A Black Lives Matter protest more accessible to those in the disabled community is being organized for next Friday in Portsmouth.
"In recent weeks, the number of new cases and hospitalizations has surged across our state and we continue to operate at or near capacity as a result," says Dr. Tom Wold, Chief Medical Officer at Portsmouth Regional Hospital.
The surge is hurting hospitals at two levels, doctors say, both increasing the burdens on their staff and reducing the number of staff available to meet the community's needs.
As part of an ongoing series about environmental justice, the Granite State News Collaborative and NH Bar News have teamed up to look at environmental challenges facing New Hampshire families. In this series of stories, the team explores why lead paint is still a problem in New Hampshire and what’s being done to clear homes of this hazard, particularly for children living in poverty. Joining The State We’re In host Melanie Plenda this week are Scott Merrill (editor at NH Bar News), Kathie Ragsdale (reporter for the Granite State News Collaborative), John Bassett (data and research editor for the Granite State News Collaborative), and Paul Cuno-Booth (reporter for the Granite State News Collaborative).
According to data from the state’s official COVID response dashboard, New Hampshire averaged 1,495 new cases per day for the week ending Tuesday, up 41 percent from 1,057 a week earlier. The seven-day average for the share of antigen and PCR tests coming back positive was 20.6 percent, up from 15.2 percent a week ago. A total of 503 people were hospitalized for the diseases as of Wednesday, including 359 people with active infections and 144 people who are no longer infectious but still need critical care. (This last type is now being referred to in state data reports as "COVID-recovering.")
According to data from the state’s official COVID response dashboard, New Hampshire averaged 992 new cases per day for the week ending Wednesday, down 14 percent from a week earlier. The seven-day average share of antigen and PCR tests coming back positive was 15.2 percent, up from 13.2 percent a week ago. 384 people were hospitalized for the disease as of Wednesday, down slightly from 399 the previous week.
From the pandemic to our economy to schools to local government, 2021 has been a challenging year. With the release of the COVID 19 vaccines at the end of 2020, many were hopeful that the worst days of the pandemic would soon be behind us, but that's not been the case. The virus continued to dominate our lives and local headlines. Sarah Gibson (Education and Demographics reporter from New Hampshire Public Radio), Nora Doyle-Burr (Health reporter from the Valley News), and Matt Mowry (Editor of Business New Hampshire Magazine) join The State We’re In host Melanie Plenda to review some of the year’s biggest stories.
Every year the New Hampshire House of Representatives reconvenes the first full week of January. In non-election years, their first order of business is voting on bills kept in committee for more work over the summer and fall. This year is notable because there are several major policy changes coming out of committee. Representatives have scheduled a three-day voting marathon for these bills January 5, 6, and 7.
A 2018 Center for American Progress analysis found that more than half of Americans live in a childcare desert. And now add a pandemic that has stretched almost two years to the scarcity of spaces and ever-rising cost, and the stress for both child care providers and those looking for a facility has increased exponentially.
"The trend is discouraging," said Martha Wassell, Director of Infection Prevention at Dover's Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, in emailed comments on Wednesday. She said the increase is "unequivocally driven by insufficient vaccination and booster rates in our community, combined with lack of consistent indoor mask use. Many people gathered indoors for the Thanksgiving holiday, likely unaware of their COVID-19 infection status."
Phil Kincade covered county commissioner meetings, worked as a city hall beat reporter, covered the statehouse and served as the editorial page editor. Then, in 1995, having a hunch that the Internet would become a big deal, he threw himself into digital, helping the paper launch its first website, which became one of the first in the state.
Nearly two months before she was shot in the head after leaving her job at a sail manufacturer in Salem, Massachusetts, a 33-year-old Hampton woman filed a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, a Wilton man who police say shot her and then killed himself on Monday night.
The woman, who is still alive and in critical condition at a Boston hospital, has not been identified.
Major changes would be required in the way New Hampshire conducts elections under bills proposed by Republican state legislators, many of whom have questioned the integrity of the last statewide vote.
Perhaps the biggest change would come under House Bill 1064, sponsored by Rep. Mark Alliegro, R-Campton, which would require every ballot to be counted by hand. A total of 814,000 votes were cast in last year’s election, and 80 percent of the ballots were tallied by optical scan machines. About one-third of the state’s municipalities count by hand.
Republicans were quite successful in the 2020 general election in New Hampshire, but that hasn’t stopped some members of the GOP from claiming significant voter fraud.
“I think there was a tremendous amount of fraud across this country and in every state,” GOP Senate candidate Don Bolduc said. “I do know in the state of New Hampshire we have big problems with election integrity.”
Last month, hospitals across New Hampshire announced they were raising their wage floors as part of a “market adjustment” to stay competitive amid a labor shortage by offering a minimum $15 to $17 an hour.
But that’s only part of the story. Most registered nurses already get paid roughly twice as much as that, and third-party staffing agencies commissioned by local hospitals are now offering up to $200 an hour for travelling nurse rates.
First, when everyone was stuck in their homes, many people wanted a new dog or cat because they figured they had the time to train and acclimate the animal, and spend time with them.
Then, about a year later, shelters started seeing an influx of surrendered pets. The reasons varied, according to animal shelter workers.
A total of 5,862 health care workers have contracted COVID-19 in New Hampshire since the pandemic began, 87 have been hospitalized and 10 have died, according to state statistics.
But that hasn’t stopped a vocal group of nurses and others in the medical industry from loudly objecting to vaccination requirements, even at the risk of losing their jobs.
A study of nearly 2,000 American parents published this month in the journal Pediatrics found that 42% were somewhat or very unlikely to vaccinate their children; compared to 46% of parents who were somewhat or very likely to vaccinate. Twelve percent of parents said they were unsure. The FDA is expected to give emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for children ages five and older soon, but many parents are still wary of signing their children up when the vaccine becomes available. That has left healthcare workers scrambling to address the most common concerns from parents.
Procuring shoppers in one of New Hampshire’s premier destinations during the summer season is like shooting fish in a barrel. Keeping that momentum going is the real struggle.
Now that students, teachers, and school administrators have headed back to school in person, Hausman believes it’s imperative to reacquire customers who were visiting the establishment before the Covid-19 pandemic shut down schools.
