New Hampshire might be reopening and the number of new cases of COVID-19 is continuing to decline but that doesn’t mean the coronavirus has faded away.
“I wish I could tell people not to worry … but it’s out there,” said Gov. Chris Sununu at Tuesday’s press conference.
Even as Sununu celebrated the lifting of most restrictions on businesses and restrictions on personal travel, he repeatedly cautioned people not to stop doing the things that have lowered the state’s case load.
“That is all because of the great work the citizens of New Hampshire have done – wearing masks when they can, maintaining physical distancing when they can, washing their hands. … It sounds like simple stuff because it is – and when we do it, it works. That is what has allowed our curve to be flattened,” he said. “But we are always at a risk of a second surge. No matter how good our numbers get, if we don’t have that discipline” the disease can return.
Sununu pointed to other parts of the country as an example.
“Twenty-plus states have numbers of COVD cases rising – in some places very, very drastically. They came down for a while and now they’re rising back up,” he cautioned.
Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist, reported that the state confirmed 27 new cases Tuesday. That is the third day in a row that the state has found fewer than 30 new cases, something that hasn’t happened since the early days of the pandemic in mid-March.
Furthermore, he said that the roughly 1,700 PCR tests performed daily were finding a positive rate of about 2%, indicating that COVID-19 is not widespread.
However, Chan also confirmed 2 new hospitalizations and 6 deaths, 4 of them in long-term care facilities, emphasizing that when COVID-19 does strike it can be serous.
“The primary way to prevent New Hampshire from going into another surge situation … is to continue to follow the public health advice,” Chan said. He put emphasis on one act that has become somewhat controversial: Face masks.
“Wearing a cloth face covering, which is being recognized more and more as an important measure,” Chan said.
The number of vehicles going through E-ZPass tolls on New Hampshire highways has crept back up to about 80% of its level before COVID-19 hit.
There were 1.82 million E-ZPass trips recorded last week, according to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. That’s almost twice as many as the low point in the first week of April.
Before the virus hit, the average traffic load on New Hampshire turnpikes was slightly over 2 million.
