By Holly Ramer
and Wilson Ring Associated Press
Here are the latest developments regarding the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic:
New HampshireChurches and other houses of worship will be considered providers of essential services during future states of emergency in New Hampshire.
Gov. Chris Sununu on Tuesday signed a bill that allows such religious organizations to operate to the same degree as essential businesses during a state of emergency.
Supporters argued it wasn’t fair to shut down churches during the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic while hardware and liquor stores remained open. Many religious organizations held services online during that time.
The new law takes effect in 60 days.
Nursing home vaccine mandate: Workers at the Merrimack County Nursing Home have just under two months to get vaccinated against the coronavirus if they want to keep their jobs.
County commissioners on Wednesday adopted a policy requiring the vaccines for all staff at the Boscawen nursing home and its assisted living facility to be vaccinated by Oct. 1.
Commission Chair Tara Reardon said the decision was based on protecting the health and safety of employees, residents and visitors and the community at large. Officials also want to protect residents from the effects of a worker shortage if there was an outbreak among unvaccinated staff, she said.
Music venue restrictions: A music venue in Derry will require concert goers to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test results when it reopens for indoor performances next week.
Starting Aug. 20, the Tupelo Music Hall will require guests to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test within 72 hours of the show. All employees working indoors will be required to be vaccinated and wear masks, while visitors will be encouraged to wear masks.
“Please understand that politics have nothing to do with these decisions,” officials said in a newsletter Wednesday. “The change comes down to the health of our employees, patrons and bands. There will never be a ‘normal’ indoor show again if we don’t take actions now to control the spread of this virus.”
The music hall is encouraging guests to use an app called bindle that will allow vaccination status to be shared without displaying private medical records.
Nashua schools: Students in New Hampshire’s second largest city will be required to wear face masks when they return to school later this month, the school board decided Monday.
The CDC recently recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status. The agency cited the risk of spread of the highly contagious delta variant, even among vaccinated people.
The policy adopted for Nashua’s roughly 11,000 students will require masks to be worn inside school buildings and buses, but not during recess or sports outside.
Board members heard passionate arguments on both sides of the debate.
Lynn L’Heureux, an emergency room nurse, argued against the mandate and described treating an increasing number of depressed and suicidal children. Though she said she loves her job, she said she probably would not have pursued a career in nursing had she known the pandemic was coming.
“When asked multiple times, it’s always masks, social distancing. They feel guarded, they’re emotionally distressed, they can’t communicate properly,” she said. “Masks are a hindrance. They are a pain in the butt.”
Darlene Ford, whose son is going into third grade, spoke in favor of requiring masks, saying it would be easier to start the year cautiously and then relax rules later if things improve.
“Yes, I’m concerned about my kid’s social development but the key thing I want him to learn concern for others, that he’s responsible at school for behaving in a way that’s safe for the people around him,” she said.
Regan Lamphier, whose 8-year-old son died of a respiratory illness in 2014, praised the board for focusing on science and safety and said she hopes no other parents go through what she experienced.
“If one child dies in Nashua, it is too many,” she said.
Board member Paula Johnson voted against the plan, citing an article she found online that suggested that masks have been vectors for everything from meningitis and diphtheria to Legionnaires’ disease and Lyme disease.
“This is what we’re breathing in in the masks because of the moisture,” she said, describing tests performed on masks worn by children in Florida.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the tests as “pseudo-study” and experts have dismissed the reports as misleading.
The numbers: More than 102,000 people have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, including 160 cases announced Wednesday. Two new deaths were announced, bringing the total to 1,393.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has risen over the past two weeks from 53 new cases per day on July 26 to 150 new cases per day on Aug. 9.
VermontThe state of Vermont is going to require that state employees who work with vulnerable populations be vaccinated against COVID-19, Gov. Phil Scott said Tuesday.
Scott said he changed his mind about requiring the vaccine for a portion of the state workforce because of how the highly transmissible delta strain of the virus is responsible for most new cases in the state.
“It’s shown how quickly it can spread,” Scott said of the delta variant during his regular Tuesday virus briefing. “We have an obligation to protect the most vulnerable, those under our care, and I think those in the veterans’ home, the psychiatric hospital as well as the offenders in the correctional facilities, they are under our care.”
Scott said there would be “some sort of an exit ramp” for those who don’t want to be vaccinated. It could be regular testing or something else that hasn’t been determined yet.
Scott said he did not know about how many state employees the requirement would cover. He also said he did not expect to have to expand that requirement to other state employees.
Vaccinations: Officials continue to encourage the approximately 85,000 Vermonters who have not been vaccinated to begin the vaccination process.
Vermont continues to lead the nation with the highest percentage of the eligible population and the overall population vaccinated against COVID-19.
As of Tuesday 84.6% of the eligible population — those 12 and over — has been vaccinated against COVID-19 and 75.4% of the eligible Vermonters are fully vaccinated. Both those figures lead the nation.
Rise: New cases of COVID-19 are expected to continue rising in Vermont through the end of August before they begin to drop off, an official said.
Mike Pieciak, the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation who oversees pandemic statistics for the state, said Tuesday that as the delta variant of the virus has spread across the world it has followed a similar pattern of increasing for seven to nine weeks and then declining.
Among the locations where that pattern has been seen is India, where the delta variant first appeared, and the United Kingdom, according to Pieciak. That pattern is starting to appear in Missouri and Arkansas, some of the states hit hardest by the current surge.
The increase in cases in Vermont began in early July. Currently, Vermont is averaging about 80 new cases a day. Pieciak said he expected that to increase to about 150 a day before declining.
Meanwhile, as of Tuesday, Vermont continued to lead the nation with 84.6% of the eligible population — those 12 and over — having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 75.4% of eligible Vermonters fully vaccinated.
The numbers: Vermont reported 85 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday for a statewide total since the pandemic began of more than 25,750 cases.
A total of 25 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, with seven in intensive care, according to the Vermont Department of Health.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont has risen over the past two weeks from 24.29 new cases per day on July 26 to 83.71 new cases per day on Aug. 9.
The Associated Press is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States.
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