The Centers for Disease Control reduced Coos County’s level of COVID-19 community transmission from high to substantial Wednesday but raised six other counties from substantial to high — Belknap, Carroll, Strafford, Cheshire, Sullivan and Rockingham. The other four counties in New Hampshire were listed as substantial but by Thursday, Grafton and Hillsboro were also listed as high, leaving only Coos and Merrimack counties at the substantial level.
There are currently 75 active cases in Carroll County, with 95 new cases having been identified in the past 14 days and a seven-day test positivity rate of 5.9 percent.
Health and Human Services spokesman Jake Leon said Wednesday that one more fully vaccinated person has died of COVID-19, bringing the total to 11. Another person died Thursday, a woman over the age of 60 in Strafford County.
“To date, there have been 1,016 breakthrough cases, including 25 hospitalizations and 11 deaths. There have been 156 Delta variant cases to date,” Leon said Wednesday.
Vaccine breakthrough cases caused by the Delta variant: 56, and vaccine breakthrough deaths caused by the Delta variant: 0, Leon said.
On Thursday, DHHS announced 299 new positive test results for COVID-19, including 154 people who tested positive by PCR test and 145 who tested positive by antigen test.
There are now 2,059 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire.
Several cases are still under investigation. Additional information from ongoing investigations will be incorporated into future COVID-19 updates.
Of those with complete information, there are 57 individuals under the age of 18 and the rest are adults with 56 percent being female and 44 percent being male.
The new cases reside in Rockingham (42), Strafford (30), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (25), Belknap (24), Grafton (22), Cheshire (21), Merrimack (21), Carroll (12), Coos (9), and Sullivan (6) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (28) and Nashua (20).
The county of residence is being determined for 39 new cases.
As of Thursday, there were ongoing outbreaks in the federal prison in Berlin, where 36 residents and two staff members are diagnosed with COVID-19, and three health care institutions: Espom Health Center, with seven residents and eight staff members; Laconia Rehabilitation Center with 13 residents and eight staff members and Rockingham County Nursing Home and Rehab with two residents and three staff members.
Statewide, there are currently 2,059 active COVID-19 cases and 77 are people hospitalized with COVID-19.
With 53.9 percent of the residents of New Hampshire fully vaccinated, state officials continue to advocate for get everyone who can to be fully vaccinated. Vaccines are being offered for free at pharmacies, clinics and other locations around New Hampshire.
“The vaccine is the way out,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a news conference last Thursday.
To date, 1,527,052 doses of vaccine hav been administeredand 826,623 people hav received at least one shot.
In New Hampshire since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 104,263 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed and 1,397 people have died.
