Nashua and Manchester: ‘Substantial’ Level of COVID-19 Community Transmission

CONCORD – The state Department of Health and Human Services announced 53 new positive test results for COVID-19 Tuesday, for a daily PCR test positivity rate of 0.6%. 

Today’s results include 34 people who tested positive by PCR test and 19 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 500 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire.

The state also announced two news deaths, a man and a woman from Hillsborough County, both older than 60.

Check number of COVID-19 cases by school every day. Under the “show” pull down and click “schools with cases.” https://www.nh.gov/covid19/dashboard/schools.htm You can also download the transmission level map there.

Nashua and Manchester both listed in the highest “substantial” category for overall level of community transmission, which is defined using three metrics: New Cases per 100k over 14 days; New Hospitalizations per 100k over 14 days; and 7-Day PCR Test Positivity Rate.

Nashua had 84 active cases of COVID-19 Tuesday; Manchester 66 and Bedford 46 as the three highest in the state.

Strafford County and the rest of Hillsborough County except Nashua and Manchester were “moderate” and the rest of the state “minimal” for overall community transmission of the virus.

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 fifteen individuals under the age of 18 and the rest are adults with 47% being female and 53% being male. The new cases reside in Rockingham (10), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (8), Strafford (6), Merrimack (3), Belknap (2), Cheshire (1), Grafton (1), and Sullivan (1) counties, and in the cities of Nashua (9) and Manchester (7). The county of residence is being determined for five new cases.

No new hospitalized cases were identified. There are currently 20 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Twelve of the new cases had no identified risk factors. Community-based transmission continues to occur in the State and has been identified in all counties. Of those with complete risk information, most of the cases have either had close contact with a person with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis or recently traveled.

In New Hampshire since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 8,731 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed with 743 (9%) of those having been hospitalized.

Current Situation in New Hampshire

New Hampshire 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Summary Report
(data updated October 6, 2020, 9:00 AM)

1Includes specimens positive at any laboratory and those confirmed by CDC confirmatory testing.

2Includes specimens tested at the NH Public Health Laboratories (PHL), LabCorp, Quest, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Mako, certain hospital laboratories, the University of New Hampshire and their contracted laboratory, and those sent to CDC prior to NH PHL testing capacity.

3Includes specimens received and awaiting testing at NH PHL. Does not include tests pending at commercial laboratories.

Number of Tests Conducted by Date of Report to NH DHHS