As New Hampshire's COVID Cases Spike, Sununu Preaches Vigilance

CONCORD, NH — Gov. Chris Sununu isn’t about to tell people how they should conduct their family Thanksgiving business, but at a time when the state’s number of daily coronavirus cases rose to more than 300 on Thursday for the first time, he is warning people to be extremely cautious as they plan to gather together.

Sununu said at a news conference Thursday that the state will not issue formal guidance on holiday gatherings as the holiday approach. But he and state health issues said that social gatherings are among the biggest contributor to the spread of the coronavirus as the state reported 323 new positive cases and three new deaths on Thursday.

The three deaths involved two Hillsborough County females, both of whom were 60 years of age or older as well as a man in the same age rage for Coos County, state health officials announced. The three new deaths took the state's death toll to 495 since the pandemic began in March, health officials said.

In New Hampshire, there are now 2,528 active cases and 64 people currently hospitalized with the coronavirus, four of which are new as of Thursday, health officials said. But as the governor expects the numbers to steadily get worse in coming weeks as the state currently has a 2.6 percent positivity rate, Sununu said that people need to remain extremely vigilant in how they are limiting the spread of the virus. And that includes times when they are together with their family and friends.

“Any gathering where people are feeling too comfortable and not wearing masks and not taking precautions that we’ve been recommending all along (are included),” Sununu said. “Just because we know (people), I’ve been saying it, ‘The virus doesn’t care that it’s Uncle Bob’ but you should you and you need to for your sake and that family member.”

He added: “You’ve got to be smart. We’re not going to send the mask police in there, we’re not doing these mandates of what you have to be doing within your home, but we’re really making sure that message is staying elevated….there is no gathering that is exempt from that.”

Sununu said that people need to be cautious about non-essential travel outside of New England. On Thursday, state health officials announced that residents will have two options upon their return to New Hampshire if they travel outside of New England. They either can self-quarantine for 14 days or they will be required to self-quarantine for seven days and test negative for the coronavirus before breaking quarantine, Sununu said.

As of now, Sununu does not plan to tighten restrictions because of rising cases that he believes could soon triple from current daily rates in the coming weeks. He also expects the current spike to continue for anywhere from 4-8 weeks, which he said makes it necessary for people to remain vigilant as the holiday season approaches.

“Every time a group of people comes together there is a risk,” Sununu said. “The risk getting to zero is not possible. We cannot manage zero risk. The government can’t put mandates in place to get it to zero. It’s a virus… we can’t manage the risk down to zero.

“Obviously, we’re not going to tell people they can’t have a family gathering at Thanksgiving. That wouldn’t be appropriate frankly for the government to be telling people that. But what we can do is manage our controls, expectations, the elevated message and especially the data we’re seeing out there. And the data says that family gatherings can transmit the virus as much as anything else.”