Massachusetts beaches will begin opening on May 25 – Memorial Day. Despite sunny weather and temperatures in the 70s, New Hampshire is keeping its shores closed except for a brief swim or a walk.
Gov. Chris Sununu said he will monitor what happens in Massachusetts before making a decision.
“If we can get open by June 1, I think that’s a goal, but it’s not a promise by any means,” he said.
Sununu suggested residents enjoy the holiday weekend close to home.
“Given the nice weather and the holiday weekend that’s coming up, my recommendation is, enjoy some with your family, enjoy the home hike challenge – there’s still a lot of activities to be done outdoors even though our amusements and attractions aren’t open,” he said. “We’re not telling people they cannot come out of their door by any means, but you’re healthier at home, we’re still under a stay-at-home order.”
Children should be allowed to return to camps and athletic programs under strict safety measures this summer, according to a task force on reopening New Hampshire’s economy.
The recommendations sent to public health officials and Sununu on Tuesday lay out proposed rules for day camps, residential camps and outdoor team sports. The group also approved proposals for museums and acupuncture as well as indoor restaurant dining and the catering of larger events such as weddings.
On day camps, task force members said they took into consideration that parents will need care for children as they return to work. The rules call for keeping campers outside as much as possible, and separating them into groups that would move about “as a self-contained bubble.” Similarly, campers and staff at overnight camps would be separated into “cohort groups” with limited interaction with other groups. The recommendations note that camps are willing to push back their usual late June start dates.
As for sports, the task force recommends an initial phase during which team training would be allowed for groups of up to 10 people. In Phase 2, training sessions could expand to up to 50 people, and games and scrimmages would be allowed for baseball and softball. Spectators would remain six feet away from anyone from another household.
Sen. Shannon Chandley, a member of the task force, said she would write a letter urging public health officials to research the risk associated with multiple players handling the same baseball or softball.
“There is risk involved in any of these reopenings, and we as a task force weigh that very, very carefully,” she said. “But I’m still struggling.”
A sixth week of small increase in New Hampshire highway traffic has brought it back to the level it was at in mid-March, after the imposition of stay-at-home rules caused it to fall by perhaps the largest one-week total ever.
In the week ending Sunday, May 17, there were 1,368,267 trips through E-ZPass stations in New Hampshire. That’s an increase of 140,000 or about 11% from the week before, and 430,000 more than the first week of April, when fewer than 935,000 trips were recorded.
However, it is still about one-third less than the level of traffic regularly seen through the first two months of the year, when roughly 2 million trips a week were average.
Virtually of the decline seen now is in cars, as truck traffic has largely returned to normal.
Sununu on approved rules for the immediate reopening of businesses that involve small groups in outdoor settings, including mini-golf, driving and shooting ranges, and bike, canoe and kayak rentals.
The rules also apply to paint ball, small fishing charters and outdoor guide services for fishing, hunting and hiking, but Sununu said he is holding off on reopening larger, tourist attractions such as the Polar Caves, Lost River Gorge or the Flume, as well as amusement parks.
Separate rules were approved for the immediate reopening of child care centers with increased screening of children and staff, limits on capacity and staggered drop off and pick up schedules.
As of Monday, 3,652 people in New Hampshire had tested positive for the virus, an increase of 57 from the previous day, continuing a trend in which the 5-day average declines slowly. The number of deaths stood at 172.
The Department of Health and Human Services said more than 2,029 PCR tests, which determine if a patient is sick, were performed Sunday, the third day in a row that the number has topped 2,000. The number of antibody tests, which can show if a person has ever had COVID-19, remains between 500 and 700 per day.
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette said May 6 that all nursing home residents would be tested within two weeks. A department spokesman said that process will be completed early next week, which would be a few days behind schedule.
The testing of all staff is expected to be completed by the end of next week, or early in the following week.
The state also plans to set up a sentinel surveillance system in which 10% of the facilities will test 10% of their residents each week, and mobile teams to test all long-term care staff every seven to 10 days.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death. Nursing home residents have made up more than three-quarters of the virus-related deaths in New Hampshire.
(Staff writer David Brooks contributed to this report.)