Coronavirus NH: Nine Deaths Highest Single-Day Death Toll

CONCORD, NH — At the Friday news conference for Gov. Chris Sununu's much-anticipated release of a modified stay-at-home order — which will allow parts of the state's economy to slowly reopen in the coming weeks — the first person to speak at the podium was not the governor, but state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan.

In a sobering update, Chan said the state had recorded nine additional deaths from coronavirus. It's the highest single-day death toll since the state began recording statistics on the viral outbreak in March.

All nine deaths were related to long-term care facilities and nursing homes.

"It remains critically important for us to protect those who are most vulnerable in our communities, and specifically older adults and those with chronic medical conditions," Chan said. "We need to do our collective job in terms of helping these populations social distance so we can protect them."

But even with social distancing rules in place, the number of deaths has been climbing. Chan pointed out the last seven days had seen another 30 deaths — all but one, he noted, was "associated with congregate living settings" such as nursing homes.

There is a basis for optimism in the numbers. Chan described "promising signals" in the decrease in the number of people requiring hospitalization, which has fallen to twelve percent of those who test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The rate of new cases is also slowing down, he said, with the data showing a "leveling off."

"Our social distancing efforts have been having an effect," Chan said. "There are some early signals of decreasing community-level transmission, but we still encourage people to stay at home as much as possible.

For the past week, state health officials recorded 164 additional confirmed cases of coronavirus. The total stands at 2,310. Across the U.S., more than than a million cases have been reported.