'Our toughest days are still ahead of us'

Gov. Sununu assured residents on Wednesday that for now the state has plenty of hospital beds with close to 5,000 available and about 100 now hospitalized. (Courtesy photo)

CONCORD - With new COVID-19 case numbers showing a decided downturn, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said the news was "incredibly encouraging, but reminded Granite State residents that "we're not sure where we are in the surge and our toughest days are still ahead of us."

His assessment was underscored by the release of five more deaths and news that three long-term care facilities in the state had seen outbreaks of the coronavirus that turned deadly.

The three affected nursing homes are the Huntington at Nashua, Hanover Hill in Manchester and Crotched Mountain of Greenfield.

At Hanover Hill where 37 residents and 13 staff contracted the disease, four have now died. At Huntington at Nashua 19 residents and 11 staff were stricken, while five residents have died.

And at Crotched Mountain the numbers were 11 staff and three residents infected with one resident death.

Shibonette said many other nursing homes in the state have isolated cases but nothing that would be termed "an outbreak."

Sununu reminded everyone that the families who have lost loved one aren't thinking about the lowering of daily case numbers right now and reminded residents that it could get worse before it gets better.

"We hope these numbers decrease but understand we will be in this same process for the next few weeks and next few months," he said.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire will begin releasing age group metrics for the state's confirmed COVID-19 cases next week, the state's DHHS chief said on Wednesday during a press conference in Concord.

The move is seen as a step forward in being more transparent in identifying the true age spectrum for those who have contracted the deadly disease, as argued in a Rochester Voice opinion piece published on April 3.

DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibonette explained that up until now the age metrics numbers were too spotty to include them in daily DHHS updates.

"The small numbers we had were not good for age metrics, but now we have larger numbers for those demographics," Shibonette said in response to a question from The Rochester Voice.

Locally the numbers show Dover with 10-19 cases, Rochester and Barrington with 5-9 and Farmington, Somersworth and Milton with 1-4.

Sununu also expressed frustration from the feds in Washington who promised and delivered a fast-track testing device but few cartridges that are needed for the machine to function.

He said they recently got the machines but they only came with a 120 cartridges, 20 of which have to be used in training personnel how to use it, leaving only 100 for real use. He said the machines would've been useful in the nursing home breakouts because health officials could determine quickly which staff and residents have the virus and could be quarantined or isolated immediately.

Sununu said he suspects the lion's share of the test cartridges are going to states that have a deeper problem like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Sununu also assured residents that for now the state has plenty of hospital bed space and ventilators to take care of those hospitalized.

He said the state currently has close to 5,000 total hospital beds with about 100 residents now hospitalized. He said the number of ventilators is under 1,000, but only about 5 percent of those hospitalized end up on ventilators in an ICU.

Statewide, 41 new cases were reported on Wednesday for a total of 788. Of those with complete information, there is one female under the age of 18 and the rest are adults with 46 percent female and 51 percent male. The new cases reside in Rockingham (13), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (7), Merrimack (4), Carroll (4), Grafton (2), Strafford (2), and Cheshire (1), counties, and in the cities of Manchester (6) and Nashua (2).

Ten new COVID-19-related hospitalizations were reported; thus far, 118 (15%) of the 788 positive cases have been hospitalized.

Seventeen of the new cases have no identified risk factors, meaning community-based transmission continues to increase in the state and has been identified in all counties with cases.

DHHS has also announced five additional deaths related to COVID-19. These were two males and two females all 60 years of age or older from Hillsborough County and one male who was 60 years of age or older from Merrimack County.

In Maine, the total cases rose to 537 with 14 deaths. York County cases went to 121, up six cases from Tuesday.

Other COVID NH numbers

Persons with COVID-19 788

Recovered 227 (29%)

Deaths Attributed to COVID-19 18 (2%)

Total Current COVID-19 Cases 542

Persons Who Have Been Hospitalized for COVID-19 118 (15%)

Being Monitored in NH (approximate point in time) 2,300