N.H. Coronavirus Update—June 2021

Sunday, June 13

Two things for today:

1. With this post, I’ll be pausing my (almost) daily summaries of pandemic-related news from across the state as part of a plan to transition to less frequent summaries on a broader set of state issues.

2. I wanted to acknowledge the journey we’ve been on together by sharing COVID-19 in Photos—a video I created from some of the photos that accompanied my Coronavirus Summary posts each day for the past 16 months.

An Evolution—not the end

When I started putting together and posting a daily summary of New Hampshire COVID-19 news at the start of the pandemic, it was a time of fear and uncertainty. Test kits were virtually unavailable, businesses and government offices were shuttered, hospitals strained to treat patients infected by a virus with no known treatments, and all of us “non-essentials” were being told to shelter in place with an occasional trip to the grocery store.

As a former journalist, one of the things that struck me immediately during that period was how difficult it was to get a statewide picture of the full impact of the crisis. One newspaper or online outlet might have an excellent story on the impact of a new emergency order. Another might not even mention it—but may have an insightful article about the PPE shortage. With many New Hampshire newspapers in financial difficulty even before the pandemic, the number of working reporters covering the news across the state was small to start with and the shortage of reporting jobs was only exacerbated by the pandemic.

So my big idea, as I sat at home wondering what to do with myself after sessions of the New Hampshire House of Representatives were indefinitely suspended, was to cruise the websites of New Hampshire media outlets and assemble and post a daily summary of pandemic-related news and information from across the state.

When I started doing it in late March of 2020, I thought I’d be doing it for a few weeks or, at most, maybe a couple of months. Like many at the beginning of COVID, I under-estimated what the virus had in store for us. Assembling the summary each day was a good way for me to develop the fuller understanding of the situation that I needed to have as a state representative. But it was also a way to help people looking for information to find it more easily.

After a few weeks, doing it became part of my late evening and morning routine. But sixteen months later, with COVID transitioning to an endemic illness—one that will continue to be with us that we have to adjust to (like malaria in certain parts of Africa)—it’s time for me to pause the daily COVID summaries.

Looking Forward

My plan going forward is to periodically post on COVID-related issues when events call for it. But with so many other issues impacting the state and the State of Emergency now over, I feel it’s time to start sharing more information about other things that are going on in Concord. While I’m not exactly sure what that will look like, one of the things I hear over and over is how hard it is to get basic information about what’s going on in state government unless you know someone on the inside. Some individual media outlets (New Hampshire Bulletin, InDepthNH, WMUR, NHPR) do a very good job covering the highest profile events and issues. But unless you know where to look, it can be difficult to stay informed.

Thank you for reading and engaging with my COVID posts. It’s been a pleasure serving you in this way during the pandemic. It will be a bigger pleasure serving you in a different way as vaccinations progress and other issues and challenges move front-and-center. Like our other Portsmouth state reps, I’m not going anywhere and I’ll continue to be available when you need help navigating state government or have a question.

One more thing… As an amateur photographer, it’s also been fascinating to capture various moments and scenes of life during the pandemic. Over the past 16 months, I’ve shared many of them as part of my summaries. But as a way of summarizing the journey we’ve made together as we shift to the next phase, I’ve edited them together in a short video and put them to music.

Enjoy the summer. Be safe. #GetVaccinated

Rep. David Meuse

Friday, June 11

Tonight at midnight, New Hampshire’s year-long COVID-19 State of Emergency will be allowed to expire. While COVID-19 continues to be with us (51 new cases and three additional deaths announced on Thursday), New Hampshire public health officials say the end of the State of Emergency marks the beginning of a transition to living with the virus “at a baseline level”. They also repeated their call for everyone to get vaccinated to minimize the risk of the virus surging back in the fall.

1. Sununu Ends NH’s COVID State of Emergency Effective Midnight Tonight. Gov. Chris Sununu announced an end to New Hampshire’s state of emergency Thursday, 16 months after invoking executive powers at the onset of a deadly pandemic. During a weekly press conference addressing the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sununu said that the state of emergency would sunset Friday evening. Announcing the change, Sununu said that a decrease in daily infections and deaths due to the coronavirus had spurred him to end the special arrangement, which has allowed his office to direct billions of federal aid money without legislative sign off and issue sweeping executive orders without lawmaker approval. The number of Granite Staters who have been vaccinated also played a role in the governor’s decision, he said. More than 800,000 state residents have received at least one shot, and Sununu projected that the state would see 70 percent of residents fully vaccinated by midsummer. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin) One reason Sununu gave for the state of emergency in the first place was that it would give the state enough flexibility to allocate state and federal funds as needed. He said he believes the state now has enough guidance from the federal government to know that incoming funds can be spent as needed. "We have guidance on the (American Rescue Plan) money, so we waited to see what kind of guidance came out of the federal government, and we feel very confident we understand maybe not all of the final rules, but enough of the rules that we're not going to be limited in how we can spend FEMA dollars or something like that," he said. (Source: WMUR) Sununu also said the Canadian border could be open as early as June 22, when the border closing may be dropped or re-upped by Canada, which has seen fewer people vaccinated. He said that tourism is being affected negatively and he has been meeting with officials to try to get it open. (Source: InDepthNH)

2. As State of Emergency Ends, Vaccine Supplies Go Unused. New Hampshire didn’t have to order any COVID-19 vaccines this week and ordered half as usual last week as vaccination rates continue to decline, more evidence of continued improvement in the pandemic that led Gov. Chris Sununu to end the state of emergency as of Friday midnight. The state will remain under the status of a public health incident, Sununu said. That legal category allows the Department of Health and Human Services flexibility in staffing as well as liability protection for health care providers. Meanwhile as the percentage of eligible people being fully vaccinated nears 60%, new vaccinations have stalled. This led state to order only half of its federally allotted supply of vaccine last week, and none at all this week because it had supplies on hand, according to DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette. She said that state efforts to vaccinate homebound residents are progressing. 4,879 people unable to travel to pharmacies or vaccination centers have received the vaccine and about 100 more will get first shots by the end of the month. Despite vaccination rates apparently plateauing at well under the 85% rate public health experts say is likely required for herd immunity to kick in, Sununu again said New Hampshire would not be offering financial rewards, running a lottery or using other incentives to increase the rate of vaccination. He predicted that 70% of all residents would be vaccinated by the end of the summer. (Source: Concord Monitor)

3. Chan: ‘Pandemic is Not Over’ But ‘Our Response is Changing’. During the public health segment of yesterday’s press briefing, state epidemiologist Benjamin Chan said the state is now in a period of transition between the emergency response of the past year and managing what he termed a “baseline level” of the illness that may be with us for the foreseeable future. “COVID will be with us,” like other illnesses like the flu, he said. Chan noted that although the virus continues to surge in other parts of the world, there has been a dramatic drop in community-level transmission in New Hampshire over the past few months, with most counties now reporting low to moderate levels of community transmission. The state continues to manage two active nursing home outbreaks, one at the Sullivan County nursing home and another at Birch Healthcare Center in Rochester. (Sources: InDepthNH and WMUR)

4. House and Senate Leaders Announce Some In-Person Meetings to Resume at State House. In a joint communication to NH legislators, Senate President Chuck Morse and House Speaker Sherman Packard announced members of the public will have in-person access to upcoming committee of conference meetings. This marks the first time members of the public will be able to attend meetings in the State House complex since the start of the pandemic. The announcement also noted that “at this time”, the plan is to also continue to livestreamed committee meetings on Zoom and/or YouTube. Morse and Packard noted improvements that have been made to ventilation and air filtering systems in the Senate chamber, Representatives Hall, and the Legislative Office Building for air circulation, filtration, and UV air treatment to kill viruses. However, House sessions will apparently not resume in Cord right away. In a separate announcement made in the House Calendar, Speaker Packard said the next meeting of the House will be at 10 a.m. on June 24 at the Bedford SportsPlex, where all but one House sessions in 2021 have been conducted. (Source: Personal Notes and House Calendar)

5. Bill Killed That Would Have Studied Continuing Virtual Public Meetings. Senate Bill 95, which contained a study committee to look at virtual meetings was also voted down Thursday by the N.H. House of Representatives when it refused to agree to form a conference committee. At one point, the bill had included language that would have allowed state and local officials to conduct meetings remotely without a physical meeting location, but that section of the bill had already been deleted by the House. “Given the fact that we are in the circumstance we are, we are saying that there’s no need for a further study at this time,” said Rep. Edward Gordon, a Bristol Republican. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin) Earlier in the year, a similar bill—HB 216—was also killed in the House.

6. Bill Granting ‘Medical Freedom in Immunizations’ Is On Its Way to Sununu for Signature. By a 192-162 vote, the House concurred with Senate changes to HB 220, sending it on to Gov. Chris Sununu for signature. The bills states that “no person may be compelled to receive an immunization for COVID-19 in order to secure, receive, or access any public facility, any public benefit, or any public service”. Its scope include the state, counties, cities, towns, precincts, water districts, school districts, school administrative units, and quasi-public entities. The bill has several exemptions, and supporters say in may not go far enough is stopping schools from requiring COVID vaccinations. Last month when the bill was approved by the Senate, Sen. Tom Sherman, the Senate’s only physician, said if this bill becomes law, it will reverse a decade of bipartisan work in New Hampshire to build trust in vaccines and public health. (Source: Personal Notes and WMUR)

7. House and Senate to Meet to Iron Out Differences on Permanently Codifying Select Emergency Orders Into Law. After the Senate decided not to concur with changes made to the seven-part omnibus bill by the House, the House agreed on Thursday to try to work out the differences in a committee of conference. The bill seeks to make permanent several temporary measures enacted under the governor’s emergency orders. They include authorizing COVID-19 testing by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and establishing the position of “temporary health partners” who can work in nursing homes after receiving 8 hours of training. (Source: Personal Notes)

8. In Long-Term Care Settings, Reliable Statistics on Staff Vaccinations Elusive. Statistics make plain why vaccinating long-term care health workers is critical. Residents in these places account for 65 percent of the state’s coronavirus deaths. The statistics, however, do a poor job tracking the vaccination rate among those health care workers even though evidence has shown that an increase in vaccination rate triggers a decrease in COVID-19 cases and deaths. The state Department of Health and Human Services puts the staff vaccination rate at 68 percent. A report published in March said it was 81 percent, higher than any other state. The CDC, which worked with CVS and Walgreens to provide vaccinations in the state’s long-term care facilities, reports 19,456 people in those sites are fully vaccinated. But it doesn’t differentiate between residents and workers or calculate the total as a percentage of all workers. A spokeswoman for the agency said nationally less than 40 percent of long-term care workers are fully vaccinated. And while the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services has long tracked at least 120 coronavirus-related metrics at nursing homes, it only recently announced that it will require those facilities to report vaccination rates for staff and residents. The reports are expected to be available on its website beginning this month. The counts are further suspect because each source includes a disclaimer about its data’s shortcomings, something that has made counting all vaccinations uncertain. In the four months prior to the CVS and Walgreens vaccination program, the state saw 3,333 coronavirus cases and 429 deaths associated with long-term care settings. Since that program ended in March, there have been 429 cases and 20 deaths associated with those facilities. Dr. Richard Feifer, chief medical officer of Genesis HealthCare, said that 70 percent or more of its staff has been fully vaccinated. Matt Lagos, administrator at the Merrimack County Nursing Home in Boscawen, said 97 percent of their residents and about 60 percent of staff are fully vaccinated. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin)

9. DHHS to Use $24.5 Million in Stimulus Funds to Address Disparities Laid Bare by COVID-19. Another slice of stimulus funding coming to New Hampshire this month will fund public health programs with a scope well beyond COVID-19. With money from the December 2020 stimulus package, the state Department of Health and Human Services will receive a grant of more than $24.5 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin tackling health disparities in the state. “The CDC has recognized, as we all have, that COVID shined a light on the health disparities that existed before COVID,” said Tricia Tilley, director of the state’s Division of Public Health Services. The pandemic made it clear to Tilley and other state health officials that they need to address factors that impact a person’s health outside of health care itself — like access to safe housing, reliable transportation, education, job opportunities, healthy food, as well as race and ethnicity. The $24.5 million announced this week, which comes from the December 2020 stimulus package, will go in large part to funding two years’ of work for community health workers. Community health work has been a big part of the urban fight against COVID-19, but Tilley said the state will spend almost half of the new funding in rural areas. (Source: Union Leader)

10. 130 Organizations Urge VT Governor to Delay Vermont Reopening, Citing Food, Housing Issues. As Gov. Phil Scott prepares to lift the state’s remaining COVID-19 restrictions in the coming days, 130 businesses and organizations have signed a letter urging him to wait until more protections are in place for vulnerable Vermonters. The coalition — spearheaded by Hunger Free Vermont, the Vermont Foodbank and Capstone Community Action — points to emergency funding that has been essential to people who need access to healthy food and safe housing. “The recovery for Vermonters with low incomes, for those experiencing homelessness, and for those facing hunger, will be slow,” the letter reads. “Maintaining access to critical FEMA-funded programs supporting Vermonters’ access to basic needs like food, emergency housing, and more depends upon the continuation of a declared State of Emergency in some form.” The coalition asks Scott to ensure that prepared meals remain available to participants of the state’s emergency housing program; a “ramp down” of the Vermont Everyone Eats Program, which has allowed restaurants and hubs to provide meals to those in need; and a continuation of the 3SquaresVT emergency benefit allotments “for as long as possible.” (Source: Valley News)

11. Concord Businesses Respond to End of City Mask Mandate with Patchwork of Rules. Now that Concord’s city mask mandate and New Hampshire’s state-wide mask mandate have lapsed, decisions about face coverings are entirely left to individuals and business owners. For now, as mask rules remain uneven—even across neighboring stores. For example, at the Concord Food Co-op, all customers must wear masks to protect high-risk patrons on Tuesday and Thursday between 7 and 8 a.m. and on Sunday between 9 and 10 a.m. Outside of those hours, unvaccinated people are required to wear masks and vaccinated patrons are encouraged to wear masks. But just across the street at The Works Cafe, masks are optional for vaccinated and unvaccinated patrons alike. Concord city officials recommend shoppers carry a mask in their pockets, as they would their wallets or keys. (Source: Concord Monitor)

12. GOP State Rep Amplifies Claim that Unvaccinated Students at Exeter Prom Were Treated Like ‘Prisoners in Nazi Germany’. SAU 16 school officials are defending the way Exeter High School handled contact tracing for last week’s senior prom after facing criticism for requiring that numbers be written in marker on the hands of students not vaccinated for COVID-19. In a post on Facebook, Brentwood School Board Chairman Melissa Litchfield, who is also a Republican state representative, raised concerns about how things were handled at the outdoor prom on June 4. “I have had some constituents write to me angry about some things that went on at the event on Saturday evening. These complaints revolved around (confidentiality) surrounding those who did and did not receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and the labeling that came along with that,” she wrote. Litchfield included some quotes from unnamed individuals who were critical of the contact tracing rules, including one who claimed that the students were treated like “prisoners in Nazi Germany.” Students who were unable to provide a vaccination card because they didn’t have one, didn’t show a card, or were not fully vaccinated had a number written on their hand. “Dancing was divided among three dance floors. During the dancing, after every few songs they were asked to raise their hands to determine who they were around,” the SAU said. After acknowledging that it wouldn’t be possible to have all students vaccinated, school officials decided that in order to be inclusive and allow all seniors to attend without masks, a contact-tracing system would need to be in place. The SAU said students were notified about the contact tracing and asked for vaccination information as they registered. The list of prom attendees didn’t have any personally identifiable information on it regarding student vaccinations and did not list the numbers assigned to students. “Only a single set of cards with this information exists for tracking purposes and the class advisor was the only individual that possessed them. Those cards will be destroyed in the next few days. As a result, there will be no unique identifiers that can be tied back to students who were unable to show proof of vaccination,” the SAU said. As of Thursday, no COVID-19 cases associated with the prom had been reported, the SAU said. (Source: Union Leader)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 10, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Thursday, June 10

On Wednesday, New Hampshire public health officials announced 57 new positive test results for COVID-19. There were 328 active cases statewide, 29 people were hospitalized, and there were no additional deaths. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Thursday.

1. 11 Cases of Delta COVID-19 Variant Found in New Hampshire; Health Officials Urge Vaccinations. Health officials are stressing the importance of getting vaccinated as they monitor the spread of the more contagious Delta COVID-19 variant. According to DHHS, there have been 11 cases of the Delta variant in New Hampshire. The state is tracking several variants and the strain from the U.K., Alpha, accounts for the most. The Delta variant, first identified in India is spreading globally. Health officials said it's now the dominant strain in the U.K. and they want to stop that from happening in the U.S. "The transmissibility is greater and the potential symptoms could be more severe," said Martha Wassell, director of infection prevention at Wentworth-Douglas Hospital. The impact is being seen most in 12 to 20-year-olds. "This would be the age group that's more apt to socialize without social distancing, without masking, who also have not had the opportunity to be vaccinated yet," Wassell said. (Source: WMUR) Nationally, the US Surgeon General has issued a warning for all of those not yet vaccinated to not let their guard down quite yet. "For those who are unvaccinated, they are increasingly at risk as more and more variants develop," Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Wednesday, specifically citing the B.1.617.2, or Delta variant, first identified in India."The news about the Delta variant is evidence of really why it's so important for us to get vaccinated as soon as possible." Concern over the risk of variants bringing an end to a nationwide reopening is shared by many health experts and officials. While the US has "done very well" with vaccinating its population, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, "we cannot declare victory prematurely because there are still a substantial proportion of people who have not been vaccinated." (Source: CNN) According to CDC data, 42% of Americans are now fully vaccinated along with 52.3% of New Hampshire residents.

2. US Officials in Race Against Time to Use up or Export Millions of J&J Doses Before they Expire in June. Hospitals, state health departments and the federal government are racing to decide how to use up millions of Johnson & Johnson ’s Covid-19 vaccine doses that are set to expire this month. The prospect of so many doses going to waste in the U.S. when developing nations are desperate for shots would add pressure on the Biden administration to share stockpiled vaccines. But there are few practical solutions to administering them quickly in the U.S. or distributing them in time to foreign countries, according to those involved in the vaccination drive. The stockpile is, in part, an unintended consequence of the U.S.’s decision in April to temporarily suspend administration of J&J doses to assess a rare blood-clot risk. The pause forced states and providers to cancel large blocks of appointments that were never rescheduled, leaving a surplus of supply, and in some areas increasing hesitancy over the J&J vaccine’s safety, according to industry officials. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

3. NH Health and Education Leaders Issue Joint Statement on Masks in Schools. The State Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services agree that schools can have flexibility when it comes to mask-wearing, especially in hot weather. In a joint statement, health and education officials said in settings where there's a lack of climate control, it could potentially become unsafe. Multiple days in a row with temperatures in the 90s in New Hampshire and with many schools lacking air conditioning and proper ventilation, districts have been pivoting to make sure kids are safe and comfortable. "Parents are reaching out to us concerned about some of the mitigation protocols in schools particularly around masks," said education commissioner Frank Edelblut. This week, some districts canceled or dismissed students early because of extreme heat. Commissioner Edelblut said it's not only difficult for kids to learn in the conditions. "They also have some health risks, whether it's dehydration or heat exhaustion so what we want to do is we want to encourage our school leaders to look at mitigating protocols in their appropriate context so they can fit the situation they're in," Edelblut said. (Source: WMUR) Weather forecasts call for day time highs in the 70s with low humidity for the remainder of the week as the heat weave finally breaks.

4. Hanover to ‘Pause’ Mask Ordinance After Dartmouth Commencement. Hanover officials have decided to suspend the town’s mask ordinance effective early next week after thousands of expected visitors depart following Dartmouth College’s graduation on Sunday. Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said the mask ordinance will be “paused” but not rescinded “in case we need to re-implement it in the event we see another large outbreak. Fingers crossed we are beyond that.” The Selectboard voted unanimously on Monday in favor of suspending the ordinance. (Source: The Valley News)

5. More Than 2.3 Million New Stimulus Checks Have Been Sent. Here's Who Will Get the Money. More than 2.3 million new stimulus checks have been sent, representing over $4.2 billion in payments to Americans, the government announced on Wednesday. In this round, 1.1 million of the new checks — with a value of more than $2.5 billion — were "plus-up" payments. That includes new or larger payments due to individuals and families after their 2020 tax returns have been processed. To date, more than 8 million of these payments have been sent. Additionally, more than 900,000 checks — worth about $1.9 billion — went to individuals who recently filed their tax returns with the IRS, but did not previously have their information on record. This latest round of payments includes more than 1.2 million direct deposit payments, while the rest were sent via paper checks. (Source: NECN)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 9, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Wednesday, June 9

A sign posted on the door of a downtown Portsmouth business that lets customers know that masks will continue to be required for shoppers until all store employees are fully vaccinated. On Tuesday, many business owners changed or removed signage related to COVID health precautions in response to the City Council ending Portsmouth’s mask mandate on Monday night.

No new COVID-19 deaths were reported in New Hampshire on Tuesday as the number of known cases in the state continued to fall. Health officials said 28 new positive cases were confirmed Tuesday, the lowest single-day total since the fall. However, the cases included the first known case of the Delta variant of the virus, also known as B.1.351, which was first detected in May 2020. The number of current cases statewide dropped to 322 and the number of hospitalizations increased to 28. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Wednesday.

1. Vaccination Update: CDC Reports 52.3% of NH Residents Fully Vaccinated As State Reports Vaccination Rate for Most Minorities Continues to Trail That of Whites. On Tuesday, the CDC reported that 60.8% of New Hampshire residents have received at least one dose while 52.3% are fully vaccinated. The CDC numbers are higher than numbers released separately on Tuesday by the state (56.7% and 44.4%) because the state’s numbers do not include injections administered in NH by federal vaccination programs. However, the state’s numbers for fully vaccinated residents show that while vaccination rates for Hispanic/Latinos (27.5%) and Black or African Americans (26.8%) have picked up, they continue to trail the state’s Asian (47.6%) and White (41.9%) populations by a significant margin. Meanwhile the state’s most heavily fully-vaccinated group are older baby boomers age 65-74 at 75%. The state’s least vaccinated age groups are children ages 1-15 at 1.9%, those ages 16-29 at 34.6%, and young adults ages 30-39 at 43.2%. (Sources: New York Times Vaccination Monitor and N.H. DHHS)

2. Will NH Reach Herd Immunity for COVID-19? It's Hard to Say. Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials and doctors alike have held up “herd immunity” as a goal for overcoming the crisis. This happens when a large portion of a community is immune to a disease — typically through vaccination — making further spread unlikely. So with nearly half of New Hampshire residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and cases consistently dropping, when will we hit that sweet spot? According to health experts, it’s hard to say. “There’s no objective definition of herd immunity, and it’s more of a continuous function, as we say, rather than a threshold. It’s not like a light switch; it’s more like a dimmer,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Most estimates for COVID-19 set that number at between 70 and 80 percent immunized. But with vaccine hesitancy, the emergence of new variants and delayed vaccine eligibility for children, many health experts say it’s unclear whether herd immunity will ever be achieved for COVID-19. “The question is, ‘What’s the goal?’ Well, if we want to get down to really low levels of virus transmission and really low levels of cases so that we can say, ‘Yes, we’ve got this under control,’ then we do need to get up to around 80 percent of people vaccinated,” Schaffner said. (Source: Keene Sentinel)

3. Coos County Only Area of New Hampshire With ‘Substantial Spread’ of COVID-19. COVID-19 community transmission is now considered moderate or minimal in every New Hampshire county but Coos, which remains in the substantial range but is making progress, health officials say. Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services said cases in Coos County are dropping, and they expect the trend to continue there and across the state. Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist, said the risk of being exposed to someone with COVID-19 has dropped significantly compared to a few months ago. "From about mid-November through mid-May, our entire state was at a high or substantial level of community transmission of COVID-19," he said. Merrimack, Rockingham and Hillsborough counties are now seeing minimal transmission, except for the cities of Nashua and Manchester, which are considered moderate, along with much of the rest of the state. (Source: WMUR)

4. Durham Ends Mask Mandate. More mask requirements are being eliminated in New Hampshire as COVID-19 numbers continue to decline in the state. Officials from Durham and Portsmouth said the time was right to lift mask requirements, but they're also asking people to be patient. The Durham Town Council voted Monday night to no longer require masks in government buildings. Town manager Todd Selig said the town's COVID-19 numbers were all pointing in the right direction. "During the height of the pandemic, we had over 400 cases a day of active cases in Durham, and at this point, we're down to about nine active cases as of yesterday, so case counts are way down as well," Selig said. He said the fact that most of the students at the University of New Hampshire are home for the summer also helped drive the decision. Portsmouth also rescinded its citywide mask mandate Tuesday. Officials said businesses can still require masks if they choose to. "We want to show respect for businesses who want to continue that requirement," said Portsmouth city manager Karen Conard. "Our library will continue the requirement of masks, given that their population and their target audience includes lots of people under the age of 12 who are unvaccinatable at this point." (Source: WMUR) A quick walk around downtown Portsmouth on Tuesday showed a mixed response to the end of the mandate from downtown businesses. While some appeared to no longer require masks, others posted signage indicating they were either continuing to require them or that they were “optional.” Meanwhile, still others posted signage indicating that because not all their employees are fully vaccinated, they will still ask customers to mask up.

5. Masks No Longer Required in Concord Municipal Buildings, While Students Can Only Go Maskless Outside. With just two weeks left until the end of the school year, masks will no longer be required during outdoor activities at Concord public schools, the School Board decided Monday. The city’s overall mask ordinance expired June 1, leaving the decision to require a mask up to businesses and individuals. City officials have already lifted restrictions in public buildings by announcing that masks no longer need to be worn inside or outside at Beaver Meadow Golf Course, Everett Arena or even City Hall. School board members weren’t quite ready to allow students to go maskless inside classrooms and hallways, even though interim Superintendent Kathleen Murphy cited masks combined with the stifling heat as a reason to end the day early on Monday and Tuesday. The board voted 6-2 to make masks optional while outdoors starting Wednesday, following a recommendation by Murphy, who said the district has received “a lot of requests” for students to be allowed to remove masks during recess. (Source: Concord Monitor)

6. Sununu to Sign Bill Making Forgiven PPP Loans Tax Exempt. Businesses won’t have to pay any taxes on forgiven Payroll Protection Program loans. Governor Chris Sununu plans to sign a bill passed Friday that would exempt PPP funds from the Business Profits Tax, the governor told NH Business Review on Monday. Many businesses definitely got a win thanks to the $800 billion PPP, which Congress passed at the start of the pandemic, and ended on June 1. While the final numbers are not in, as of Memorial Day, the program has thus far pumped nearly $3.72 billion dollars into at least 25,000 New Hampshire businesses. (There were more than 40,000 loans, but many business got two.) SB 3 will save businesses – and cost the state – nearly $100 million, according to fiscal statement attached to the bill. But business taxes have exceeded budget estimates by $173.7 million, according to the latest estimates. “The revenue surplus this 2021 fiscal year more than covers the lost revenue caused by the passage of this bill,” wrote Rep. Patrick Abrami, R-Rockingham, for the House Ways and Mean Committee. But whether the bill will primarily help “Main Street small businesses” as Sununu put it, might be open to debate, since it only will help those businesses that are profitable and large enough to clear BPT filing threshold – currently $50,000 gross receipts from all business activities, but about to increase to $92,000 thanks to SB 101, a bill passed by the House by voice vote shortly after it passed SB 3. (Source: NH Business Review)

7. Lawmakers Endorse $150 Million in Federal Grants. The plans state agencies have to spend nearly $150 million in aid from the federal American Rescue Plan cleared a House-Senate budget oversight committee Tuesday. The grants include $50 million for water infrastructure projects, $13 million to provide more mental health treatment and $22 million to upgrade state parks. The only item that attracted any debate on the Legislative Fiscal Committee was whether the federal relief law allows the state to spend $1.4 million to prosecute allegations of sexual abuse by staff at the former Youth Development Center in Manchester. “The investigation and prosecution of the alleged criminal acts at the YDC is likely to be the largest single criminal investigation and prosecution in the history of the state,” Attorney General John Formella wrote in this request to the Legislative Fiscal Committee. “The work associated with these efforts presents the department with a significant, but one-time need, for new temporary staff.” State Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, questioned whether this prosecution would qualify for federal support. “Isn’t there some concern there could be a clawback if we try to spend the money in this manner?” D’Allesandro asked. State revenue loss permits using grant to prosecute abuse. Formella said the federal grant permits states to spend money to deal with the estimated loss of $130 million in revenue that occurred due to COVID-19. “We are confident that this spending would qualify but only for this revenue loss category,” Formella said. (Source: Union Leader)

8. Fauci Warns COVID-19 Variant 1st Detected in India Still a Threat to US. COVID-19 variants are still threatening to spread in the U.S., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci warned Tuesday, saying the possible threat of variants is a reason more Americans need to get vaccinated. Case rates have continued to decline in the U.S. as more Americans get vaccinated, overall cases have declined 94% since January and the number of new cases is at the lowest amount since March 2020. But Fauci said that doesn't mean there isn't a risk of variants like the one that devastated India and spread to the U.K., causing more serious illness and increased risk of hospitalizations in the U.S. President Joe Biden tweeted about the risk from the variant saying "If you’re young and haven’t gotten your shot yet, it really is time. It’s the best way to protect yourself and those you love." (Source: ABC News)

9. NH Ranks #15 in ‘Back to Normal Index’. America is not yet back to its pre-pandemic normal, but some states are already doing better economically than they were before COVID, according to the Back-to-Normal Index created by CNN and Moody's Analytics. South Dakota, Florida, Rhode Island, Nebraska and Idaho are all thriving, operating at or above where their economies were in early March 2020 before the pandemic forced businesses to shutter and workers and students to stay home. The index is composed of a basket of economic indicators that includes unemployment rates, claims for jobless benefits, consumer spending and consumer behavior. South Dakota's economy is at 106% of its pre-pandemic strength, according to the index, while Florida's economy is at 101%. The other three states are operating at 100% of pre-Covid level. At 95%, New Hampshire ranks #15 on the list. (Source: CNN)

10. The Shot And A Shave: Inside A COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic At A Nashua Barbershop. The strength of interpersonal relationships brings people into smaller clinics like the one at La Fama 2 Barbershop in Nashua. These sites are becoming more important to Nashua's vaccination effort, especially as new vaccination rates slow down, and visits to mass vaccination sites slow to a trickle. As of Sunday, June 6, 43.9% of Hillsborough County was fully vaccinated, which is lower than the state rate of 50.7%. Lilo Almonte, La Fama’s owner, knew his barbershop could help. When a community health worker asked if he was interested in hosting a clinic, Almonte said yes. He started spreading the word. “A lot of people probably feel shy or scared, to take themselves to the hospital, to the clinic, but they say, ‘Oh we're going to the barbershop? We're going to be with the barber? That'll be fine!’” Almonte says. This past Saturday afternoon, 17 people got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is offered as a single dose. “They trust their friends, they trust their family, and if they’re seeing their friends and family go ahead and get vaccinated, they’re more likely to do that too if they were a little hesitant,” says Jennifer Swabowicz, a public health nurse. It helps too, she says, that the city’s public health team has seven bilingual community health workers who can answer questions in several languages. Swabowicz and her colleague, Silvia Petuck, brought along vaccine FAQs in Portugese and Spanish to La Fama. These small clinics at La Fama have been the most successful of Nashua’s recent efforts, says Swaboicz. She says at least 35 people got vaccinated there in the past three weeks. (Source: NHPR)

11. Keene State Grad Wants COVID Disciplinary Action Removed from Record. A Massachusetts man who recently graduated from Keene State College is suing the school because he was disciplined for a violation of the school’s COVID-19 protocols. Matthew Cote, of Haverhill, Mass., is seeking $100,000 in damages, to have the record of his probation at the school removed, as well as a letter of apology from the college sent to his family. Cote was disciplined for violating the college’s COVID testing rules. Judge David Ruoff heard arguments Tuesday on the school’s motion to dismiss the case, and the lawsuit is pending his ruling. (Source: Union Leader)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 8, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Tuesday, June 8

For the three day period ranging from Friday to Sunday, New Hampshire public health officials announced two additional deaths and 134 new cases. As of Monday, there were 353 active cases statewide and 27 were hospitalized. Worth noting is this is the first time active cases have been below 400 since October 1. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Tuesday.

1. Portsmouth Ends Mask Mandate—Effective Immediately. The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to repeal the city’s mask mandate ordinance. “I think Portsmouth is going to be a very happy city tomorrow morning,” Mayor Rick Becksted said after the council’s vote pass a third reading and immediately repeal the mandate, which had been enacted in September 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. City businesses have reported they are starting to see fewer customers because Portsmouth’s mask mandate had remained in effect while other communities revoked their mandates, said Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine. “We are losing business. That’s the message that we’re hearing,” Splaine said. “We’re beginning to look kind of foolish by continuing it.” City Councilor John Tabor made a motion to amend the repeal of the ordinance so the mask mandate would stay in place indoors only until June 30. That motion failed 8-1, with Tabor casting the only yes vote. Tabor pointed to the recommendations by City Health Officer Kim McNamara, along with the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Reopening Portsmouth and the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Health, to keep the indoor mask mandate in place until June 30. Elsewhere on the seacoast, Exeter and Newmarket have also ended their mandates and Durham has scaled back its mandate. (Source: Seacoast Online)

2. Manchester Ends Mask Mandate in Schools. The mask mandate in Manchester’s Public Schools has been lifted following a phone poll of the Manchester Board of School Committee on Sunday. Effective immediately, masks are only required when moving about the building, although anyone may still wear a mask if they desire. Social distancing and other layered COVID-19 mitigation strategies will still be in place. (Source: Manchester Ink Link)

3. As More Teens Hospitalized, CDC Urges Parents To Get Their Kids A COVID Shot. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging parents to get their teenagers vaccinated against COVID-19 after an alarming spike in hospitalizations among young coronavirus patients. About 24% of kids ages 12 to 17 have received at least one dose. Before most were eligible for the vaccine, about one-third of teens who were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 wound up in the intensive care unit, according to the CDC. Nearly 5% of those cases were put on respirators. None of the patients died. CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy said she is "deeply concerned by the numbers of hospitalized adolescents." "Much of this suffering can be prevented," she said, touting the vaccine and other safety precautions. (Source: CBS News)

4. N.H. Looked Like a Leader on COVID-19 Vaccines. But ‘Data Errors’ Might Have Inflated Its Progress. Over the last few months, Gov. Chris Sununu and other state leaders eagerly touted New Hampshire’s apparently booming COVID-19 vaccination rate. They pointed to a range of numbers — the percent of New Hampshire’s population with at least one shot, the speed at which the state was using up its vaccine supply — to portray the state as a leader in the race out of the pandemic. Until recently, the data appeared to support Sununu’s claims. After a lagging start earlier this year, New Hampshire’s vaccine numbers shot up quickly in early April — helping it leapfrog over other states to claim the fastest vaccination rate in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But as state officials were boasting about New Hampshire’s progress, the state’s own vaccine totals veered widely from those reported by the CDC. Throughout much of April and early May, the CDC reported more than 100,000 more first-dose recipients in New Hampshire than the state was reporting on its vaccine dashboard. Then, throughout most of May, the CDC was reporting far fewer fully vaccinated people in New Hampshire than the state’s own dashboard. When asked about differences in vaccine data, state leaders said they had no control over and little insight into where the CDC was getting its numbers. According to federal data, at least 60 percent of the state’s population had received at least one dose as of May 6. But within a day, the state’s totals on that same metric dropped substantially in the CDC’s vaccine tracker. And in the last month, New Hampshire’s vaccine numbers as reported by the CDC have been revised downward several times, which means that the state might not have been as far in front of the rest of the country as it previously appeared on several measures of its vaccine progress. In a note, the CDC said the correction was due to the state and agency "collaboratively correcting data transmission errors." Three weeks later, New Hampshire’s data was revised downward again. This time, the CDC said the change was due to "an error in data processing." Other states don’t appear to have seen the same kind of revisions, according to the CDC’s records. In both cases, the changes shifted New Hampshire’s vaccination totals substantially. The most recent data from the CDC’s vaccine tracker shows that about 60 percent of New Hampshire residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine as of June 3. That was the same number originally reported for New Hampshire at the end of April, before its numbers were revised downward. New Hampshire has also seen a big decrease in the speed at which it’s using the doses shipped here by the federal government. On the positive side, the state has appeared to pull ahead in terms of the number of people who are fully vaccinated — now ranking near the top of the country, according to the CDC’s numbers. It’s not clear if the jump in that metric is at all related to the decreases in first doses. Data revisions aren’t the only thing leveling off New Hampshire’s vaccine numbers. Here, as in other states across the country, the rate of new vaccinations is plateauing. With traffic slowing at its once-bustling mass vaccination sites, the state is shifting its focus away from large-scale clinics and instead trying to focus even more intently on reaching out in smaller settings to people who haven’t yet had a chance to get their vaccines. (Source: NHPR) Elsewhere on the COVID data front, on Monday, New Hampshire health officials told WMUR that daily COVID-19 data for Saturdays and Sundays will no longer be reported over the weekend. The daily updates—which include new cases, additional deaths, active cases, and hospitalizations—have been a fixture since the early days of the pandemic. Data for Saturday and Sundays will continue to be collected. But it won’t be reported until Monday. (Source: WMUR)

5. $161 Million in Federal COVID Aid to Be Distributed This Week. The Legislative Fiscal Committee is set to distribute $161.4 million in federal funds to 11 state agencies this week – money that was allocated to New Hampshire through the American Rescue Plan. All told, $960 million will be directed to state government, along with $264 million to the ten counties and $194 million to cities and towns. At the state level, the largest share, $50 million, is earmarked for the Department of Environmental Services, where it will be applied to improving drinking and wastewater infrastructure. The Information Technology Department will receive $30 million to offset costs incurred in addressing the pandemic and for professional services for installing hardware and software hardware as well as addressing cybersecurity. (Source: NH Business Review) The agencies have been directed by Gov. Sununu to ask for permission from the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee on Tuesday to spend the federal aid. This marks the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit—and the governor took executive power to spend federal aid—that there will be legislative oversight of grant dollars. On a related front, Sununu increased the incentive for legislative leaders to come together on a compromise $13.5 billion state budget in the coming weeks. The governor confirmed his willingness to end the COVID-19 state of emergency if agreement is reached on the two-year spending blueprint. In April, Sununu said he would veto the House version of the plan because it proposed to terminate every emergency after 21 days and then force a future governor to ask permission from the Legislature to renew it. Sununu instead supports the language the Senate adopted, which would lengthen all emergencies from 21 to 30 days and allow a governor to renew them as Sununu has done nearly 20 times due to COVID. The Senate language would also permit the Legislature, by majority vote, to repeal any executive order a governor signs. (Source: Union Leader)

6. NH Congressional Delegation Announces $24.5M Will Go to Medically Underserved Communities. New Hampshire is getting more than $24.5 million in health-related COVID-19 funds to assist medically underserved communities, the state’s congressional delegation said Friday. The funds are coming from the federal relief package approved in December and will help communities of color and rural areas, the delegation said in a news release. The funds will allow the state Department of Health and Human Services to boost COVID-19 testing and contact tracing capabilities, as well as improve data collection and empower community partners to address health disparities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated serious barriers and inequities in New Hampshire’s health care system that face our rural families and communities of color,” U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said. “As a result, these Granite Staters have borne the brunt of this public health emergency with a disproportionate share of our state’s COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.” (Source: Concord Monitor)

7. A Lifeline For The Unemployed Is About To End In Half Of U.S. Here's What's At Stake. The United States is about to embark on a big national experiment with 4 million unemployed workers serving as guinea pigs. And it all centers on $300 a week. The payment was intended as a lifeline for millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic: an extra $300 a week on top of regular unemployment benefits. But now 25 Republican governors say the payments must end, with four states acting as early as this week. With vaccines rolling out and the economy reopening fast, they believe the payments are discouraging people from looking for work, leaving businesses begging and job openings unfilled. Half the states — including New Hampshire — are cutting off enhanced unemployment benefits in the coming weeks in hopes of pushing people back to work. The other 25 states will keep paying out the enhanced benefits through early September as Congress intended. The actions are raising the ire of many Democratic lawmakers. They believe there's no concrete evidence to suggest the enhanced benefits are preventing people from returning to work. Economists are divided over how the premature end to benefits might affect hiring in the months to come. The job search website Indeed did see an increase in traffic from states that announced an early cut to benefits, but it was modest — about 5% — and faded quickly. It's also unclear what kind of impact on consumer spending the end of the $300 a week payment will have. Those who lose the enhanced benefit will have less to spend in their communities, though that could be made up if they rejoin the workforce. (Source: NHPR)

8. Maine Reports Fewest COVID-19 Cases in Nearly 8 Months. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 30 new cases of the virus. It was the lowest daily total since October. Maine trails only Vermont and Massachusetts in its percentage of the population that has been fully vaccinated against coronavirus. About 54% of the state has been full vaccinated. Monday’s low total number of new COVID-19 cases arrived as the state continued a steady downward trend in new cases that began weeks ago. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has fallen over the past two weeks, going from about 180 new cases per day on May 22 to about 70 new cases per day on June 5. (Source: NECN)

9. How Does COVID-19 End In the US? Likely With a Death Rate Americans Are Willing to 'Accept'. What does the end of COVID-19 in America look like? Perhaps no end at all, but a resigned acceptance of a bearable level of death. "We as a country are willing to tolerate a certain level of risk and still go about a normal level of life," said Dr. Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine. "It's becoming clear that that's likely what we're going to have to do with COVID. We're going to have to learn to live with it." In a "good" flu season, nearly 100 Americans a day might die of influenza, Carroll said at an American Public Health Association panel recently. That 100 deaths a day during flu season is what Americans tolerate, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco. "So it's probably what we'd accept for COVID," she said. As of June 3, COVID-19 was killing an average of 363 Americans a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's down from more than 3,000 a day at the height of the pandemic in January. (Source: USA Today)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 5, 6, 7, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Sunday, June 6

Sources: Interactive Graphic: CNN; Data: Johns Hopkins University Centers for Civic Impact

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services did not provide an update for Saturday. On Friday, one additional person died from COVID-19 and 61 new cases were announced. Hospitalizations stood at 32 and there were 402 active cases across the state. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Sunday.

1. Portsmouth City Council Votes Monday on Ending Mask Mandate, City Budget, Accepting More Federal Funds—And More. Monday night at 7 p.m. the Portsmouth City Council will meet to consider a new budget—and ending the city’s mask mandate. Also on the agenda: a public hearing on establishing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, recognition of the key role Portsmouth Firefighters and the City Health Office played in the city’s COVID vaccination efforts, and a vote to accept the second half of funds from the federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. $6,441,140 has already been deposited in a special revenue fund. While Portsmouth won’t be required to submit a formal Recovery Plan Performance Report to the Department of the Treasury, the city, like all recipients of the funds, must create a plan for how the funds can best serve the community. Councilors will meet in person, but public participation will be by Zoom only. (Source: City of Portsmouth)

2. New England's Success Against COVID-19 Could Be a Model. Massachusetts and the rest of New England — the most heavily vaccinated region in the U.S. — are giving the rest of the country a possible glimpse of the future if more Americans get their shots. COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the region have been steadily dropping as more than 60% of residents in all six states have received at least one dose of the vaccine. The Deep South states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, in comparison, are the least vaccinated at around 35%, and new cases relative to the population are generally running higher there than in most of New England. Nationally, about 50% of Americans have received at least one shot. In Massachusetts, health officials this past week determined that none of the state’s cities and towns are at high risk for the spread of COVID-19 for the first time since they started issuing weekly assessments last August. In Rhode Island, coronavirus hospitalizations have hit their lowest levels in about eight months. New Hampshire is averaging about a death a week after peaking at about 12 a day during the virus’s winter surge. And Vermont, the most heavily vaccinated state in the U.S. at more than 70%, went more than two weeks without a single reported coronavirus death. One thing the region appears to have done right: It was generally slower than other parts of the country to expand vaccine eligibility and instead concentrated more on reaching vulnerable groups of people, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director under President Barack Obama. (Source: Associated Press) New England leaders for the most part also embraced the recommendations of public health experts over economic priorities throughout the pandemic, said Dr. Albert Ko, who chairs the epidemiology department at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut.

3. Current Pace of COVID-19 Vaccinations Could Mean US Will Not Reach President Biden's July 4 Goal. The U.S. is in danger of not meeting President Joe Biden's July 4 vaccination goal. Biden wants at least 70% of all adults (i.e. those aged 18 and above) to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by that date. An examination of the latest stats and polling reveals that if we continue on the current trajectory, we will not reach Biden's goal. The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data reveals that the vaccination rate is really slowing down. As of the CDC's June 3 report, 63% of adults had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That was up slightly from 62% from the report a week prior (May 27). An additional 1% of adults a week completing their first dose is the lowest since the CDC started tracking this statistic in mid-February. (Source: CNN)

4. VT Health Officials Push to Reach Those Still Not Vaccinated Against COVID-19. Even as the Twin State economy continues to reopen from the worst of the pandemic, some people remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, including the majority of those age 29 and younger. Because young people in the Twin States’ became eligible for vaccination later than older ones, they have had less time to get the jab. The youngest, those under 12, remain ineligible. Dr. Michael Calderwood, chief quality officer and infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said he’s “a little concerned” about the rates of vaccination among young people in the Twin States and around the country. Nationally, just 20% of those ages 12-15 have had at least one dose; 37% of those 16-17; 44% of those 18-24 and almost 50% of those 25-39, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While Calderwood said vaccine mandates may make sense in certain settings such as schools where children are required to have other vaccines, he said he’d prefer to start by getting people to step up voluntarily. “I think we’re doing very well,” she said during a Thursday news conference. “It will improve with time.” On Friday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott announced a slew of pop-up, walk-in vaccination clinics, including one in Windsor and another in Sharon that were held on Friday, aimed at getting at least a first dose to 80% of Vermonters 12 and older. Shots also are available on a walk-in basis in Vermont at a number of pharmacies, including CVS, Hannaford, Walmart, Walgreens, Price Chopper, Rite Aid, Shaw’s and Costco. Meanwhile, the Woodstock Inn hosted a second on-site COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Thursday, one of a series of clinics organized in conjunction with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, and the Vermont Department of Health to target workers in the hospitality industry around the state. Beth Daly, chief of the New Hampshire Bureau of Infectious Disease Control, said Thursday that she’s not worried about the rates of young people stepping up to get vaccinated in New Hampshire, noting that the youngest, ages 12-15, only became eligible last month. (Source: The Valley News)

5. COVID-19 Vaccines Administered at Keene Swamp Bats Game. Baseball fans headed to the Keene Swamp Bats game Friday night got an added bonus — a COVID-19 vaccine. The gates opened at 5 p.m., and anyone with a $5 general admission ticket could also get vaccinated. The Greater Monadnock Public Health Network partnered with the Keene Swamp Bats to make the event happen. It's one of several pop-up clinics the network is holding throughout the community in the coming days. Organizers said they have 50 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and 50 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, some of which will be reserved for children ages 12-17 because that's the only vaccine authorized for that age group. (Source: WMUR)

6. Earlier Error in CDC Vaccination Numbers Inflated NH Totals. A month ago, the number of vaccinated people in New Hampshire reported by the federal Centers for Disease Control was dramatically higher than the state’s own estimates. A major reason for this discrepancy was double-reporting of numbers by CVS and Walgreens, the two pharmacy chains that carried out vaccine delivery in long-term care settings.NDr. Beth Daly, director of the state’s infectious disease control bureau, said the pharmacies supplied the vaccine numbers to the state and then separately gave them to the CDC, which ended up inflating the state’s total. “We reached out to the folks at CDC and resolved that problem,” Daly said. (Source: Union Leader)

7. NH Hospitals Find Silver Linings in Pandemic That Cost Them Millions. A global pandemic that cost hospitals millions of dollars in lost revenue, inundated emergency rooms, and stretched staff to their limits also had some positives. Revolutionizing the way medical providers think about healthcare may be one of them. Matthew Gibb, the Chief Clinical Officer at Concord Hospital, said during the last year, necessity drove hospitals to rapidly innovate to adapt to the coronavirus. “I think healthcare is going to change permanently in a good way, in many ways because of COVID,” he said. In addition to quickly setting up telehealth services that hospital administrators hope will outlast the pandemic, he said the emergency brought together groups that had previously been operating in parallel. “We had teams that were in silos, that all of a sudden were forced to work together to figure out a workflow that was collaborative and less geographically focused,” he said. Concord Hospital built relationships with state health agencies and other hospitals to strategize their response to the pandemic. He said those inroads have made tackling other state-wide issues, like the behavioral health crisis, a collaborative effort rather than a problem that each organization addressed separately. However, other long-term issues—such as problems hiring nursing staff—were exacerbated by the pandemic and may require less conventional thinking to solve. (Source: Concord Monitor)

8. At Dartmouth College, First-Year Suicides a Grim Reminder of a Year of Loneliness. Last fall, amid a global pandemic, Beau DuBray took his dream of helping to bridge the cultural gap to Hanover, N.H., where he began his studies at Dartmouth College. In November, he took his own life. Six months later, his family and friends are still trying to understand the mental health struggles he faced, as are the loved ones of two other first-year students who also died of suicide this year at Dartmouth, an unusually high number of such deaths in a single year. The deaths have devastated the small Ivy League campus of about 4,000 and sparked deep outrage among students, who say the school’s mental health resources have been woefully inadequate during an academic year blighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In op-eds and makeshift memorials and red paint splattered on the driveway of the college president’s home, students are ending the year in grief-stricken protest, criticizing the school for what they say were overly strict social safety protocols that failed to take into account the deep toll they took on students’ psychological health. Among colleges’ many fall worries: students’ mental health. “It was isolation like I’d never known isolation,” said Robert Abel, a Dartmouth first-year from New York. Now, as the pandemic winds down and vaccination rates soar on campuses, Dartmouth and other schools are assessing the damage caused by pandemic distancing and taking steps to help students heal. But many undergraduates say it is too little — and, for some, too late. (Source: The Boston Globe) In related news, Dartmouth officials ended the college’s mask mandate on Friday citing climbing vaccination numbers. (Source: The Dartmouth)

9. Demand For Motorcycles Revs Up During Pandemic. Motorcycles have been a hot item during the pandemic, along with other recreational vehicles and boats. The Manchester Harley dealership saw sales jump from 560 bikes in 2019 to 1,330 in 2020. This year it’s on pace to sell about 1,800 bikes.“We’ve certainly seen an uptick in first-time riders,” said Matty Laughlin, general manager of Manchester Harley-Davidson, which saw the most sales of any dealership for three months in a row. The dealership expects to be one of the top-performing in the country. Last year, it was second to a store in Riverside, Calif. New Hampshire saw a significant jump in motorcycle registrations this year — 82,810 compared with 76,767 last year — a 7.6% increase, according to the Division of Motor Vehicles. Between 2019 and 2020, registrations inched up about 1.5%. (Source: Union Leader)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 4, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Friday, June 4

On Thursday, New Hampshire public health officials announced one additional death and 77 new cases of COVID-19. Active cases statewide stood at 423 and 36 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 Friday.

1. Some NH Businesses Will Have to Return Cares Act Funds Awarded in 2020. The federal government is clawing back some of the $600 million in CARES Act funds the state distributed to businesses last year, Gov. Chris Sununu announced Thursday at his regular press conference. Companies that anticipated but did not realize a COVID-19 loss must now return those funds, the Treasury has said, but Sununu said the state is creating a program, approved by the feds, that will allow those businesses to deduct COVID-19 related expenses – from training staff to buying plexiglass barriers – as a way to allow them to keep some or all of that money. During discussions earlier this week with the Federal Treasury Department, Sununu said he got definitive word that the government will not allow businesses to keep COVID-19 relief money if they did not experience a projected loss. The requirement means that the state will have to collect for businesses that received better than anticipated revenues in 2020. (Source: InDepthNH)

2. ‘Main Street’ Aid Bill Defeated in NH House. Businesses that opened within nine months of COVID-19 or during the pandemic were not eligible for federal “Main Street” aid last year. The Senate had voted 23-1 to lift that deadline for future rounds of aid. But New Hampshire House said no Thursday, following the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee’s 11-7 recommendation that the bill be voted inexpedient to legislate. Opponents said Senate Bill 107 was irrelevant because future aid will be governed by federal rules, not state rules. Supporters argued the existing deadlines unfairly excluded businesses that have been no less hurt than the nearly 7,600 businesses that received aid from the Main Street Relief Fund. (Source: New Hampshire Bulletin) Every Democrat with one exception opposed killing the bill. Five Republicans joined them, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the votes of the 188 who didn’t as the bill fell 194-176.

3. Governor Has No Plans for Vaccination Incentives as COVID-19 Numbers Continue to Fall. COVID-19 cases continue to decline in New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday he sees no reason for the state to create incentives for more people to get vaccinated. New Hampshire is routinely among the top states in the percentage of people getting vaccinated. Sununu said that shows the state doesn't need to use giveaways or lotteries to boost vaccinations, like some other states have. "To say we're now going to pay you to get a vaccine you otherwise wouldn't be getting, that's not where I am," Sununu said. At the same press conference, Sununu said it's likely the state will see another COVID-19 surge in the fall, but he expects it to be somewhat kept in check by the vaccine. He noted that people might need vaccine booster doses to maintain their protection, but it's unclear when boosters might be needed. (Source: WMUR)

4. ‘Vaccine Freedom’ Amendment Narrowly Defeated in NH House Along with Extending Remote Access to Government Meetings. A bill codifying several COVID emergency orders passed the House, 271-97, after the “vaccine freedom” amendment was defeated. Senate Bill 155-FN contains various sections, codifying emergency orders that stem from the pandemic. This includes establishing temporary health partners, and clarifying licensing of certain medical providers. It also authorizes pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to administer COVID tests and vaccines. There is also language about outdoor dining measures and the use of summer camps. But the most contentious part of the bill came in the form of a non-germane amendment from Rep. Terry Roy (R-Deerfield) that would have banned public and private entities from requiring that employees, customers, or anyone else receive a vaccine. Rep. William Marsh, a Wolfeboro Republican, spoke in opposition to the amendment, which would apply to other vaccines beyond those used to prevent COVID. “Medically, this amendment makes no sense,” said Marsh, who is an ophthalmologist. “We all want to return to normal where people can again have large group gatherings of voluntary gathering of people who share the knowledge that they’ve been vaccinated.” Meanwhile, the House cut out language From Senate Bill 95-FN that would have extended remote access to government meetings through July 1, 2022, instead turning the omnibus proposal into a study commission about remote meetings. Rep. Joe Alexander, a Goffstown Republican, said that while remote meetings have helped the government navigate the pandemic, “the idea of having meetings with no physical location invites many problems, such as having a handful of protesters disrupt the meeting, and forcing an adjournment.” Rep. Timothy Horrigan, a Durham Democrat, said that the remote meetings have been “one of the few things in the emergency orders that people have liked.” He was in favor of keeping remote meetings until the later date. (Sources: InDepthNH and New Hampshire Bulletin) During public hearings, many members of the public testified in favor of continuing to allow governmental bodies to have the option of holding meetings remotely because of the greater access to government it provides to working people and those with child care issues who are often unable to attend in-person. Among the bills up for votes when the House meets Friday are a measure that would treat all income from the forgiven Paycheck Protection Plan loans as not taxable under New Hampshire statutes and legislation that would freeze New Hampshire’s tipped minimum wage at $3.27 regardless of any raises to the federal minimum wage.

5. Dartmouth, SNHU Sign on to President Biden's Vaccination Challenge. At least two New Hampshire colleges have signed on to a White House initiative to get more people vaccinated. That idea was announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden, who called for a national month of action to get at least 70% of American adults vaccinated with at least one shot by July 4. Nationally, about 63% of adults have at least one shot. The Biden administration is focusing on higher education with the COVID-19 College Vaccination Challenge. The campaign involves three key commitments: Making sure all members of a campus know they're eligible to get the vaccine and know how to get one, implementing a plan to get as many members vaccinated as possible, and bringing vaccines on site. In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College and Southern New Hampshire University have signed on. SNHU also hosts one of the state-run vaccination sites. College officials said the challenge is a chance to reinforce vaccine acceptance and get back to pre-pandemic life on campus. (Source: WMUR)

6. Sununu Willing to Trade Vaccines for Border Reopening. With the summer tourism season fast approaching, Governor Chris Sununu says he’s been in talks with Canadian officials and other local governors about reopening the border. The decision is ultimately up to the governments of both countries, not local officials. Sununu says he’s willing to share the state’s COVID-19 vaccine supply with Canada if it will help speed the border opening. (Source: NHPR)

7. New COVID Outbreak Strikes Rochester Long-Term Care Facility. Lori Shibinette, commissioner of the state Health and Human Services Department, announced a new outbreak on Thursday at Birch Healthcare Center in Rochester involving 18 residents and three staff. She said the state was closing the outbreak at the federal prison in Berlin and noted one active case remaining at the Sullivan County nursing home. (Source: InDepthNH)

8. State Continues Implementation of Vaccine Registry. New Hampshire is moving forward with implementing a vaccine registry, becoming the last state to implement a tool that health officials said could have been helpful during the pandemic. New Hampshire had to scramble when COVID-19 hit because the state was the only in the nation not to have a registry. Public health officials said that if they had their way, the state would have had a registry decades ago. It's now something community providers of vaccines will be using going forward despite, and because of, the pandemic. Such registries were available in every state except New Hampshire until last spring. After decades of planning, delayed by privacy concerns, the rollout of the Immunization Information System coincided with the pandemic. "In New Hampshire, we didn't have a registry to rely on. so we implemented other systems like the CDC's VAMS, and we created VINI quickly to be able to serve in this function because the registry wasn't quite ready yet," said Dr. Beth Daly, chief of the Bureau of Infectious Disease Control. There is still a lot of logistical work ahead to get systems to interface properly, officials said. "It's a very exciting opportunity for us here in New Hampshire to bring us in line with the 21st century, in terms of the electronic availability of information," Daly said. (Source: WMUR)

9. Lebanon Eases Mask Mandate for Vaccinated People at Some Workplaces, Farmers Market; Portsmouth to Revisit mask Mandate on Monday. People in Lebanon can now go without masks at the Lebanon Farmers Market, although the city is still encouraging those who are unvaccinated to wear them, city officials said. The Lebanon City Council on Wednesday night also amended part of the city’s mask ordinance to allow business owners and building managers to waive masking and social distancing requirements for people who are fully vaccinated if they do not interact with members of the public. Employees or volunteers who are not fully vaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown are also still required to wear masks. (Source: The Valley News) In Portsmouth, the city council will consider repealing Portsamouth’s mask mandate when it meets Monday, June 7. The council is also planning to recognize the efforts of city firefighters and Health Department staff during the pandemic. (Source: City of Portsmouth)

10. Portsmouth's Spinnaker Point Recreation Center to Reopen. The city announced it will reopen the popular Spinnaker Point Recreation Center on Monday. City staff had previously said the 18 and over recreation center – which has been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic - might not reopen until September because of ventilation issues inside the facility, which needed a new $520,000 HVAC system to fix. But city staff identified a less expensive fix to the system, the city announced, allowing for Spinnaker Point to reopen safely Monday. The repairs “allow the air-handling system to function without the significant and unbudgeted investment that was originally anticipated to improve or replace it,” according to a press release from the city. (Source: Seacoast Online)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 3, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 2, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Wednesday, June 2

The 7-day moving average of daily vaccinations in the US has dropped nearly 2/3 from its high point in early April. (Source: CDC)

On Tuesday, New Hampshire public health officials announced 33 new cases and no additional COVID-19 deaths. Active cases statewide stood at 499 and hospitalizations at 26— the lowest number of hospitalized Granite Staters since Oct. 26. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Wednesday.

1. COVID-19 Vaccinations in New Hampshire Shift to Doctor's Offices, Pharmacies. Granite Staters getting the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine can no longer go to the fixed state sites as inoculations shift to doctor's offices and pharmacies. Health officials say the emphasis is now on providers helping patients who might be hesitant to get vaccinated. But where they'll get the vaccine is determined by who is able to store it. State-run sites will only be providing second doses through the end of June as vaccine distribution moves to the private sector. "That will include physician offices, primary care practices, urgent care settings, community health centers," said Jim Potter, CEO and executive vice president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. "Pharmacies will continue, as well." Some providers, such as those affiliated with Portsmouth Hospital, Frisbie Memorial Hospital and Parkland Medical Center will rely on pharmacies. "Our job is really to answer questions for our patients, make sure they feel comfortable with it, understand the benefits of it because it really is a gamechanger," said Dr. Travis Harker, chief medical officer for Appledore Medical Group. Providers that administer vaccines need to know how to store them and also how to report vaccinations. The state's vaccine registry, or Immunization Information System, is new, and health officials said all providers will eventually need to learn to use it. They will be able to apply for federal funds to help starting July 1. (Source: WMUR) Meanwhile, CVS locations throughout New Hampshire have begun vaccinating eligible individuals. Walk-ins are accepted, depending on availability. But appointments can also be made by registering in advance at CVS.com, through the CVS app or by calling 800-746-7287. Walgreens and Rite Aid have also started offering vaccinations along with participating independent pharmacies. (Source: WMUR) CVS is offering incentives to eligible customers who get a coronavirus vaccination at one of its pharmacies, including luxury vacations, cruises, concert tickets, a Super Bowl trip and other prizes. (Source: NECN)

2. NH Catholic Schools to Implement 'Parent Choice' Mask Policy for 2021-2022 Academic Year. Catholic schools in New Hampshire will implement a “parent choice” mask policy for the 2021-2022 academic year, the Diocese of Manchester announced Tuesday. “Parents throughout our system of Catholic schools will have the flexibility and freedom to make their own decisions on whether or not they want their child to wear a mask at school, and the same is true for our teachers and staff, ”said Alison Mueller, Director of Marketing, Enrollment, and Development for Catholic schools. While masks will be optional, COVID-19 mitigation efforts including air purifiers in the classroom will remain moving forward. (Source: Union Leader) Two Catholic schools in Keene have also announced a similar policy. (Source: Keene Sentinel)

3. Portsmouth City Council Accelerates Mask Mandate Repeal Process. The City Council voted unanimously to pass a first reading and schedule second reading and public hearing on June 7 of an ordinance to repeal the city’s mask mandate. Portsmouth’s mask ordinance, which at this point is still in effect until June 30, 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.” Portsmouth Mayor Rick Becksted has previously said the council can vote to suspend the rules at its June 7 meeting, so it can pass both second and third reading of the ordinance to repeal the mask mandate if it chooses. If that happened, he said, the mask mandate would end immediately. However, City Health Officer Kim McNamara has recommended keeping the indoor mask mandate in place until June 30. (Source: Seacoast Online)

4. Manchester Aldermen Vote to Rescind Mask Resolution Effective Immediately. Manchester aldermen on Tuesday voted unanimously to rescind effective immediately a resolution requiring people to wear masks inside public places and outside when closer than 6 feet. The vote came after Manchester Health Director Anna Thomas said she would support rescinding the mandate, passed in November 2020, based on current COVID-19 case numbers and data. According to Thomas, there are 61,956 Manchester residents registered in the state’s VINI vaccination registration system as of last Thursday. Of those, 52,000 have received their first or only dose of COVID-19 vaccine, if they received the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccine. “We’re trying to get that number up to 98,000,” said Thomas. Manchester’s total population is around 112,000 residents, added Thomas. Thomas encouraged anyone who has not been fully vaccinated to continue wearing masks indoors, or when they can’t social distance. “We want to continue to encourage everyone to get vaccinated at this point,” said Thomas.(Source: Union Leader)

5. Paycheck Protection Program Ends. The Paycheck Protection Program, which began with such a bang at the beginning of the pandemic, ended with quiet whimper on June 1, when the Small Business Administration stopped taking applications altogether. While the final numbers are not in, the program has thus far pumped nearly $3.72 billion dollars to more than 25,000 New Hampshire businesses, as of Memorial Day. The program ended just before the New Hampshire House is scheduled to consider a bill that would exempt the loan proceeds from taxation under the business profits tax. The federal government already exempts the income from taxation, a practice most states adopted since they automatically update their tax code to match the Internal Revenue Service. New Hampshire, however, updates its code manually, and thus has to vote to exempt tax forgiven loans. The House Ways and Means Committee unanimously recommended the full House do just that. The vote will probably take place Friday, sending the bill to Governor Chris Sununu for his signature. (Source: NH Business Review) Despite coming under heavy criticism for loopholes that allowed some large corporations to benefit from funds intended to help small business, the program has been credited with saving millions of jobs and keeping many businesses afloat during the pandemic. In 2020, New Hampshire saw record lows for bankruptcy filings despite pandemic-related closures and restrictions. (Source: NH Business Review)

6. NH Addiction Recovery Workers Seeing More First-Timers and Shift from Opioid to Alcohol Abuse. People working with addiction recovery efforts in New Hampshire say the pandemic has caused extreme isolation and they are seeing a shift in who is asking for help. Dan Cotter of Amatus Recovery Centers said the pandemic has brought new challenges. “Less alumni or second-timers, now you’re seeing more people coming in for the first time entering treatment. In isolation...they found themselves in a place where, ‘OK, now this is becoming a problem’ and those people don’t necessarily know where to go.” Recovery centers have also seen a shift in the types of substances being misused with fewer opiates and more alcohol or amphetamines. “Alcohol is easier to get when you’re isolated at home, alcohol is easier to hide from your family members,” said Matt Bohannon from Blueprint Clinical. Officials encouraged people to keep checking in on friends and family. “Being in recovery myself, it’s all about making that first step and asking for help,” said Bohannon. If you are seeking recovery treatment, you can call 978-810-8298 to have a conversation about next steps or resources. (Source: WMUR)

7. Organizers Cancel 2021 NH Pumpkin Festival. The annual New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival has been canceled for the second consecutive year. The 2021 event will not take place, organizers announced on Tuesday. "There is a tremendous amount of planning that goes into this festival, including securing fundraising and volunteers," Karmen Gifford, president of the Lakes Region Chamber and Official Organizer of the New Hampshire Pumpkin Festival event, said in a news release. Instead, planning for the 2022 festival is already underway. Gifford said businesses are already expressing interest in getting involved with the 2022 event. "We are truly disappointed to wait one more year. The event needs to come back strong. I am definitely excited to announce that we are using this additional time to plan for a bigger festival with more events and opportunities to celebrate fall in New Hampshire. 2022 is going to be spooktacular!" Gifford said in a news release. Next year's event is scheduled for Oct. 14 and 15, 2022. (Source: WMUR)

8. Rural Maine Counties Lag State in COVID-19 Immunizations. Maine has one of the highest rates of coronavirus vaccination in the country, but some of the rural counties in the state lag behind the more populated areas. More than 52% of Maine's population has received a final dose of the vaccine. Like other New England states, Maine has paced the nation in getting the shots to residents. The pace in Maine has been buoyed by a 63% mark in Cumberland County, which is the most populated county in the state and the location of its largest city, Portland. Several rural counties, however, are still below 50%, according to data from the office of Gov. Janet Mills. Somerset County has the lowest rate in the state at about 41%. (Source: Seacoast Online)

9. Vermont Expected to Reach Vaccination Target of 80% of Eligible Residents This Week. Gov. Phil Scott expects Vermont this week to reach 80% of eligible residents getting at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19. The Republican governor has said he will drop the remaining pandemic-related restrictions once the state hits that milestone. Vermont restaurants, bars and social clubs were permitted over the weekend to stay open past 10 p.m. and all Vermont state parks were reopened. As of Thursday, 77% of eligible Vermonters had been vaccinated. (Source: NECN) When ineligible residents (children under age 12) are factored in, the percentage of ALL Vermont residents who have received a first dose drops to 70.7% which is still the highest vaccination percentage of any state in the US. Vermont also leads the US with 56% of its residents now fully vaccinated. In New Hampshire, 60% of residents have received a first dose and 49% are now fully vaccinated. (Source: New York Times Vaccination Monitor)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – June 1, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

Tuesday, June 1

A mask and sunglasses waiting for their owner to return in Prescott Park.

On Monday, New Hampshire public health officials had no updates on COVID-19 numbers in the state because of the Memorial Day holiday. But on Sunday, one additional death was announced along with 48 new cases. There were 476 active cases statewide and 40 people were hospitalized. Here is the rest of the pandemic-related state and regional news you need to know to start your Tuesday.

1. New and Active COVID Cases Continue to Drop As Summer Approaches. With new cases dropping on Sunday to the lowest one-day total since October 4, Dr. John Mendoza, infectious disease specialist for Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, sees good reason for optimism. "Seeing the numbers going in the right direction is always a positive,” he said. Mendoza said he believes numbers around the state will drop even more as we head into summer. But he said there is a chance cases could climb again as we head into the fall. "The goal is to at least get it to the point where it's there, but it's controlled. There will be blips along the way, but hopefully not like what we saw at the beginning of the pandemic,” Mendoza explained. Right now, about 60% of the state's population has received one dose. 48% is fully vaccinated. According to Mendoza, the best way to keep the virus under control is through vaccinations. Starting June 1, state-managed vaccination sites will only offer second dose shots. They will fully close on Wednesday, June 30. (Source: WMUR)

2. COVID Tracker: Lotteries Can Boost Vaccination Because They Aren’t Logical, Just Like Vaccine Hesitation. In its weekly commentary on New Hampshire COVID-19 metrics(which are looking very good of late), the Concord Monitor urges state officials to take a closer look at lotteries and prize drawings as a way to boost the state’s “good-but-not-good-enough vaccination rate.” According to the Monitor, lotteries are a powerful incentive because humans are bad at judging relative risk and rewards. “We’re scared of shark attacks and airplane crashes but don’t think twice about zipping around inside metal boxes carrying 100 pounds of explosive liquid. Similarly, some people are hesitant about getting a COVID-19 vaccine because of incredibly rare side effects or less-than-perfect results, even though they don’t think twice about exposing themselves to a global pandemic that has killed more people than live in all of northern New England and is still raging around the world. In short, many vaccine-hesitant people exaggerate the risk of the shot and downplay the reward.” Lotteries succeed because of a flipped version of that same flaw. “We mentally exaggerate the reward of winning and downplay the risk of wasting money. (Source: Concord Monitor) In Ohio, more than 2.7 million vaccinated adults signed up for the first $1 million prize drawing and more than 104,000 children ages 12 to 17 entered the drawing for the college scholarship, which includes tuition, room and board, and books. Four more $1 million and college scholarship winners will be announced each Wednesday for the next four weeks. (Source: Associated Press) Governor Sununu has been cool to the idea. (Source: Union Leader)

3. Attendees Say Glitches Made For Challenging Virtual Job Fairs. Gov. Chris Sununu decision to end New Hampshire’s participation in federal unemployment benefits on June 19 has left thousands of people trying to find work before the money runs out. But technical challenges hit many of those trying to attend virtual job fairs in their search for work over the past week. Cindy Brenner of Goffstown, who attended a fair Thursday, said while she was able to get into the event, it seemed overloaded. She recalls logging in before the event started, and seeing that over 700 were already in attendance. As she tried to navigate the fair, she said, “It would just shut off completely, so you’d have to go back into the email, and so you’d have to rejoin via the link, and hope that it would put you back at the same place you were.” Many attendees experienced something similar. Others couldn't get in at all, or found themselves stuck in a virtual lobby. Brenner thought the virtual job fairs were a good idea, but said ultimately, she didn’t feel like she was able to make meaningful connections with potential employers. Jennifer St. Gelais of Lochmere felt similarly. She attended a virtual job fair last week, and was a part of a group conversation with an employer hiring for positions at a call center. She said she was in a group with six other people. “We were all muted, and they would let one person unmute to speak.” She says when people in the group tried to ask questions around pay and flexibility with hours, the questions went unanswered. Richard Lavers, deputy commissioner of New Hampshire Employment Security which runs the state’s unemployment system, said they are working on addressing the technical issues. (Source: NHPR)

4. COVID-19 Infection Leaves Big Medical Bills for Some Survivors. While vaccinations and most testing have been available at no charge, treatment costs for people sickened by the virus are a very different story. With the pandemic tidal wave finally receding in the United States, the damage left behind is finally emerging, and the financial toll on families laid bare. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 115 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19, and the full picture of the medical costs and debts facing survivors is still being assessed. Survivors of the virus, like Irina Schulz, a retired Parkinson's and Alzheimer's researcher in South Carolina with nearly $10,000 of credit card debt from medical bills, believe now is the time to make a change, and help the large number of Americans that are struggling financially from medical debt. A 2020 study by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation calculated the potential costs of COVID-19 treatment and care for people that get their insurance through employers. Utilizing data for pneumonia treatment, the study found that people with private insurance who become seriously ill could face out-of-pocket costs of more $1,300. The same study also showed that patient bills are larger for those with severe illness, and found that the need and duration of ventilator support could push into tens of thousands of dollars. Casey Gray, a 29-year old from Florida hospitalized for 75 days, received an eye-popping first bill for $3.4 million dollars. Hospital discounts brought Gray's bill down to $900,000, insurance kicked in, and ultimately left Gray with a final bill of about $10,000 -- still an overwhelming number. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota wants to make sure people don't face unexpected bills if they become sick with COVID-19. Smith has a piece of legislation -- the COVID-19 Treatment Coverage Act -- that has been awaiting review by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions since August 2020. (Source: CNN) In New Hampshire, one family reported receiving $72,000 in medical bills for COVID treatment costs despite the patient being covered by Medicare. (Source: WMUR) While some New Hampshire health insurers voluntarily waived treatment costs earlier in the pandemic, most have resumed charging copayments, deductibles, and coinsurance for those with coverage. (Source: WMUR)

5. Senate Finance Crafts Budget More To Sununu’s Liking. The revised budget approved along party lines by GOP members of the Finance Committee of the New Hampshire State Senate is setting up a showdown with GOP members of the House of Representatives. The Senate budget strips out a controversial abortion defunding provision, tweaks language that bans teaching history and non-discrimination training in schools and state programs in ways that frame racism and discrimination as systemic, and put money back in for several priorities of the governor that the House eliminated. Among them, a controversial school voucher program that would allow public tax dollars to be used for private school tuition, funding for a new secure psychiatric unit on New Hampshire hospital grounds, and for a scaled down family medical leave program. The Senate also managed to find the money to do away with the $50 million across the board cut in the Health and Human Services budget but did not restore all the department’s positions the House removed from the budget. The Finance Committee also took out the House provision requiring the legislature to approve any state of emergency extension beyond the initial 21-day declaration. The Senate will pass its version of the budget package Thursday, but there is a long and winding road ahead before a new biennial budget is approved by lawmakers and sent to the governor. (Source: InDepthNH)

6. Federal Relief Program to Help Feed New Hampshire Families Impacted by Pandemic Ends. A federal relief program that helped feed families impacted by the pandemic ended on Monday, May 31. The USDA 'Farmers to Families' food box program is an emergency relief program that has pumped billions of federal dollars to support farmers and struggling families during the pandemic. Over the past year, 30 pound boxes were handed out at mobile food pantries in the state designed with military precision by the New Hampshire National Guard and implemented by the New Hampshire Food Bank. Nancy Mellitt, director of Development at the New Hampshire Food Bank says, "In November and December we were doing about five mobile food pantries a week". She says private donors have stepped forward to fill the void, and fill food pantries across the state. But individual, business and charity donations are welcome and needed. The organization Feeding America projects about 10% of New Hampshire families are food insecure right now. (Source: WMUR) Meanwhile, a team of volunteers from SEWA International, a Hindu faith-based humanitarian organization, distributed over 1,000 boxes of food in Nashua on Sunday. Volunteers included state representatives Latha Mangipudi and Suzanne Vail. (Source: WMUR)

7. Telehealth Is Here to Stay. New technology that allowed doctors and patients to interact through video screens exploded at the start of the pandemic. Now that many facets of life return to normal, interest in telehealth is waning, and Concord Hospital officials are wrestling with how to keep it as a permanent fixture. Last spring, Concord Hospital went from offering virtually no telehealth services to shifting 60% of their appointments online almost overnight. Since then, telehealth has comprised a smaller portion of the hospital’s total appointments — today, it comprises about 16% of all appointments. Matthew Gibb, the chief clinical officer of Concord Hospital, said this is mostly attributed to in-person services opening back up. Many of the services patients delayed during the pandemic require elements of in-person care. Still, advocates of telehealth say virtual healthcare fills in gaps for patients who have trouble getting access to care in a variety of settings, such as nursing homes, prisons, and rural areas. Robert Steigmeyer, Concord Hospital’s CEO, said the shift to virtual medicine has been long anticipated but slow to realize. The pandemic has pushed slow-moving bureaucracies to make large, but necessary changes. “It’s been a jumpstart to things that we’ve all believed are necessary,” he said. “Many systems struggled with bringing up telehealth and then many systems got it done within 48 hours. And now we find that consumers, patients, communities, appreciate that in a certain way. It needs to be a part of what we do permanently.” (Source: Concord Monitor)

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

• Vaccine Eligibility, Schedule and Registration (make or change vaccination appointments here)

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Update – May 30, 2021

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Overview Dashboard

• NH DHHS COVID-19 Schools Dashboard

• What To Do If You Are Exposed

• Where to Get a Test

• What To Do If You Test Positive

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

• CDC Vaccination Data

• Answers to Top Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

• NHPR COVID Tracking Project

• New York Times Interactive Vaccine Tracker

• New York Times N.H. COVID Maps and Charts

• John’s Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center—NH Page

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