Boost In University Coronavirus Tests Skews NH's Numbers: Watch

CONCORD, NH — Expanded new coronavirus testing of student and faculty members at colleges and universities in New Hampshire during the past six weeks, in order to ensure the safety of higher education students, has lowered to average infection rate to below 0.5 percent — but the exact number of tests being performed is not known.

On Thursday, during the state's weekly COVID-19 news conference, Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state's epidemiologist, spoke about a second outbreak at the University of New Hampshire, at an on-campus apartment complex, the Gables, where 21 students have contracted the virus. While speaking about the outbreak, Chan reported around 86,000 tests have been performed at the university on around 15,000 students and faculty members since late July. But due to a snafu with the state's data dashboard, the total testing data at UNH — as well as other colleges and universities, has gone unreported.

On Wednesday, the state reported 383,551 polymerase chain reaction tests performed in the state with 7,780 accumulative positive results. While the current positive cases at UNH, 24, and the 60 recovered cases, were in the state's accumulative positive test numbers, the 86,000 negative tests were not.

"We're currently in the process of working with UNH, and other colleges, to get automatic collection of the data," Chan said.

The lack of the inclusion of the negative testing results skew New Hampshire's numbers — especially the three-day percent of positive number, which has slowly been creeping up during the past two weeks, to about 1.5 percent. The increase is due to a number of small outbreaks with athletes in some school districts, summer camps, the two outbreaks at UNH, and other cases, as well as a near doubling of tests being collected. Testing in the state has expanded from around 3,000 per day in mid-August to between 6,000 and 8,000 tests during the past two weeks.

When it was pointed out that the average positive test rate should be much lower than the 1 to 1.5 percent that has been reported, for many weeks, Gov. Chris Sununu agreed.

"We're actually below it," he said. "You're absolutely right. In actuality, a lot of those negative tests weren't being counted."

While the data is not readily available to the public or the press, it was featured in two slides, manually entered by state officials for the news conference. The missing negative tests at UNH alone are the equivalent of about 23 percent of the total count of PCR tests in the state.

Sununu and Chan both said, when an automatic reporting system can be created or a process to transfer the date more rapidly from UNH and other schools to the state, it would be updated.

"It's just about getting there system integrated with ours," Sununu said.

Watch the exchange about the data reporting problems in the video below.

Police Reforms Endorsed

Sununu Thursday also endorsed all of the recommendations being made by New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community, and Transparency, which was created via executive order after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this year.

During the last 60 days, the commission held numerous meetings and created three reports which focus on improving training, expanding reporting and investigation of police misconduct, and rebuilding community relations. Some of the proposals Sununu will approve by executive order while others need to be accomplished legislatively — something legislators will want to be involved with, he said.

"As I have long said, New Hampshire has some of the best law enforcement in the country, but there is always room to improve, grow, and adapt," Sununu said. "I cannot thank the members of the commission enough for their tireless work — they did a phenomenal job. These issues are incredibly important and should not be political. I am confident these reforms, which received unanimous support from the Commission, will be enacted with bipartisan support. And, as I have long said, cost will not be a barrier to implementation."

The governor released a "roadmap" to reform and is designating Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to write legislation for the reforms that cannot be approved by executive order. Sununu is also encouraging local law enforcement to view the proposals and begin implementing them locally.

Other Updates

Lori Shibinette, the commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, announced the closure of a COVID-19 outbreak at the Rockingham County House of Corrections that occurred last week. During the outbreak, 11 prisoners and one staffer were infected. No one at the prison died.

Currently, there is only one other institutional outbreak, she said, at Mountain View Community in Ossipee. There, three residents and five staffers were sick and one person has died.

Sununu announced that another $16.5 million of CARES Act funding to hospitals including Southern NH Health System and Saint Joseph's Hospital in Nashua.

Another $13.5 million is being given to 339 healthcare providers including family doctors, dentists, therapists, and others, he said.

The governor also said he was disappointed by criticism of local school officials saying they did not have enough money to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic while more than half the amount of money granted to school districts had not been spent. About $20 million was available to many school districts. Cities and towns also have $30 million they can tap into if they need it. Sununu, during a question and answer period, confirmed that even communities and school districts with limited or no COVID-19 infections could request the funds to offset the cost of safety measures, masks, and other items they may need, connected to the pandemic, to perform their work.

State health officials confirmed there was an outbreak at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with 18 cases reported, including four New Hampshire residents.

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