Franklin schools are in remote learning this week, after the district superintendent tested positive for COVID-19.
Superintendent Dan LeGallo announced his own positive case in a letter to the school community on Tuesday. LeGallo wrote that he took a COVID test on Saturday evening, after experiencing a minor sore throat.
“The contact tracing will take some time because of my presence in all three schools, and will lead to a short-term closure of the SAU,” LeGallo wrote.
In addition, Laconia Superintendent Steve Tucker also has contracted the disease.
Tucker told the Laconia Daily Sun he was prompted to get a COVID test when he started to feel fatigued after exercising.
“I keep active, and I run, and I noticed my energy level was not what it normally is,” he told the Sun.
Aside from feeling sluggish, Tucker said he has so far not experienced any other symptoms commonly associated with the virus.
Tucker said the plan is still for the school board to meet next Tuesday as scheduled.
In Concord, Mill Brook School and Beaver Meadow School are both pivoting to remote learning next week due to a high number of staff and students at home and in quarantine. Interim Superintendent Kathleen Murphy announced the switch in a message to the school community Friday. A first-grade student in Cohort B at Mill Brook School has tested positive. The student has not been in school since Dec. 4. Both schools will remain remote until after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
A student enrolled in the Concord Regional Technical Center at Concord High School has tested positive for COVID-19, Murphy announced Thursday. The student, who is in grade 11, was in school last on Dec. 3.
A third-grade student at Broken Ground School in Concord has tested positive for COVID-19, Murphy announced Thursday. The student is in Cohort B, and was in school on Tuesday.
Police in Manchester are looking for two men accused of assaulting a convenience store worker after an argument about wearing a mask.
Police said the worker told a man on Nov. 30 that a face covering was required in order to be inside the store because of the coronavirus pandemic. The two got into an argument. The man said he’d be back and left.
The worker said a short time later, the man returned with another man and that they ripped down a plexi-glass barrier, jumped over the counter, and began punching him before ripping off his shirt.
Police said numerous items were knocked off the counter and the credit card reader was broken.
New Hampshire is expecting 12,000 doses in its first shipment of a coronavirus vaccine as early as next week, state officials said Thursday.
Gov. Chris Sununu said Perry Plummer, the former Department of Safety assistant commissioner, is helping to oversee the distribution.
The state’s vaccination plan prioritizes health care workers, nursing home residents and first responders. Together, they add up to about 100,000 people, but the initial shipments are expected to include enough vaccines for 10,000 to 40,000 people, Sununu said last week.
The state is seeking volunteers to help with administering the vaccine, such as interpreters, helping with transportation, and security. Those interested can visit the website nhresponds.org.
Gov. Sununu has issued an emergency order allowing some nursing students to get temporary licenses to help with staffing shortages at long-term care facilities during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sununu said in a statement Friday that workforce shortages remain a challenge in New Hampshire and across the country.
The order affects senior nursing students expected to graduate by May 31, 2021. Students would be supervised while providing health care services in response to COVID-19 needs.
Fourteen outbreaks were announced Thursday, most at long-term care facilities.
Merrimack County Nursing Home has 12 staff and eight resident cases of COVID-19, state officials announced at a press conference Thursday.
The home is just one of 30 nursing homes with current outbreaks, including the NH Veterans Home and Pleasant View Nursing Home in Concord, which has 20 resident cases and five staff cases.