Increase in COVID numbers brings swift responses

MEREDITH — A Cumberland Farms convenience store and gas station has been closed after an employee tested positive for COVID-19, the company announced Friday.

The announcement about the store at 334 Daniel Webster Highway came amid growing evidence of community spread of the disease in the Lakes Region and elsewhere.

Aside from the effects on public health, the virus has also had an impact on business community in the Lakes Region and elsewhere.

The Bank of New Hampshire announced that, to reduce disease spread and respond to evolving pandemic challenges, it will operate all BNH offices as drive-thru only starting Monday.

In another business response to the surge, The Laconia Daily Sun is temporarily closing its offices to the public starting Monday.

Chief Executive Officer Tom Boucher of Great NH Restaurants told Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in a conference call on Friday that the restaurant industry requires a new round of COVID-19 relief money.

Outdoor dining has kept restaurants afloat, but as the cold weather sets in, revenue is down 30 percent for his company, which includes T-Bones and Cactus Jack’s in Laconia. The capacity of indoor dining has to be limited to allow social distancing, and some customers simply do not want to eat inside.

He estimates that by the end of this year, the company will have spent $500,000 on tables, chairs, air purifiers, dividers, face masks and other equipment to deal with the pandemic. The company has eliminated bonuses and employee dividends, which amounts to a 30 percent reduction in annual salary for some staff members.

“We’re going to lose a half million dollars this quarter and another half million in the first quarter of next year, maybe even more depending on how much fear continues to be put out there,” Boucher said.

“Dr. Fauci is not helping the situation. I don’t know where he gets his data, but he continues to pound the drum, ‘Don’t go out to eat. Don’t go out to eat.’

”There’s no data whatsoever to support that statement. It’s really hurting the industry across the nation.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he often buys takeout food to support restaurants and encourages the public to do likewise. He said there is some risk involved in dining inside a restaurant.

Dr. Benjamin Chan, New Hampshire state epidemiologist, has also said it’s safer to eat takeout food than it is to dine in at a restaurant.

The state Department of Health and Human Services puts out a news release warning the public when it learns that there was a chance for community exposure to COVID-19 at a restaurant. So far, it has issued 10 such news releases.

Boucher said these advisories scare the public.

“To be honest with you, the media has just been brutal, absolutely brutal on our industry, and again, there’s no data or facts to support it,” he said.

The state has now adopted, at the industry’s request, new guidance under which restaurants get the names and phone numbers of patrons so they can be warned directly.

The New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton has an outbreak involving 14 people, in-person classes at Laconia High School were canceled because a staff member has the virus and state officials say someone who voted at Belmont High School tested positive for the disease.

In Laconia, Laconia Superintendent Steve Tucker said because a significant number of school staff had been in close contact with the COVID-infected staff member, “our ability to staff Laconia High School for face-to-face learning has been compromised.”

Therefore, Laconia High School students will not return to in-person learning until Nov. 30, after the Thanksgiving break, Tucker said.

He said many students had also been in close contact with the infected staff member, but none of the COVID tests conducted as a result of the contact tracing have shown any positive results.

All those in close contact are required to quarantine for 14 days.

Tucker said the Huot Center will reopen for classes on Monday, but any Laconia High School students attending the Huot Center who had been in close contact with the staff member would not be able to attend Huot classes until their quarantine period was over.

Plymouth State University is reporting 11 active cases. There are 36 people at Mount Prospect Academy in Plymouth with the virus. Last month, 10 people associated with the New England Wolves junior hockey team tested positive.

The playoff football game scheduled for Saturday between Plymouth Regional High School and Lebanon was canceled due to COVID concerns on the Lebanon team.

On Thursday, the state reported a record 323 new COVID-19 infections, including 11 in Belknap County.

According to New Hampshire Health and Human Services, 187 people have tested positive for the disease in Belknap County since Oct. 1, or about half of all positive tests in the county since the pandemic began in early March.

Statewide, since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 13,470 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed with 804, or 6 percent, of those having been hospitalized, and there have been 495 deaths.

In a news conference Thursday, Gov. Chris Sununu noted the impact of the disease on the state includes the disruptions caused by quarantine requirements.

“It’s one thing when a few folks get Covid, it’s another thing when 40 or more people have to be quarantined because of that,” he said. “It can shut down classrooms. It has caused a lot of schools to be temporarily closed, not because everyone has Covid, but because there is such close contact within classrooms and groups.”

Sununu said that with the holiday season coming, the state is revising the quarantine requirement for those who travel outside of New England for non-essential reasons. The 14-day quarantine requirement for this group will be reduced to seven days if they test negative for the disease.

Diagnosed cases of the virus in New Hampshire are higher than ever.

“The mortality number is always going up,” he said. “That’s unfortunate, but the percentage of those cases that are fatal compared to the spring is much lower.”

There was much less testing capacity in the spring. At that time, hospitals temporarily stopped elective procedures to create capacity for an anticipated surge of coronavirus patients.

Sununu said he does expect the number of people requiring hospitalizations to rise, but this time, surge facilities can be created without the need to restrict hospitals.