NH Coronavirus: First Responders To Receive $300 Weekly Stipend

CONCORD, NH — More than 2,100 businesses in New Hampshire have made requests for personal protection equipment while preparing to reopen during the next few weeks.

A "mask portal," Gov. Chris Sununu said, opened online Saturday, on the NH Economy website, and businesses who have signed up for PPE would start getting materials this week at assigned Division of Motor Vehicle locations. He said any business that requested materials with the state would receive them for free.

The masks and other items are part of the new mandatory guidelines issued as part of Stay-At-Home 2.0 and the reopening of nonessential businesses announced Friday. The first phase began Monday with medical procedures while retail stores, drive-ins, hair salons and golf courses are set to reopen next week. The week of May 18, restaurants will be able to open with new conditions.

The state is also making $40 million available to cities, towns, and counties to recover COVID-19 expenses.

Every town will be able to receive funds, Sununu said. It's not about backfilling revenue shortfalls but, instead, to ease the burden on communities and fund unexpected costs the Federal Emergency Management Agency would cover, Sununu added. The money could be used for increased building cleaning costs and modifications; social service costs like food, shelter, and utilities; child care for first responders; and employee telecommuting costs.

The governor also announced a new $300 weekly stipend for first responders beginning this week.

The stipend will be issued to full-time firefighters, EMS, corrections and police officers, both local and state. The money will be issued out of the $1.25 billion CARES Act federal funds. Part-timers will receive $150 per week, he said. The program would cost about $25 million and be paid out through the end of the fiscal year.

"We are doing everything we can to make sure that those that are on the frontlines, those who are putting themselves at-risk, throughout this COVID-19 crisis … we want to be there for them," Sununu said. "Not just financially but with PPE and support."

Data Revision From The Weekend

Public health officials were revising data released during the weekend that was incorrect — including a larger than expected number of test results.

Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state's epidemiologist, said 26,870 people have been tested in New Hampshire and both public and private labs are still averaging more than 1,000 tests per day —and were continuing to work to expand testing to New Hampshire. On Sunday, the state announced that more than 31,000 had been tested.

Chan said 72 new cases were reported Monday bringing the count to 2,588 in the state. Of the new cases, four required hospitalization.

Chan said, "thankfully," there were no new deaths to announce Monday. He warned, however, that a number of deaths were still under investigation and there would likely be more identifications of more deaths this week.

The Future Of The Virus

The new coronavirus was likely to be prevalent in the state "for many more weeks or many more months," Chan said, if not through next year.

The focus now, by public health, will be to keep people protected in the short-term and understand how the virus progresses through the long-term — including what happens with infection cases, how long immunity lasts beyond the recovery period, whether or not people are re-infected, and the status of vaccine development. Chan said many companies were researching new vaccines but it was when a vaccine would be available as well as the impact of how long COVID-19 would be active were unknowns.

"But I think," Chan said, "We can safely say, that we will be dealing with COVID-19 for many more weeks and many more months and we still have to find a way to live with this virus while taking the appropriate cautions to protect others in our community."

While the state was in the process of a slow-roll reopening, Chan said residents needed to still stay at home, "as much as possible" and perform good hygiene, and those were "still the core measures" of how the state would stop the spread of the virus.

Chan also "strongly encouraged" people to wear a cloth covering, when out in public places and in situations where they couldn't ensure social distancing of at least 6 feet. This stress intended to prevent others from coming in contact with your secretions, he said, especially since it can spread before symptoms.

"I think it shows respect for others," Chan said.

Chan also encouraged exercise — calling it "important" to stay physically active. Social distancing though was not just when someone was indoors but also when they are in a park, campground, or on a trail, he added.

Pets also should be leashed, he said, not because they spread the virus to people but because pets can become infected with the virus — including new "rare cases" reported in New York City and Hong Kong.

"It can potential spread from people to animals," Chan said.

Sununu was asked what steps he would take if officials saw an increase in cases in the wake of the flexible reopening plan. He said they would eye hospital capacity and the burden on the health care system and what might come. Sununu said it could "explode at any moment," as it had in Massachusetts, and he was "very cognizance of that." At the same time, it would be not one single data point or "area of matrix" but analyzing, two or three times a day, and taking "a real hard look" at the data. There was "no evidence of that at all, right now," Sununu said.

Testing is still continuing with long-term care facilities workers and residents, and Sununu expected it to be completed in the southern part of the state by next week.

When asked if New Hampshire would get to the point where labs could handle testing asymptomatic people or even tens of thousands of tests a day, Chan said the goal was still to increase testing capacity to the point where anyone with symptoms can be tested — not asymptomatics. He said it remained to be seen whether or not testing capacity grows to that level. Instead, preventing the spread via social distancing and personal hygiene was still the best strategy, not testing people without symptoms, when it came to fighting the spread.

Both Chan and Sununu were asked about the high death rates among the elderly and whether or not that crossed over to hospitalization as well as limited fatalities of everyone else, about 94 percent, who were essentially in lockdown to protect a small segment of the population. Chan said he couldn't speak about the hospitalization rate but the health department was looking for "more helpful and actionable data" to provide to the public and the press.

"There's a lot of people working and a lot of data coming in," Chan said. "We're working to make it more readily available and also to provide more detail … that's coming."

When considering the more vulnerable populations — older adults and those with underlying health conditions — they were at greater risk if they become exposed and infected, and it still remained important for them, "and everybody, to stay at home as much as possible." Chan said it was society's responsibility to protect those who were vulnerable from possible exposure.

"The longer we deal with COVID-19, the more difficult it is to retain a response like this for long periods of time," Chan added. "But it's still important."

Sununu said officials had looked at both demographic and geographically strategies when considering reopening the state. He had hoped the models would work out but called them "very difficult" to implement and enforce.

"I think they would be more trouble than warranted," he said. "We could go that route if we wanted to look at it geographically."

Both might be opportunities in the future, as data gets "more extreme" but "they're hard," when the attorney general and public health looked at strategies.

"There are a lot of indirect consequences with those decisions," the governor said, "It’s not out of the realm of possibility … it's something we could consider. And that's why we're taking it, step-by-step, day-by-day, week-by-week, as opposed to saying, 'In June we're going to this and then in July we're going to do that.' Some states have taken that approach but I think here that would be a little too aggressive because we just don't know what impact these decisions are going to have."

Democrats Commend Announces

Senate Democrats issued statements during the governor's press conference commending actions to pay first responders stipends and help cities and towns with funds.

Senate Majority Dan Feltes, D-Concord, who is challenging Sununu for the governor's seat, said he and others have been pushing for a frontline worker fund for months.

"It's good to see the governor adopt our idea and move one step closer to putting our proposal into practice," he said. "This is an important step to recognize the sacrifice these workers make every day to protect public health and safety. Hopefully we can work to ensure other essential workers, including grocery store workers and all frontline health care workers, can receive a similar stipend in the near future."

Other Senators including Kevin Cavanaugh of Manchester, Jon Morgan of Brentwood, Melanie Levesque of Brookline, and Tom Sherman of Rye commended the decisions.

Learn More About The Spread Of COVID-19

The COVID-19 virus is spread through respiratory droplets, usually through coughing and sneezing, and exposure to others who are sick or might be showing symptoms.
Health officials emphasize residents should follow these recommendations:

• Avoid any domestic and international travel, especially on public transportation such as buses, trains, and airplanes.
• Practice social distancing. Stay at least 6 feet from other people, including distancing while in waiting areas or lines.
• Anybody who is told to self-quarantine and stay at home due to exposure to a person with confirmed or suspect COVID-19 needs to stay home and not go out into public places.
• If you are 60 years or older or have chronic medical conditions, you need to stay home and not go out.
• Avoid gatherings of 10 people or more.
• Employers need to move to telework as much as possible.
• There is increasing evidence that this virus can survive for hours or possibly even a few days on surfaces, so people should clean frequently touched surfaces, including door handles, grocery carts and grocery basket handles, etc.

Take the same precautions as you would if you were sick:

• Stay home and avoid public places when sick (i.e., social distancing).
• Cover mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing.
• Wash hands frequently.
• Disinfect frequently touched surfaces.

More information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services about coronavirus can be found here on the department's website.

• Guidance to schools can be found can be found here.
• Instructions for returning travelers to self-observe for symptoms of COVID-19 are available are available here.
• For more information on COVID-19 in NH, visit its site here.
• For the latest information from the CDC, visit its site here.

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• Coronavirus Is Also A Press Freedom Story in US, Around The World
• Hundreds Protest The Extended New Hampshire Stay-At-Home Order
• NH Coronavirus: Sununu Extends 'Stay At Home 2.0' to May 31

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