By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
On Monday when the state announced for the first time that a New Hampshire child too young to be vaccinated died in September from COVID-19, the state Department of Health and Human Services and Gov. Chris Sununu’s spokesman didn’t respond to most questions from InDepthNH.org.
Sununu, who often uses Twitter to get information directly to people, today posted about congratulating the 186th Class of the New Hampshire Police Academy, where 67 graduates representing 36 law enforcement agencies across the Granite State received their badges on Friday.
On Sunday, Sununu posted about the snowy weather and how he was looking forward to talking with Jake Tapper on CNN with the link inviting people to watch. On Saturday, Sununu tweeted about an event at Fort Constitution.
Going back to Dec. 17 was the most recent mention of the worsening pandemic with a Sununu tweet about all the new efforts he was undertaking to get it under control and a video of Sununu on WMUR talking about them the day before after he was criticized by two Democratic doctors who also serve as state lawmakers that what he is doing is “too little too late.”
On Dec. 17, Sununu tweeted: “Yesterday, we announced further steps NH is taking as we face this unprecedented winter surge.”
He included securing another 500k plus at-home tests for free, announced another Booster Blitz and said he would stand up more vaccine test sites.
On Monday morning, InDepthNH.org emailed these questions to state epidemiologist Dr. Ben Chan, Sununu’s spokesman Ben Vihstadt, DHHS spokesman Jake Leon but has not received responses to most.
The state dashboard did not reflect the case of one child dying from COVID-19 and still said there were no deaths for anyone under age 19. See summary here: https://www.covid19.nh.gov/dashboard/case-summary
We will post when we receive a response:
1. Please send out the total case numbers as early today as possible.
(the state sent the press release with the updated numbers at 5:22 p.m. State Announces 7 new COVID-19 Deaths and 3,524 New Cases with 809 Under Age 18 Monday)
2. Please tell our readers what you are doing to slow the spread of COVID-19 today
3. Please tell our readers how they should handle Christmas get-togethers
4. How many Omicron cases today and what you know about breakthrough cases now.
5. When are you announcing more free mask details?
After the state sent out a confusing news release that one child died from COVID-19 in September, InDepthNH.org asked for details.
Jake Leon did respond to part of this question, saying: “The death involved a NH resident.
Given this is the first death involving a pediatric case, providing further details would make constructive identification easier. We must respect and protect the family’s privacy.”
News release story: N.H. Announces First Child Death Due to COVID-19 Happened in September
It is unclear why the state didn’t release in September that there was a suspected child death due to COVID-19.
The state also didn’t respond to requests for information on where today people could get vaccinations or boosters.
