Special Board of Aldermen 12-21-2020 Page 33
Unidentified person speaking over Ms. Consentino
Ms. Consentino
Our hospitalization rate in Nashua is at 3.3% compared to the State’s rate of (inaudible).
Unidentified person continues to speak over Ms. Consentino
Ms. Consentino
So in regards to community level transmission, the entire State is experiencing substantial community level
transmission and is considered in the red. In Nashua we are currently exceeding two out of three indicators
that push us into substantial transmission. Over the past 14 days we have had 830.3 new cases per
100,000 people. We passed into substantial in this category when we surpassed 100 new cases per
100,000 people back in October. We are also considered substantial in the percent positivity category. In
the past week there has been 446 tests conducted on average each day in Nashua and 54 of those tests
have been positive each day which gives us a percent positivity rate of 12.3% up about 2% since last week.
For comparisons, the State’s percent positivity rate is at 8.7%. This past week we pushed from minimal into
moderate in regards to new hospitalizations. Last week we had 2.2 new hospitalizations per 100,000 over
two weeks; this week we have had 10.1 new hospitalizations for 100,000 over two weeks and we will be
pushed into substantial in this category if we surpass 20 new standardized hospitalizations. Bobbie would
you like to add anything about the capacity of the hospitals and our joint partner calls?
Director Bagley
Yes thank you Angela. So with our joint partners and our information that we had been receiving from the
hospitals, we have learned that they are being challenged with their staffing capacity to be able to maintain
certain services. They have cut back on elective surgeries and have discontinued those because of staffing
capacity and because of the increase in spread of COVID. We have learned that our ICU’s continually are
challenged. We heard today that in one of our hospitals, 10 out of their 11 ICU beds are filled and last week
they actually had to open up their second ICU Unit because of the number of cases that were in their ICU.
The hospitals are also reporting ventilation use. What we have learned is that they are able to as much as
they can, maintain the surge of what they are seeing in-house, but we have been hearing constantly about
the challenges that they are having with staffing. And those challenges are because they, again, you know
with the staff that have been reported as having COVID has been picked up in the community, which then
means that they have to go on either isolation and then once in isolation all of their contacts or staff that
work with them either have to go on quarantine themselves and so that decreases that amount of staffing
that is available in the hospitals.
So when we look at Community Transmission, the impact is impacting the hospitals to the point now where
they have been seeking support and workers from outside of the hospitals to help them maintain their
services. Our Emergency Departments continually see increases in numbers of patients coming in to the
ED with an increase in the number of patients that are presenting with COVID illnesses. And so, as a result
of this with this metrics that we see here, we’ve met two out of the three substantial measures. If the
hospitals rate goes up about 20, then that will also be in the red as well and it puts our State in a very
precarious predicament. Thank you Angela.
Ms. Consentino
Thanks Bobbie. So this is a graph that | talked through earlier but this is, so in New Hampshire, all of our
COVID-19 infections are categorized by transmission type which is defined by where or how an individual
believes that they got sick. So you can see the highest percent of cases have no idea where they may have
