NH sees first COVID-19-related death since Sept. 15
PORTSMOUTH — The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services on Saturday announced a COVID-19-related death, the state’s first since Sept. 15
DHHS said the Hillsborough County female was age 60 or older. The state has now seen 439 COVID-19-related deaths.
DHHS on Saturday announced 38 new positive test results for COVID-19, pushing the state’s total to date to 8,121. Of the newest cases, four people are under age 18. The new cases are in Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (13), Rockingham (7), Strafford (5), Merrimack (4), and Sullivan (1) counties, and in Manchester (6) and Nashua (2).
No new hospitalized cases were identified and the number of current hospitalizations fell to 18, down one from Friday, but the state was in the single-digits earlier this month. To date, there have been 734 hospitalizations, about 9% of all known cases.
There are 303 active cases currently, well above the 266 reported Wednesday. DHHS lists 7,379 people as having recovered. It reports the state now has conducted 265,378 detection tests to date.
Seacoast numbers
The city of Rochester continues to see a relatively high number of active COVID-19 cases as DHHS on Saturday reported 19 cases there, third most in the state. The number was down from 22 on Friday, but up from the 14 reported Wednesday.
The number of active cases in Durham, home of the University of New Hampshire, stood at 12 for a second consecutive day, which was down from 13 on Wednesday and from numbers in the low 20s a week ago. Testing ramped up as students and faculty returned to campus. UNH reported conducting 20,744 tests at the Durham campus Sept. 18-24. There were 24 cases identified, a positivity rate of .12%.
Overall, UNH reports 64 current active cases, 15 students and 49 faculty and staff members, which includes the Durham campus, UNH Law and UNH Manchester. These cases are not all reflected in Durham’s active case count as they would be recorded by the state in their towns of residence.
UNH reports 9 detected cases on Sept. 21 and 8 on Sept. 22. There were no new cases reported Sept. 23 and Sept. 24.
Active cases elsewhere on the Seacoast include Dover (11), Brentwood (10) and Exeter (6). All other towns have zero to 4 cases, according to DHHS. Brentwood’s numbers stem from an outbreak at the county jail there.
Statewide, Manchester (38) has the most active cases, followed by Nashua (34).
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Age factor
Those age 60 and older continue to account for the vast majority of COVID-19-related deaths in New Hampshire. Of the 439 deaths, 95.9% are among those 60 and older, including 63.3% among those age 80 and older; 23.9% age 70-79 and 8.7% age 60-69.
Deaths among residents of long-term care facilities account for 81.5% of deaths.
There have been no deaths among people under the age of 20 and one death among those age 20-29.
The 20-29 age bracket continues to have the highest rate of infection in the state at 17.2%, followed by age 50-59 at 15.6%, then 30-39 at 13.9%.
Maine
The state reported 25 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its total since March to 5,260. The state reported no new COVID-19-related deaths Saturday, leaving that total at 140. There are a reported 613 active cases and 4,507 recoveries.