Sunbathing, sandcastle building and other activities are now allowed on New Hampshire beaches, Gov. Chris Sununu said Friday.
The announcement, effective immediately, came just four days after beaches had re-opened to walking, swimming and other motion-based activity. Opponents of those restrictions had planned to hold a protest to “draw a line in the sand” on Saturday.
Parking remains limited, and groups must stay 6 feet apart from each other.
The Pembroke state liquor store will be getting curbside and in-store pickup soon as the New Hampshire Liquor Commission expands the pilot program.
The state started the pickup system at highway stores in Hamptom and Hooksett on June 3, and will enable it at stores in Pembroke, Manchester and Londonderry. Consumers will be able to begin placing orders at those locations as of Thursday, June 11.
Orders must be placed at least one day in advance at pickup.liquorandwineoutlets.com and cover a minimum of two bottles. Same-day pickup is not available.
Consumers select a 15-minute time slot for pickup between noon and 5 p.m. and select either curbside pickup or in-store pickup.
Orders can be placed up to two weeks in advance .
The number of new cases of COVID diagnosed in New Hampshire remained unchanged over the past week, with the 14-day average as of Friday at the same level it was a week ago: 73 new cases daily, on average.
Deaths have also continued to rise at the same pace: The tally of 33 deaths over the past seven days, most of them in long-term care facilities, is almost exactly the same figure as the week before. There have now been 273 COFID-related deaths, about 6% of the total number of confirmed cases.
The number of PCR tests, which detect the presence of active coronavirus, soared Thursday to 2,636, the largest one-day tally, and antibody tests, which can detecte whether a person had COVID in the past, stayed steady at 330.
The NASCAR race scheduled for July 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been postponed to Aug. 2. The move was part of a large-scale rescheduling NASCAR announced on Thursday.
It’s still unclear if fans will be allowed at the NHMS race on Aug. 2, the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, which is the only Cup Series race for the Loudon track. Since it resumed on May 17, NASCAR has run five Cup Series races with no spectators due to ongoing considerations with the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ll be very disappointed if fans can’t join us, but in these unprecedented times, we understand that the health and safety of our fans, the competitors and our staff is of the utmost importance,” NHMS general manager David McGrath said in a statement. “Once we have more information regarding access, we’ll inform our fans as soon as possible.”
With or without fans, that Aug. 2 weekend at NHMS is going to look very different than the originally planned July 19 weekend. The Xfinity Series race that was scheduled for July 18 at NHMS has been moved from New Hampshire all together. That race will now be held in Kentucky on July 9 as part of the sport’s schedule shift. And the Modified race that was supposed to be part of the July 19 weekend in Loudon has been canceled.
NASCAR has been releasing its schedule in chunks since it returned in May and there were already races planned through June 21. Thursday’s release confirmed dates from June 26 through the Aug. 2 race in Loudon.