after $30.8 million in accruals are deducted for the 2020 fiscal year. The total is $351.4 million more than collected a year ago. Business taxes were not the only positive signal for the state’s revenue picture as the tobacco and real estate transfer taxes, revenues from the lottery and liquor commissions, and money from the tobacco settlement were all well above predictions for the month. The state’s second largest revenue producer, the rooms and meals tax, continues to be negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. The tax returned $26.5 million, $3.2 million below the budget plan, but is beginning to trend upward. According to DRA, hotel activity was up 73.9 percent for March but registered in April, while taxable meals were up 45 percent. For the year-to-date, rooms and meals revenue totaled $262.1 million, which is $64.9 below estimates for this fiscal year and $35.5 million less than a year ago. Although Gov. Chris Sununu’s and the House’s proposed budget anticipated drawing money from the state’s rainy day fund to cover the deficit for 2020, that is not likely to happen if revenues continue to perform as they have so far this fiscal year. (Source: InDepthNH)

  12. Maine Ends Residency Requirement for COVID Shots. Having a residence in Maine is no longer a prerequisite to getting a COVID-19 vaccination in Maine. Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, announced the change in the state's eligibility criteria Tuesday, welcoming anyone who is physically present in the state and old enough to receive a COVID vaccine to do so. "If you're in Maine, and you're over the age of 16, going forward, you can get a shot," Shah said. The shift in policy aims to simplify the state's vaccine rollout as more COVID vaccine supplies are available than they were earlier and as more people are coming into Maine, Shah said. In addition to scheduled appointments, some Maine vaccination sites offer walk-in vaccinations during certain hours of certain days. One such opportunity, Shah said, will be available on Thursday, May 6, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the mass COVID vaccination center in Sanford, which is at the former Marshalls store, 1364 Main Street. (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Wednesday, May 5

While newly released vaccination numbers from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services show progress among younger age groups, the vaccination gap between white residents and Black and Hispanic/Latino residents continues to be large. (Data Source: N.H. DHHS)

While newly released vaccination numbers from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services show progress among younger age groups, the vaccination gap between white residents and Black and Hispanic/Latino residents continues to be large. (Data Source: N.H. DHHS)

On Tuesday, New Hampshire public health officials reported no additional deaths, 252 new COVID-19 cases, 1,898 active cases statewide, and 85 patients currently hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Wednesday.

  1. COVID ‘Doesn’t Discriminate by Age’: Serious Cases on the Rise in Younger Adults. After spending much of the past year tending to elderly patients, doctors are seeing a clear demographic shift: young and middle-aged adults make up a growing share of the patients in covid-19 hospital wards. It’s both a sign of the country’s success in protecting the elderly through vaccination and an urgent reminder that younger generations will pay a heavy price if the outbreak is allowed to simmer in communities across the country. “We’re now seeing people in their 30s, 40s and 50s — young people who are really sick,” said Dr. Vishnu Chundi, a specialist in infectious diseases and chair of the Chicago Medical Society’s covid-19 task force. “Most of them make it, but some do not. … I just lost a 32-year-old with two children, so it’s heartbreaking.” Nationally, adults under 50 now account for the most hospitalized covid patients in the country — about 36% of all hospital admissions. Those ages 50 to 64 account for the second-highest number of hospitalizations, or about 31%. Meanwhile, hospitalizations among adults 65 and older have fallen significantly. (Source: Kaiser Health News) In Tuesday’s update from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, 53 of the 252 new positive tests were in children under 18. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

  2. US to Reallocate COVID Shots to States in Need as Biden Sets New Vaccine Goal. President Joe Biden set a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one shot to 70% of adult Americans by July Fourth as he tackles the vexing problem of winning over the “doubters” and those unmotivated to get inoculated. Demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their available doses unordered. Aiming to make it easier to get shots, Biden on Tuesday called for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and he will direct many pharmacies to do likewise. His administration for the first time also is moving to shift doses from states with weaker demand to areas with stronger interest in the shots. Biden’s goal equates to delivering at least the first shot to 181 million adults and fully vaccinating 160 million. It’s a tacit acknowledgment of the declining interest in shots. He said the administration would focus on three areas as it tries to ramp up the pace of vaccinations: 1) Adults who need more convincing to take the vaccine, 2) Those who have struggled or are in no hurry to obtain a shot and 3) Adolescents aged 12-15, once federal authorities approve vaccination for that age group. (Source: Associated Press)

  3. Vaccine Distribution Shifting to Demand-Based Allocation, But NH to Continue Receiving Full Supply. While some states have been turning down part of their allocation of vaccine doses because of lower demand, there are no immediate plans for New Hampshire to follow them. Gov. Chris Sununu’s office issued a statement Tuesday that said it will continue ordering the state’s full allocation of doses. The statement also said the way people sign up for the shot in New Hampshire will not change and people can continue to sign up to be vaccinated at vaccines.nh.gov. (Source: WMUR)

  4. New State Vaccination Numbers Show Progress Among Younger People As Racial and Ethnic Divide Remains. Updated numbers released on Tuesday by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services show 49.1% of Granite Staters have now received at least one dose and 30.1% are now fully vaccinated. However, because the state’s numbers don’t account for vaccinations managed through federal programs, the overall vaccination rates for New Hampshire as reported by the CDC are higher—with 61% of residents having received their first dose and 32.1% fully vaccinated. Since the last state report on April 27, the percentage of residents ages 30-39 receiving their first dose has increased from 42.7% to 48.2%; and fully vaccinated people in this age group have increased from 17.1% to 21.2%. Meanwhile, vaccinations in the 16-29 age range, the most recent group to become eligible, have increased from 29.8% to 35.8% for first doses while the percent of fully vaccinated residents in this age group rose from 9% to 11.8%. The new numbers also show racial and ethnic gaps continue to be an issue. While 46.2% of white residents have received their first dose and 28.8% are now fully vaccinated, only 29.3% of Hispanic/Latino residents have gotten their first dose and 13.5% are fully vaccinated. The numbers are worse for Black residents, showing 27.6% receiving their first dose and 12.3% fully vaccinated. But on the positive side, the new numbers show significant progress in Asian communities where 52.8% of residents have received their first dose and 21.5% are now fully vaccinated. (Source: N.H. DHHS)

  5. ‘Need the Vaccine? We Have Appointments’ Say Independent NH Pharmacies. Local independent pharmacies in New Hampshire are reminding people that they have available vaccine appointments. Independent pharmacies like the Colonial and Fisherville Pharmacies in New London and Penacook receive vaccine doses directly from the CDC. Appointments for these doses are made through the pharmacy instead of the NH state system. Independent pharmacy operators said some Granite Staters want to go to their neighborhood store instead of having to travel as long as an hour to reach a state-operated clinic. Both the Colonial and Fisherville Pharmacies have vaccination clinics scheduled for Saturday. “We’re actually going to do a mass clinic, we just need to get people to sign up this Saturday,” said Mackenzie Shroeder from Fisherville Pharmacy. “We’re going to try to do a type of parking lot drive-thru type of clinic to try to get as many as we can into arms.” Appointments can be made for the federally-allocated vaccines at independent pharmacies' websites, or by phone. (Source: WMUR) While appointments are also available in New Hampshire at some national chain pharmacies, for now appointments at those locations must be made via the state system at vaccines.nh.gov.

  6. State Abandons Week-Old Guidelines for Nursing Homes. After receiving negative feedback from residents and administrators, the state has abandoned its April 26 nursing home guidelines, which placed strict conditions on residents’ off-property visits. Jake Leon, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said nursing homes should now find guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Details about the most up-to-date federal guidelines will likely be fleshed out on Wednesday, when nursing home administrators meet with state epidemiologists in their biweekly conference call, said Brendan Williams, president of the New Hampshire Health Care Association, a trade group that represents nursing homes. “For us, we need to get to a place where we co-exist with the virus,” Williams said. “It’s not going away. The question is how do you manage risks?” He said federal regulations also require nursing homes to provide for the psychosocial health of their residents. (Source: Union Leader)

  7. State Admits Error in Calculating Unemployment Benefits. In another problem with its administration of unemployment benefits, the state sent out “rogue notices” incorrectly warning that interest is accumulating on overpayment cases that are under appeal. Lawyers representing the state Department of Employment Security admitted the error during a hearing on a case brought by Claude Pottier, 67, of Rye, who has sued over efforts by the state to collect jobless benefits it says he did not deserve. During the hearing, Nathan Kenison-Marvin, a lawyer with the state Department of Justice, said the unemployment system was overwhelmed by a large number of claims during the pandemic. “Those demand letters went out because (of) a flaw in the system, and the Department (of Employment Security) is well aware of that,” Kenison-Marvin said, according to a transcript of the hearing. The interest is being calculated at 12% annually. Interest on the accounts should be zeroed out by Friday, he said. Kenison-Marvin did not specify how many letters were sent, but the DES is pursing overpayments to 12,000 people. (Source: Union Leader)

  8. Declining Cases and Deaths Have Officials in Some NH Towns Reconsidering Mask Policies. The city of Claremont last week dropped a mask advisory and a decision to end mask mandates in Lebanon and Enfield could hinge on how well New Hampshire performs against the coronavirus pandemic this month, municipal officials said Tuesday. However, officials in Lebanon and Enfield are resisting calls to act earlier, saying they don’t want to do away with protections before people have the opportunity to become fully vaccinated. By late June, every Granite Stater should have had the chance to get two shots — recommended for both the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines — and wait two weeks for immunity to take effect, said Lebanon Assistant Mayor Clifton Below. “Hopefully, the metrics will converge” and June also will see lower transmission rates, he said. As of Tuesday, New Hampshire’s coronavirus dashboard classified transmission in Grafton County as “substantial,” with more than 289 cases per 100,000 residents detected in the past two weeks. (Source: The Valley News)

  9. Manchester to Continue with Remote Board of Aldermen Meetings after Alderman and State Rep Barbara Shaw Tests Positive. The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) will continue to meet remotely for the foreseeable future despite a proposal to return to in-person meetings. With news earlier in the day that Barbara Shaw (Ward 9) would not be present at the meeting after contracting COVID-19 on Friday, support was limited for the proposal, which could have gone into effect at the BMA’s next meeting on May 18. (Source: Manchester Ink Link)

  10. After a Year of Pandemic, Mental Health Challenges Are Many. New Hampshire’s crawl toward reopening is now a sprint. Weeks after ending the state’s mask mandate, Gov. Chris Sununu will lift pandemic restrictions on businesses Friday and wants all state workers back to the office by Monday. Not everyone is celebrating, say mental health workers. A year of isolation, death, uncertainty, and fear has been a tough haul for many, including those who’ve never experienced mental health challenges before. “You may think with the arrival of spring, people would be outdoors, rejoicing,” said Lisa Boldin, a psychotherapist who works with adults at the Seacoast Mental Health Center. “But this one-year mark (of the pandemic) has made it very hard. I’ve seen an increase in depression and people not being able to pull out of it.” Some people are struggling with severe depression and its accompanying sense of hopelessness. Others are incapacitated by anxiety or exhausted by stress. Children and adolescents are reporting more acute mental illness and waiting days for hospital beds. Catie Borbotsina, the children admission coordinator at Riverbend Community Mental Health in Concord, said she’s noticed that more children – rather than their parents – are initiating therapy. “Families are reporting increased stress in family dynamics due to families or siblings being together all day, every day without respite or activities of their own. This seems to be causing an increase in sibling conflict in general.” When asked about coping strategies, therapists stressed the need to ask for help immediately in crisis situations, whether that be 911, the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-8255, a local community mental health center, or the nearest emergency room. For non-crisis mental health challenges, they recommended routine, patience, and self-care. If going to the grocery store feels overwhelming today, don’t condemn yourself or think it will be that way forever. Reconnecting with good friends can feel good but can also feel exhausting. Parents who blame themselves for allowing their children so much screen time this past year shouldn’t, they said. Make a plan to make changes when life starts to return to normal. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

  11. No Prom, But Portsmouth High Seniors Will Celebrate. Here's the Plan. While they won’t get to break out their best dance moves this year, Portsmouth High School seniors will have a celebratory substitute for the annual prom next month. In a springtime celebration switch, the PHS Class of 2021 will replace the prom with an outdoor senior banquet beneath a large tent on the grounds of Strawbery Banke Museum on Saturday, June 5. Angela Hagstrom, co-president of the senior class, said the banquet will pose a lesser risk of COVID-19 transmission, as dancing is barred and all attendees must wear a facemask unless seated. In 2020, the same class missed out on its junior prom because of the pandemic. There will also be a raffle with prizes donated by restaurateur Jay McSharry and Las Olas Taqueria will cater the event with premade burritos and a taco bar. An online donation page to help with expenses will likely be up and running by the end of this week. Potential donors can email PHS parent Christine Blonda for the link when it's live at blonda@comcast.net. (Source: Seacoast Online)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Tuesday, May 4

Source: N.H. DHHS

Source: N.H. DHHS

The state Department of Health and Human Services announced 161 new positive test results for COVID-19 and no deaths on Monday. 80 people were hospitalized and active COVID cases statewide have dipped below the 2,000-mark for the first time since November. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Tuesday.

  1. COVID Tracker: It’s Starting to Feel Like the Pandemic Is Almost Over, But We’re Nowhere Near the End. In its weekly analysis of New Hampshire COVID-19 metrics, the Concord Monitor reports that while vaccination has opened the door to normalcy, New Hampshire’s death count continues to increase and the explosion of cases in India and South America are horrific reminders that the virus preys on the unvaccinated. On Thursday the state reported that 440,000 people in New Hampshire were fully vaccinated, which is about 32% of the total population. That’s still a long way from the 70% vaccination rate often cited as the minimum for “herd immunity” – not in the sense of everybody being perfectly safe, but in the sense of minimal virus circulation. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  2. FDA to Authorize Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine for 12-to-15-Year-Olds By Early Next Week. The US Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine in children and teens ages 12 to 15 by early next week, a federal government official tells CNN. Pfizer has applied for emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine for teens and children ages 12 to 15. The FDA will have to amend the emergency use authorization for the vaccine, but the process should be straightforward, said the official, who was not authorized to speak about the process publicly and requested anonymity. The FDA is currently reviewing data submitted by Pfizer to support the extended use. Pfizer said at the end of March that a clinical trial involving 2,260 12-to-15-year-olds showed its efficacy is 100% and it is well tolerated. The vaccine is currently authorized in the US for emergency use in people 16 and older. Meanwhile, Maryland-based Novavax announced Monday it has expanded its Phase 3 trial for its Covid-19 vaccine to include up to 3,000 children ages 12 to 17 across the United States. They will receive the vaccine candidate or placebo in two doses 21 days apart. Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine is not yet authorized for emergency use in the United States. (Source: CNN)

  3. Two-Thirds of Johnson & Johnson Vaccines Went Unused in NH This Weekend. About two-thirds of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines offered at state-run sites went unused this weekend, raising concerns that the 10-day pause recommended by U.S health agencies has exacerbated hesitancy in New Hampshire. The state hoped to vaccinate 4,500 people when they opened up appointments last Tuesday but only about 1,589 were administered at the three locations – one at the former Sears building in Concord and two others in Nashua and Newington. This is a departure from New Hampshire’s last mass vaccination at the Loudon speedway where 12,000 shots were administered the weekend before the pause was announced. According to a recent poll from the UNH Survey Center, the primary reason residents were unlikely to get the shot was due to concerns about the safety of the vaccine. Some data from the same survey suggests that the pause has impacted how people perceive the one-dose shot, which was once the most popular of the three vaccines. In March, 43% of respondents who had a vaccine preference said they wanted the Johnson and Johnson shot while other respondents were split between the Pfizer and Moderna shot. In April’s survey, shortly after the pause was announced, just 12% of the group said they wanted the Johnson & Johnson shot – instead, Pfizer became the preferred vaccine. However, most respondents said that even if their preferred brand was not available, they would opt to get vaccinated as soon as possible instead of waiting for their preference. (Source: Concord Monitor)

  4. New England Leads the Nation in Vaccination Rates, CDC Data Shows. While concern is rising that fewer people may be stepping forward to get their coronavirus vaccinations, the New England states lead the nation in the rate of people who have gotten at least their first shot of one of the vaccines. New Hampshire led the states with 60.7 percent of residents having gotten at least a first dose or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New Hampshire was followed by Massachusetts (57.3 percent), Vermont (56.6), Connecticut (55.6), and Maine (55.2). Decidedly non-New England Hawaii (53.7) was next on the list, but Rhode Island (53.3) followed quickly behind. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, in a series of tweets Monday morning, drew a connection between the high vaccination rates and recent declines in coronavirus cases in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Maine. Noting the experience of Israel, he also suggested that getting 50 percent of the population vaccinated may be a “turning point” where cases begin to drop sharply. (Source: Boston Globe)

  5. Portsmouth’s Water Country Addresses Worker Shortages By Offering Incentives. Like many industries facing challenges hiring new workers, Water Country in Portsmouth will raise the pay for many jobs as it looks to hire nearly 300 workers in time for opening day. The general manager Matt Hehl called it a tough labor market, with multiple industries competing to attract workers. Water Country expects a busy summer with some restrictions lifted and more people eager to get out after being vaccinated. As they try to expand the workforce to more pre-pandemic levels, they have raised the stakes on employment. Starting hourly pay rates for positions like lifeguards, park services and seasonal maintenance have been increased to $13-$15 per hour. Workers also receive perks, like a $100 referral bonus and season passes for them and up to three members of their family. Hehl said the lower minimum wage in New Hampshire has added to the hiring difficulties. “The candidate pool in this area along the Seacoast is just not there for the type of team members that we’re looking to hire,” Hehl said. “So, we’ve got to dip on each side of the border into Maine and Massachusetts and once you get into that, you’re competing with a very different minimum wage.” (Source: WMUR)

  6. ‘It’s Pretty Much Insanity’: Pandemic-Weary Out-of-Staters Make Housing Market a Feeding Frenzy. After a year of pandemic-fleeing city slickers and suburbanites flowing into more rural communities and driving up home prices, less affluent buyers rooted in rural New Hampshire and Vermont communities are being crowded out of contention. On top of that, the number of houses on the market this spring has dropped significantly because of the strong demand. “There are a lot of cash buyers right now. A lot of people are getting left out of the market,” said Nan Carroll, a Hanover broker with Coldwell Banker who has been selling homes in the Upper Valley since 2003 and who estimates that of her sales over the past year “90% are from out of the area.” The crunch is not only freezing out Upper Valley people who want to buy their first home but also presenting issues for homesellers who will need to find another place. “The first question I ask my owner is: Do you have a place to go to because I don’t want to make you homeless,” said Vanessa Stone, an Enfield real estate broker who focuses on the Mascoma Valley. Stone said that in the 32 years she’s been selling real estate the current frenzy surpasses even the hot home-selling market of the early 2000s before the crash of 2007. (Source: The Valley News) 0

  7. Unpacking the NH State Budget. Today at 1 p.m., the Senate Finance Committee holds a public hearing on the proposed New Hampshire state budget. In addition to funding repairs for red-listed bridges and operational costs for state agencies, this year’s budget also includes controversial proposals to reverse any emergency order violations or fines issued against businesses during COVID-19, to cap the governor’s emergency powers, to require reproductive health care providers to physically separate facilities offering abortions from other forms of care, and to ban the concept of structural racism from being taught in New Hampshire schools and state-run workplaces. You can read an overview here. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin) Members of the public may attend the hearing remotely using the following links:

    1. To join the webinar: https://www.zoom.us/j/95006733265

    2. Or Telephone: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): 1-301-715-8592, or 1-312-626-6799, or 1-929-205-6099, or 1-253-215-8782, or 1-346-248-7799, or 1-669-900-6833

    3. Or iPhone one-tap: 19292056099,,95006733265# or 13017158592,,95006733265#

    4. Webinar ID: 950 0673 3265

    5. To view on YouTube, click here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjBZdtrjRnQdmg-2MPMiWrA

    If you would like to testify, you must also sign up here. http://gencourt.state.nh.us/remotecommittee/senate.aspx

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Monday, May 3

Over the weekend, New Hampshire public health officials reported two additional deaths and 514 new positive test results for COVID-19. As of Sunday, there were 2,242 active cases statewide and 79 people were hospitalized. Here is the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Monday.

  1. Vaccines for 12-to-15 Could Be New NH Frontier. In a matter of weeks, state public health officials expect to open a new front in the running battle against COVID-19 — vaccinating children 12 to 15 years old. Experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci believe giving the vaccine to all eligible and available children could be the key to reaching the level of herd immunity needed to snuff out the pandemic once and for all. But once the federal government gives the go-ahead, the effort to vaccinate younger and healthier people is likely to face resistance. At least one local advocate believes the entire vaccination effort may not be worth the risk. Laura Condon of Bedford, who served as director of advocacy for the National Vaccine Information Center—an anti-vaccination group—said younger healthy people, including adolescents, should not get the shot. “Any honest medical risk/benefit analysis will show that young people are at a very, very, very low risk of serious illness from this virus and their development of robust natural immunity is key to ending the pandemic,” Condon posted on her Facebook Page late last week. Meanwhile, New Hampshire public health officials said vaccination should be available soon to children ages 12-15. “Our best guess is mid-May,” said Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state’s epidemiologist. “It’s not a promise, but it looks like right now it could happen around then.” (Source: Union Leader)

  2. Pharmacy Chains Have Wasted Hundreds of Thousands of Vaccine Doses. Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against COVID-19 account for the lion's share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by KHN. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country's effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens was responsible for 21%, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined, NBC News reports. CDC data suggest that the companies have wasted more doses than states, U.S. territories and federal agencies combined. (Source: NECN)

  3. Emergency Powers Boost for NH Governors May Be Curtailed. If there is one thing that state legislators on both sides of the aisle can agree on, it’s that the special powers granted to New Hampshire governors need to be changed. The current state of emergency statute boosts the traditionally weak powers of the governor’s office by giving the governor the ability to bypass legislative approval when it comes to accepting and spending federal funds. It also gives the governor broad powers when it comes to declaring and enforcing emergency orders, such as mask-wearing and business restrictions. After Republicans seized control of the Legislature and Executive Council in 2020, numerous bills were introduced by GOP sponsors to limit what a governor can do on his or her own going forward without their involvement. The only attempt to “rectify” what Sununu had done was a bill to reimburse business owners who were fined for not following executive orders to protect the health and well-being of customers. Most of the bills to rein in the governor’s authority deal with the governor’s ability to renew state of emergencies in different ways. House budget writers added a provision in its version of the two-year operating budget to require legislative approval of any state of emergency declaration beyond the initial 21-day period, although it probably will not be there when the Senate approves its version of the budget. The one bill that has bipartisan support — at least in the House, which passed it 328-41 — is House Bill 417. The bill does the three things to curtail the unfettered power of the governor during a state of emergency. The bill extends the initial state of emergency to 30 days, and then requires legislative approval of both extending the declaration and for executive orders. If the legislature is not able to meet, the orders and declarations are extended in 14-day increments until legislators can meet. The bill requires Executive Council approval to accept any gifts, grants or other funds obtained for emergency purposes, and requires Fiscal Committee approval of any amount over $100,000. The changes would be effective at the end of the current state of emergency. A public hearing on the House-passed bill will be held Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. before the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee. (Source: InDepthNH)

  4. Pandemic Hasn't Cured the Hiring Woes of NH Employers. Employers across multiple industries are combating hiring woes they say are as difficult or worse than before the pandemic. “The candidate pool shortage is something I’ve never seen in 20 years, not even in the most booming economy,” said Barry Roy, regional president of the Robert Half staffing agency, which has three New Hampshire offices. The firm places professionals in finance, legal, human resources and tech positions. Finding people for technology and manufacturing jobs is just as tough as before the pandemic, said Justin Gerwien, with staffing agency Aquinas Consulting. More employers are offering relocation bonuses to entice job seekers, he said. Job openings are up statewide and unemployment is trending down. There were nearly 500 more online ads for New Hampshire jobs in February and March than in the same timeframe in 2020, an increase of almost 2%, according to Burning Glass Technologies and New Hampshire Employment Security. Health care had the most openings, more than 5,000, but about 100 fewer than the previous year. Retail-type job openings were down almost 700 but still ranked second at about 3,150. Third-ranked manufacturing also saw 375 fewer job ads. On the flip side, more ads could be found for positions in accommodation and food services, educational services and information fields. The most sought-after employee type was registered nurses, with 1,200 advertised openings. (Source: Union Leader) Meanwhile, some New Hampshire restaurants are responding to the more competitive job market with incentives. "We are actually offering $200 bonuses for kitchen employees after three months, and an additional $300 after six months and $500 after one year," Great N.H. Restaurants CEO Tom Boucher said. "We have a bonus plan for our current employees to refer some of their friends, family or relatives to come and work for us." Owners said if they cannot find enough workers, restaurants will not be able to stay open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. (Source: WMUR)

  5. Maine Ends COVID-19 Travel Requirements. Residents of all 50 states are now exempt from Maine’s COVID-19 travel requirements. The requirements had included testing and quarantine. But Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the policy could change based on the spread of variants. The loosening of restrictions is based on a successful travel season last summer where there was little transmission of COVID-19 from visitors to Maine. The introduction of vaccines also played a role in the decision, Shah said. (Source: NECN) Over the weekend, Connecticut lifted outdoor restrictions, including restrictions on bars, which have been closed since the early days of the pandemic. https://www.necn.com/news/national-international/conn-lifts-covid-19-restrictions-today/2458232/

  6. TSA Extends Mask Mandate Aboard Flights Through Summer As Travel Increases. Wearing a face mask will continue to be a requirement at airports, aboard commercial flights and on other public transportation across the country through the summer. The federal mask mandate, which was set to expire on May 11, will remain in effect through Sept. 13, according to updated guidance issued by the Transportation Security Administration on Friday. The rule, which also applies to buses and rail systems, was first put in place by President Biden shortly after he took office in January. (Source: NHPR)

  7. As Schools Spend Millions on Air Purifiers, Experts Warn of Overblown Claims and Harm to Children. Desperate to calm worried parents, school officials across the country have rushed to buy and install unproven—and in some cases, dangerous—air cleaning devices and others with in more than 2,000 schools across 44 states. The devices use the same technology — ionization, plasma and dry hydrogen peroxide — that the Lancet COVID-19 Commission recently deemed “often unproven” and potential sources of pollution themselves. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more people buy these technologies, the more they get legitimacy,” said Jeffrey Siegel, a civil engineering professor at the University of Toronto. “It’s really the complete wild west out there.” Schools have been “bombarded with persistent salespersons peddling the latest air and cleaning technologies, including those with minimal evidence to-date supporting safety and efficacy” according to a report released Thursday by the Center for Green Schools and ASHRAE. Marwa Zaatari, a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) Epidemic Task Force, said she was particularly concerned that officials in New Jersey are buying thousands of devices made by another company that says they emit ozone, which can exacerbate asthma and harm developing lungs, according to decades of research. The sales race is fueled by roughly $193 billion in federal funds allocated to schools for teacher pay and safety upgrades — a giant fund that can be used to buy air cleaners. There is virtually no federal oversight or enforcement of safe air-cleaning technology. Only California bans air cleaners that emit a certain amount of ozone. (Source: Kaiser Health News)

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

Saturday, May 1

More than 1.08 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, equal to 14 doses for every 100 people. There is already a stark gap between vaccination programs in different countries, with some yet to report a single dose. As of April 30, 3…

More than 1.08 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, equal to 14 doses for every 100 people. There is already a stark gap between vaccination programs in different countries, with some yet to report a single dose. As of April 30, 31% of all Americans had been fully vaccinated. (Source: New York Times)

On Friday, New Hampshire public health officials announced two additional COVID-19 deaths, 264 new cases, 2,514 active infections statewide, and 94 people hospitalized due to the virus. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to your to start your Saturday.

  1. Granite Staters Send Help to India as White House Announces Travel Restrictions Amid COVID-19 Surge. The U.S. placed restrictions on travelers from India starting Tuesday, due to a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases. Members of the India Association of New Hampshire are acutely aware of the skyrocketing cases and lack of supplies. “Not a day goes by that I hear from some school friend or college friend or some relative that somebody has passed away," Bhardwaj said. State Rep. Latha Mangipudi from Nashua said India sent N95 masks and other COVID-19 PPE to New Hampshire a year ago. She has organized a group of New Hampshire doctors of Indian origin to help with telemedicine and donations. The India Association of New Hampshire has also partnered with Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua to send more than 2,000 oxygen concentrators, which have already flown out from Atlanta. To date, the group has raised $10,000 for medical supplies, food and shelter. Other Granite Staters have donated $1,500, and the association hopes more people will join efforts to help. You can get more information or make a donation at the India Association of New Hampshire’s website. (Source: WMUR) Worth noting is that although the U.S. has started to get a handle on the virus and new cases are declining in most states, surges in India and South America have caused virus cases globally to reach an all-time pandemic peak of more than 800,000 new cases each day. (Source: New York Times)

  2. COVID Cases Continue to Decline in NH. New COVID-19 cases in New Hampshire have continued to drop, falling to a seven-day average of 257 as of Friday, as the state’s vaccination campaign moves forward. That’s down from an average of 338 new cases per day a week ago and 442 earlier in April, when the latest spike in cases peaked. That springtime uptick came after two months of decline from the winter surge. The rate of new cases is now nearly back to where it was in early March, when it bottomed out at 239. Hospitalizations have also drifted down since last week. As of Friday, New Hampshire’s hospitals held 94 patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19, compared to 108 a week earlier. As of Thursday, almost 800,000 people, equivalent to 59 percent of New Hampshire’s population, had had at least one dose, according to data from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services. About a quarter of the population — more than 351,000 — were considered fully vaccinated. (Source: Keene Sentinel) Bucking the downward trend are cases in schools. This morning, the state’s COVID-19 Schools Dashboard was reporting 198 cases statewide in Granite State school children—up from just over 150 mid-week.

  3. 100 Million Now Fully Vaccinated in US But Millions More Needed to Reach Herd Immunity. The United States has fully vaccinated more than 100 million people against COVID-19, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- a milestone that comes with optimism about the future. "I think we can confidently say the worst is behind us," the Dean of Brown University School of Public Health Dr. Ashish Jha said Friday on "Good Morning America." "We will not see the kinds of sufferings and death that we have seen over the holidays. I think we are in a much better shape heading forward." The only thing that could threaten the outlook, he said, was the spread of coronavirus variants, making the push to increase vaccinations even more critical. Although the vaccination milestone means that nearly 40% of adults have been inoculated, the US still has a ways to go to reach herd immunity -- which would be when 70-85% of the population is vaccinated, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. And health officials say that the only way to keep bringing down the death rate is to increase vaccination efforts. (Source: CNN) Nationwide, the CDC reports 31% of Americans have now been fully vaccinated. While New Hampshire trails the national average of fully vaccinated residents at 29.8%, the 60.2% percent of New Granite Staters who have received their first dose far exceeds the national average of 44%. (Source: CDC via New York Times Vaccination Tracker) While Gov. Sununu has suggested a fully-vaccinated rate of 60% would be acceptable for New Hampshire, it would fall short of the level recommended by health experts for reaching herd immunity.

  4. Families Seek More Flexibility for Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities. As New Hampshire's seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases continues to drop and more people get vaccinated, families across the state are looking for more flexibility when it comes to seeing loved ones in long-term care facilities. State health officials said all long-term care facilities should be allowing visits inside and outside on the property, as long as there isn't an outbreak. But at some facilities, day trips and outings are still not an option. Wendi Murphy of Merrimack said her father hasn't left Hanover Hill in Manchester since March 2020, and she constantly hears one thing from him. "'I want my normalcy back. I did what the governor said, and I want my normalcy back,'" she said. Murphy said she and her father are vaccinated, and they don't understand why they can't leave the property for a short time. State health officials will be reviewing the federal guidance released this week to update their own guidance, which they said will be exactly in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "The federal standards have relaxed enough that the state is just going to rely on those federal standards," said Brendan Williams, of the New Hampshire Health Care Association. "We will see an easing with respect to nursing homes because again, the federal government has eased its requirements with respect to nursing homes." Williams said there could be a definitive answer on day trips and outings as early as next week. (Source: WMUR)

  5. COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Shots Might Be Necessary, Local Health Experts Say. Dr. David Itkin, an infectious disease specialist at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, said that while there is speculation that a third booster shot may be needed to combat COVID-19 variants, at this point there is no specific recommendation for that to happen. "We do not have enough data yet to prove it is a necessary thing we will need to do," Itkin said. "That decision will be made by the CDC-ACIP (Centers for Disease Control - Advisory Council on Immunization Practices.” But Dr. Evangeline Thibodeau, an infectious disease doctor at York Hospital, said a booster vaccine makes sense. "We do this for a number of virus changes like the flu," she said. "We have tetanus boosters, used to cement in the duration of the immune system response. We know Moderna and Pfizer likely are persistent for at least six months and then there may be gradual waning of its ability to produce an immune response. So why wouldn't we want that to continue at this point?" Itkin says the most important think people can do short-term is to get vaccinated. "We need to reach herd immunity, to get back to a semblance of normalcy," he said. "We are moving in the right direction but we are not there yet." (Source: Seacoast Online)

  6. Vermont to Relax Outdoor Mask Mandate Saturday. Vermont will relax its guidance on mask-wearing outside on Saturday while also moving to the second phase of reopening, with larger gatherings allowed and most businesses being under universal guidance that includes mask-wearing, physical distancing, and staying home when sick, Gov. Phil Scott said Friday. Starting Saturday, vaccinated and unvaccinated Vermonters will no longer be required to wear masks outdoors if they are able to physically distance themselves, following updated guidance this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Scott said. (Source: NECN)

  7. Unemployment Claims Continue to Fall in New Hampshire. New Hampshire unemployment claims fell once again for the week ending April 24, showing that the economy might have almost recovered from the pandemic-induced recession, but there was still some troubling news in the latest data on pandemic-related claims, thought that came when cases were still rising. For the week ending April 24, 1,488 new jobless claims were filed, a 15% decrease from the previous week and the second weekly decline in a row. Still, the number was three times the 495 filed in the week before the pandemic, but only 5% of the 29,379 initial weekly claims filed during at the peak. Continuing claims – filed by people still collecting benefits – also fell in the week ending April 17, dropping 2%, to 19,968. (Source: NH Business Review)

  8. Drinking Spikes as Anxiety and Depression Peak at Home. After a year of sequestering at home, the statistics are alarming. According to a study by New York University’s School of Global Public Health, a major side effect of COVID-19 has been increased drinking among people with anxiety and depression, but particularly among those 40 and younger. Since COVID, drinking rose by 40 percent in people age 40 and under with anxiety or depression, by 30 percent in those age 41 to 59, and by roughly 20 percent among those age 60 and older, according NYU’s report. Those trends that are now straining detox clinics and ballooning requests for alcohol treatment programs. At this point, New Hampshire lacks sufficient space in detox clinics to handle the demand, local substance use experts say. According to New Futures, a nonprofit that tracks health in New Hampshire, the first four months of the pandemic from March through June 2020 saw a 14-percent increase in alcohol consumption over the same period in 2019. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, New Hampshire Liquor Commission sales reached $765 million, an increase of $36.5 million over fiscal year 2019 – a jump made more compelling because bars and restaurants were not ordering liquor and wine while they were closed. Chelsea Lemke, a substance use disorder services director at Lakes Region Mental Health in Plymouth, said patients who struggle with addiction, who have trouble budgeting and were not accustomed to the windfall payments, spent their stimulus checks on drugs and alcohol instead of paying household bills. But the problem of rising alcohol use has crossed all demographics. Even if COVID did not cause it, “it’s shedding a magnifying glass on something that might have been unhealthy in the past, and now it’s a more significant problem” – more intense and maladaptive, Lemke said. “We’re seeing people who had unexpected life changes when a job fell out from under them. It’s such a striking 180 from what their daily life was.” (Source: Laconia Daily Sun)

  9. Stir Crazy? Here’s a List of All the Places Overseas Where Vaccinated Travelers Can Go. The list of places welcoming vaccinated people is growing by the week. Proof of vaccines is easing travel restrictions to some places, and is the only way travelers can gain entrance to others. Yet from health forms to testing protocols, travel remains complicated even for the immunized. Rules differ from one country to the next. Some places reject certain types of vaccines, while others still require a quarantine period — often shortened. Travelers should also take care to read the fine print before booking a trip abroad, where they may find COVID-19 protocols may be stricter than what’s required at home. More here on where you can go and what to expect. (Source: NECN)

  10. A Personal Look Back. As the pandemic began, one of the things I struggled with was how to help in a situation where legislative activities were suspended, new cases and hospitalizations were growing, information was scattered and often incomplete, businesses were shutting down, jobs were disappearing, and where residents were advised—and then ordered—to stay home to isolate to “bend the curve” of hospitalizations. As a former working journalist, I settled on writing and posting a daily summary of COVID-related news gathered from online media outlets across the state. As a state representative, there have also been times where I’ve been able to use my contacts and my access to supplement information gathered by the media. As an amateur photographer, I’ve also supplemented many of my posts with photographs taken on the seacoast illustrating aspects of pandemic life. The first summary was posted directly on Facebook in the last week of March 2020 and by mid-April, I’d realized a web version would be easier to read—so I started posting the summaries in the Updates section of my website. One of the unintended consequences of doing this was assembling a daily historical online record of the pandemic going back to within a few weeks of the starting point. My hope is that this information has been helpful. I also hope that it’s led to a greater appreciation of the role that our state’s working journalists have played during the crisis—and that more people have signed up for online subscriptions to local newspapers or donated to non-profit news organizations, like NHPR and InDepthNH. While there are too few media outlet or reporters in our state to cover all of the potential stories as deeply as outlets with the resources of a New York Times or Boston Globe might do, it’s important to keep in mind that throughout the pandemic, New Hampshire’s working journalists put themselves at risk to keep us informed during a very scary time when we were all learning more than we ever wanted to know about viral transmission, masks, hand sanitizer, and the supply chain for toilet paper. At least one journalist that I know of was sickened by the virus, but thankfully recovered. Bottom line: thanks to some very dedicated people for bringing us the news during a difficult period— and to you for reading, finding ways to stay informed, and for helping to sustain local journalism.

Daily Coronavirus Summaries:

— April-July 2020
— August 2020
— September 2020
— October 2020
— November 2020
— December 2020
— January 2021
— February 2021
— March 2021
— April 2021

N.H. STATE DHHS COVID-19 DATA & RESOURCES

OTHER DATA/INFORMATION SOURCES (SOME WITH N.H. DATA)

David Meuse