COVID by the Numbers—December 23 Edition

Happy holidays, everyone,

As has been the case for the last few weeks, the numbers are both alarming, and bewildering.  It is hard to discern any really clear patterns, as some numbers are better and others are worse.  Making it more difficult to compare apples to apples, rather than oranges, is the backlog of tests as yet unreported to DHHS, so I am reporting based on the daily numbers from DHHS, and not on the reallocation of the new numbers back to the dates they actually belong to.  If that last sentence makes no sense, welcome to my world.  My guess?  We are coming down from the post-Thanksgiving spike, and given the numbers of people travelling, we are now in the lull before the post-Christmas spike.   The good news is that vaccines have arrived and are being administered in New Hampshire.  Front-line health care workers and a few nursing home residents were the first recipients.

As of December 22, Walpole had 9 active cases of COVID, up from 5 active cases in my last report, but down from a high of 11 a couple of days ago.  Total cases in Walpole went from 22 to 31.

Cheshire County had 150 new cases last week; down significantly from 241 the week before.  Again, I am not sure how this number may be influenced by the delay in reporting numbers from the backlog.  The daily average for the week is now down to just under 21.5 cases per day, down from just over 30 cases a day a as of my last report.  The Cheshire County 7 day moving average for number of daily cases per 100,000, as of December 21, is 24.6, down from a high of 43.6 on December 13. Because we are under 25 cases per 100,000, today, for the first time since December 1, we are colored orange rather than red on the Harvard Global Health initiative map.  Sullivan and Grafton counties are even lower than we are; but these numbers are down in every county.  Currently, Cheshire County has 195 active cases, down from a high of 258 on December 13th.

Statewide, the 7 day moving average of daily cases per 100,000 is now 49.4, down from a high of 65.0 on December 13^th.

Hospitalizations are at 297, an all-time high, up from 252 on December 15.

52 lives were lost last week, up from 38 last week, including at least one from Cheshire County.  The only good news here is that the last two days have added no deaths to that total.

Current active cases by town:  Keene-64, Jaffrey-22, Swanzey-19, Winchester-12, Rindge-11, Hinsdale-10, Walpole-9, Chesterfield-6, Marlborough-6, Troy-6, Westmoreland-5, Richmond-5

Towns with 1-4 cases: Alstead, Marlow, Stoddard, Nelson, Gilsum, Winchester. Harrisville, Roxbury, Dublin, Fitzwlliam.

Sullivan alone is at 0.

EddieFalkor begs you all to have a peaceful holiday season, full of joy, and friends, and family, even if at a distance.

As do I.

Please note that I have not trained EF to climb up on the ottoman and fix me with the Dog Stare while sitting pretty.  

This is a training technique he developed all on his own, designed to make a recalcitrant and untrainable human pay attention.

I can report it is very effective.

Wear your mask, keep your distance, wash your hands,

Keep well, and thank you all for being members of this wonderful community.

~ Representative Lucy Weber lwmcv@comcast.net 603-499-0282.