ICU nurse Michelle Rheaume opens the inner room through the ante room of one of the six the negative pressure rooms for COVID rooms at Concord Hospital on Thursday, June 3, 2021. The pandemic made the hospital make innovations and protocols that will continue into the future.
ICU nurse Michelle Rheaume opens the inner room through the ante room of one of the six the negative pressure rooms for COVID rooms at Concord Hospital on Thursday, June 3, 2021. The pandemic made the hospital make innovations and protocols that will continue into the future.

The number of COVID-19 patients at Concord Hospital has fallen to single digits, none of whom are in the the ICU or on ventilators, a sign of the improving situation in the pandemic.

A month ago, Concord Hospital had 49 COVID-19 patients, with 6 in the ICU or on ventilators. The company’s Laconia and Franklin hospitals had 12 COVID-19 patients between them in mid-January; on Thursday they had 4.

The local decline echoes the situation in the state, which has seen the number of hospitalized COVID patients fall by half in a month, from 257 to 134, as the number of new cases being reported plummets and the number of deaths of patients with the disease declines.

The decline is due to the spread of vaccination and boosters and the increase in people who have recovered from a bout of COVID-19, which gives some protection.

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.com. Sign up for his Granite Geek weekly email newsletter at granitegeek.org.