Hillsborough County Continues To Be NH's Coronavirus 'Hot Spot'

CONCORD, NH — Hillsborough County, the New Hampshire's most populous county, which includes its two most biggest cities, continues to report more new positive coronavirus test results when compared to the rest of the state.

The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services announced Sunday another death connected to COVID-19, a woman, 60 or older, who lived in Hillsborough County, as well as 50 new positive test results, including six children.

The state said 4,197 people have contracted the new coronavirus since early March — with 2,434 recovering from the sickness, about 58 percent. There are 1,553 active cases. About 5 percent, 210, have died in the state.

Three-fourths of the new positive cases reside in the Hillsborough County with most, 18, living in Manchester. Rockingham County reported seven new cases while Merrimack County has one new positive patient.

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More than half of the new cases were women while 44 percent were men. One required hospitalization bringing the total number of patients needing more extensive care to 420 or about 10 percent of all cases. Current hospitalizations continued their downward trend with only 91 patients hospitalized.

Four of the new cases have no identified risk factors with the rest contracting the illness due to travel or being exposed to a person who was a confirmed diagnosis.

The new PCR test chart from May 25 also showing positive vs. negative lab results and a three-day average of percent positive tests. Credit: New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

The state said Monday that 63,039 polymerase chain reaction tests have been issued while 9,790 antibody tests have been collected. Around 1,700 tests are pending. Nearly 22,000 tests have been submitted to the state's labs. On Sunday, around 1,500 specimens were collected, about 1,000 tests lower than previous days during the week, which sent the daily average down to around 2,300.

The latest antibody test result chart. Credit: New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Approximately 4,175 people are under public health monitoring while 94.3 percent of completed tests offered a negative result.

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Learn More About The Spread Of COVID-19

The COVID-19 virus is spread through respiratory droplets, usually through coughing and sneezing, and exposure to others who are sick or might be showing symptoms.

Health officials emphasize residents should follow these recommendations:

• Avoid any domestic and international travel, especially on public transportation such as buses, trains, and airplanes.
• Practice social distancing. Stay at least 6 feet from other people, including distancing while in waiting areas or lines.
• Anybody who is told to self-quarantine and stay at home due to exposure to a person with confirmed or suspect COVID-19 needs to stay home and not go out into public places.
• If you are 60 years or older or have chronic medical conditions, you need to stay home and not go out.
• Avoid gatherings of 10 people or more.
• Employers need to move to telework as much as possible.
• There is increasing evidence that this virus can survive for hours or possibly even a few days on surfaces, so people should clean frequently touched surfaces, including door handles, grocery carts and grocery basket handles, etc.

Take the same precautions as you would if you were sick:

• Stay home and avoid public places when sick (i.e., social distancing).
• Cover mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing.
• Wash hands frequently.
• Disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

More information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services about coronavirus can be found here on the department's website.

• Guidance to schools can be found can be found here.
• Instructions for returning travelers to self-observe for symptoms of COVID-19 are available are available here.
• For more information on COVID-19 in NH, visit its site here.
• For the latest information from the CDC, visit its site here.

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• Rayno: A Whole Lot Of CARES Act Money — But Way More NH Need
• Charest: In Defense Of Newspapers — Or Is It Time To Let Them Burn?
• More Than 70,000 Coronavirus Tests Issued In New Hampshire
• Messmer, Siekmann: Wear A Mask To Protect Our Most Vulnerable

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