After a month of good news, there are signs that New Hampshire is heading the wrong way with COVID-19.
Day-to-day changes in reported case numbers are not always significant because reporting patterns can fluctuate but Tuesday’s report by the state of 59 new confirmed cases was the third time in five days that the tally was unusually high. Ominously, it raised the 14-day average of new cases to 33, the most it has been since July 1.
On the bright side, the number of new hospitalizations remains low, averaging fewer than 2 a day, and there have been no deaths reported for four days. However, those two are “lagging indicators,” meaning they follow changes made in the number of new cases, but change only after a lag of days or even weeks. If the number of new cases continues to rise, it’s likely that hospitalizations and deaths will rise, too.
Tuesday’s report brought the number of confirmed cases in New Hampshire to an even 6,500. Of those, 88% have recovered, 11% have been hospitalized, and 6% have died.
