By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – With COVID-19 hospitalization rates in New Hampshire and Vermont among the lowest in the nation, Gov. Chris Sununu talked up positive data trends Wednesday in his weekly news conference.
He said will allow for a lot of flexibility for schools and workplaces as spring approaches.
New Hampshire reported 181 hospitalizations on Wednesday, down from 366 a month ago.
While New Hampshire has not had a mask mandate since April 16, 2021, and has allowed school districts to decide how to handle and respond to the COVID-19 in the classroom, many states are now easing their mask mandates in schools, including Massachusetts and announcements as of Wednesday in New York and Illinois.
Sununu said the state has been a leader in many ways and is seeing positive downward trends, though his state epidemiologist noted that the fatality rate is still pretty high.
Sununu credited front line medical workers for bringing it day and night throughout the past two years to get the state through the worst days of the crisis and said while it is not over, it is the nurses, the doctors and being innovative and collaborative for having the state in a better position than it has been in months.
He noted some were working 100 hours a week.
“This is not a victory by any means but we are trending in the right direction,” Sununu said.
He said the state is working on writing the playbook for the next surge, perhaps for next winter.
“We need to be ready for it with flexibilities,” he said. “We are on a great path.”
COVID-19 Update
Dr. Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist, did not give what he considered accurate new case numbers as he acknowledged that the state notified its community health partners that they could stop reporting new cases.
So many new cases are coming from home testing and are not going through the state reporting portals.
The state is looking more at trends now, he said.
It did report 786 new cases Wednesday and the number of active cases at 5,818.
There were 14 new deaths to report for a total of 2,284.
That is “too high,” Chan said. “Any death is potentially preventable,” he said with vaccines available.
Chan said most of the deaths in the state are among the unvaccinated.
Stay the Course
Sununu said although the pandemic is slowing, the state is not pulling back on either fixed sites for vaccinations, contracted through the end of March, and testing sites, which he said might still be in demand for a lot longer.
Strike teams in hospitals and nursing homes to help alleviate worker shortages and fatigue are here and will stay out of their time frames but there are no expectations to ask for an extension, Sununu said.
More antiviral medicines are coming into the state, too.
He acknowledged “the booster data is all messed up” at the national and state level without reliable data on how many people have actually got the booster shot.
But he said the state is focused on access to the shots and said there is plenty of that, and noted the state got at that early.
Masks in Schools
Chan said school leaders are still being briefed twice a month by DHHS and the recommendations have not substantially changed, just as the CDC recommendations for masking indoors remain.
But he said he expects that might ease in the next weeks and months toward spring.
With vaccinations approval likely for the youngest rolling out in February and March, some of these changes may take place.
“A lot will be driven by the Omicron surge and the numbers at the hospitals, which are trending down,” Chan said.
He said they will begin to review death certificates and noted people are about 15 times more likely to die from COVID-19 if you are unvaccinated, according to CDC data.
Again he stressed the importance of getting the vaccine.
In the future, surveillance will be changing, but how exactly, Chan said, is still unclear with ideas under consideration. The goal, he said, is to find sustainable data.
Wastewater surveillance is occurring in some areas of the state, and that may be part of the equation going forward.
Liquor Store Tests
Sununu said more than 5,000 of the 1 million in-home COVID-19 test kits which he ordered for about $10 million have been sold at the 68 state liquor stores and the aim here is to fill a gap in private sales.
Many pharmacies have run out of stock.
They are sold at cost with administrative fees largely on transporting and handling.
Test kits have a six-month shelf life.
Many are waiting for the free tests in the mail and it is taking a lot longer than people expected.
Cryptocurrency
The governor has announced he is setting up a new study committee to look at cryptocurrency and said none of his family has invested in such things that he is aware of. He said his goal is to find “wicked smart” people to serve on the board so that investors in New Hampshire know what they are doing and ensure they are not bilked.
Conscientious Objector
Sununu said he is no fan of the “conscientious objector” provisions in some Republican bills which would allow employees to get what he calls “a loophole” around vaccination mandates.
Sununu said the private sector has the right to manage its staff.
He said the legislators are “trying to create a loophole,” while noting that religious and medical exemptions exist.
Harmony Montgomery
The governor said he has received more information on the disappearance of Harmony Montgomery, a child who has been missing for two years since she was five.
She was the subject of child protection concern in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Sununu is looking to see what went wrong in the hope of preventing another horrible situation.
The child remains missing.
“There were system failures clearly at some level,” he said. “Hopefully in the next week, we will have some more information available. My gut tells me the biggest break was about the transfer of information between any two states.”
He said it is a question of how information is processed and transferred and used in real-time and how those interstate compacts work.
“That is clearly where the system had the most trouble,” he said, not blaming either state.
State Revenue
The state is likely to end up with seven times as much surplus revenue than it has ever had, the governor said, because of business growth.
He noted the state has already sent back $100 million to towns and cities “and I think we can do it again.”
The state will have a lot of opportunities for one-time investments, he noted.
He said he meets regularly with the legislative fiscal committee and will add this into the discussion.
Sununu said he thinks there are ways to spend surplus revenues where needed.
He is predicting that there may be a $300 million surplus next year, which he said is “pretty conservative” as an estimate.
Emergency Rental Help
Money will soon be released, Sununu said, for more emergency rental assistance noting that the state did not get the second round of federal funding. Half of the existing funding the state has from the federal government has gone out the door, Sununu said.