GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Oh, man: "complex thermal profiles"!!! That's what the weather folks say. They won't really affect us during the day, though, unless you're above 1500 feet. What we're going to see is rain showers starting this morning and lasting into the evening. And it's going to be a cold rain—temps won't get out of the 40s. Then, later tonight, it may change over to snow as the temps drop. Mostly an inch or two wherever snow does fall, though more in the northern Whites. If you want to see what this will all look like around the region, here are the forecast and probability maps for:
Photographer Jim Block was out and about between Hanover and Lyme the other morning, and happened upon all those things. You can guess what a fogbow is, but if you've never seen one, they're magical.
So... what do the numbers look like today?
NH is at 788 confirmed cases (up 41), with 18 deaths and 228 recovered, for a total of 542 current cases. Two of those new cases are in Grafton County, which is now at 43; Sullivan remains at 6.
Vermont is now up to 605 total cases, which is 30 more, with 35 hospitalized (up 6) and 23 deaths (no change). Windsor County remains at 24 officially reported cases, Orange is up one, to 5 in all.
At this point, what may be more meaningful than the plain stats is something called their average geometric growth. It's a way of measuring a growth rate over time (if you want more,
), and for our purposes, what matters is that when it's consistently below 1.0, the growth-rate curve is flattening. If you hit the maroon link, then scroll to the second graph and highlight New Hampshire or Vermont, and then choose "New Cases/Day" under data and hover over the latest data point, you'll get a sense of where things stand. NH isn't there yet (though the numbers are spotty), VT's on its way.
And now a word about the guy who brought that to you.
Since the beginning of the month, Dr. Robert McLellan has been helping me sort through the torrent of virus-related material and determine whether it's helpful or not. Bob's an occupational and environmental health doc, which means he deals a lot with data and how to keep large groups of people healthy. He's a past president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and is an invaluable guide. My heartfelt thanks to him for shining a light in bewildering times. Also, he's really fun to work with.
Over the past three years, the Rotary's gala auction has raised over $800,000 to give to local nonprofits. Ordinarily, those grants come later in the year—the rest will be announced soon—but the club wanted to speed up grant-giving this year. It singled out LISTEN, which has had to close its stores, which are its chief revenue raiser, and the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council, which has seen a huge rise in demand for delivered meals.
"Today...we found out that the Haven needed every case of water they could get," an employee posted on Facebook last night. "They need this so [the people they serve] can have a water for a day. Each day they get a bag lunch since the pandemic started and without bottled water they don’t have anything to drink. When my coworkers heard this they all banded together and bought out every case of water we had left in the store! It was over 60 cases of water!"
In a campus-wide email sent out yesterday by Covid-19 task force co-chairs Lisa Adams and Josh Keniston, they report that NH National Guard troops will begin moving furniture and supplies in tomorrow. There will be beds for up to 125 patients. “Everyone's hope is that our social distancing efforts are working and that this space won't be needed, but we are preparing it just in case,” Adams and Keniston write.
Relying on help from the company's binding manufacturer in China, Donna Burton Carpenter has bought 500,000 FDA-approved KN95 respirator masks to be distributed throughout the Northeast. The first 48,000 have been delivered, and are earmarked for hospitals in VT and for DHMC, "where Burton Carpenter’s late husband, Jake, spent two months in 2015 while fighting a rare nerve disorder," AP reports. At least half the rest will go to NYC and Boston when they arrive. “It’s absolutely insane that a snowboard company has to do this because we’re the ones who have the relationships in China,” Burton Carpenter says. “But it’s something we’re more than glad to be doing.”
"It is a little-known fact, but nurses often rely on housekeeping people for information about the problems that hospitalized patients are having." That's former nurse Richard Davis, writing in the Brattleboro weekly, The Commons. He points out that hospital housekeeping, maintenance, and food service staff are unsung heroes even in ordinary times, "the invisible foundation of our institutional health care systems...who make sure that the patient-care environment is safe, supportive, and clean." They're still at work, but under dangerous circumstances. "I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that they are among the most exposed to COVID-19 in the institutions caring for patients with the disease."NH gets unusable testing equipment. The state got 15 rapid-test machines from the feds, but only a fraction of the test cartridges it needs to use them. “I’m banging my head against the wall, I really am,” Gov. Chris Sununu said yesterday. “It’s really frustrating."Wonder what those people in cars sitting at NH-VT border crossings are doing? They're counting cars as they cross into and out of Vermont. Why? The state says it's to track whether its Covid-19 mitigation strategy is cutting down on travel. The only information being recorded, a spokesperson for the Dept of Financial Regulation says, is the state of registration.Speaking of travel, NHDOT says Coronavirus? Pshaw! Well, not quite in those words, but it has no plans to curtail highway construction season. Gary Abbott of the Associated General Contractors of NH tells NH Business Review that after a conference call with Gov. Sununu, they're preparing for a full season of work, and that contractors are calling back seasonal employees and looking for new hires. The DOT has issued guidelines setting out measures to be taken at all job sites to safeguard the health of workersAt the same time, NH is facing a stressed unemployment system. Employment Security commissioner George Copadis told the Executive Council yesterday that more than 100,000 new unemployment claims have been filed since March 17, which outstrips the number of claims filed in all of the past three years. To date, the state has issued more than 67,000 payments, worth nearly $19 million, since it expanded unemployment assistance.Self-employed and sole proprietors may be able to file for benefits next week in VT. Unemployed workers can already do so (when they can get through) for Covid-19-related layoffs, but federal guidance on the self-employed has been slower in coming and, in VT at least, the Dept. of Labor had to build an entirely new payment system for them. That's on its way, however, and the department says it ought to have an application online within a week and should be able to start issuing benefits a week to 10 days after that. VT Senate approves remote voting. Sixteen lawmakers wearing masks filed one by one into the chambers yesterday, while others joined in remotely. They unanimously gave themselves the ability to vote from home, taking less than an hour in one another's presence to wrap things up. The measure sunsets at the end of the legislative biennium, but several members pointed out it may need to be made permanent if the coronavirus turns out to be seasonal.
The state Dept of Environmental Conservation has recommended that the ban, due to go into effect in July, be postponed until January. It's faced pressure from trash haulers to make that move, as well as to allow haulers not to collect recyclables during the crisis. Solid waste districts, on the other hand, are pushing back, given the investments they've made in building up composting and processing capacity for food scraps.
Jan Stryker sends along a pic of a socially distanced group of golden retrievers from various states who get together from time for play dates. Those are on hold, but they gathered virtually recently. Skylar and Autumn — they're holding "Curve" — are from Windsor.
Rt. 132 work in Thetford to start as soon as Monday. In a post to the Thetford listserv, Selectboard chair Nick Clark noted that the construction, from Tucker Hill Road to the Strafford line, will "begin with some culvert work and...last all summer." Though the EPA is funding some of the work, the town will have to pay for guardrails and signage, as well as work on a top coat and striping next year. The town has also undertaken an engineering study for thestretch of 132 from Tucker Hill to the Norwich line, but that may prove expensive enough to the town to require a bond. (Link is to a VN recap.)Dartmouth student files for Hanover/Lyme NH House seat, to replace graduating Dartmouth student. The seat is currently held by Garrett Muscatel, who's graduating this year. On Monday, Riley Gordon, a sophomore and former president of the Dartmouth College Democrats, announced his bid on social media. He'll focus his campaign on student voting rights. (VN)Make plans now! There's going to be a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, and unlike the last time North America got to see one (that was three years ago, feels like forever, right?) totality will be visible from northern VT and NH. That will be at about 3:30 pm, WMUR reports. Mark your calendar!
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
#UVTogether
Staying Sane
Hop@Home tonight has a repeat of the Coast Jazz Ensemble's Feb. 22 performance of the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn Such Sweet Thunder suite, followed by a live chat with ensemble members and director Taylor Ho Bynum. The suite came out of part of a summer that Ellington and Strayhorn spent hanging out at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival on Ontario.
Marquee TV, which offers dance, theater, and opera performances on demand, has a 30-day free trial that ought to let you while away some free time. You'll need to cancel if you don't want it to roll over into the paid portion of your subscription, so mark it in your calendar. (Thanks, SL!)
Or for some music unlikely to show up on Marquee, you could check out Blessissippi, a 20-minute explore.org documentary on the blues and the state that gave rise to some of the greatest musicians this country's produced.
Helping Out
UNH Extension has a helpful map up that lets you zero in on where you can get assistance with food or personal items in the state if you need them, or donate if you can afford to do that. Once you're at the map, you'll find instructions on finding help, volunteer opportunities, and places to donate.
DHMC has a new fund dedicated to helping it buy Personal Protective Equipment, including gloves, masks, goggles, scrubs, respirators, ventilators, and cleaning supplies. It's become ever more urgent, and prices have been rising.
The VA employees association at the WRJ VA has a similar effort going looking for donations of masks, face shields, gloves, and gowns to be distributed in this region and to staff who've been deployed to help out in New York City.
The Upper Valley Business Alliance has continued to expand and refine its list of restaurants that are doing takeout and pickup, now with details on how to order, where they deliver, etc. If you're of a mind to eat and help at the same time, this has become a great resource.
Reading Deeper
There's a developing science on the airborne spread of the coronavirus that's a little unsettling. This roundup of where things stand is by Robert Roy Britt, former editor of LiveScience.com, and it lays out the emerging evidence that the virus is exhaled (not just coughed or sneezed out) by infected people talking and breathing, and the argument over whether it "stays suspended in the air long enough, while remaining viable, for someone else to get it in their eyes or inhale it and thus be infected." The answers, he says, are "yes, yes, yes, and probably," though he points out that the WHO is still not convinced.
The other day, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo gave a riveting, four-minute isolation soliloquy on what it's like to have Covid-19 and, more importantly, what seems to be helping him deal with it. His advice, basically, is to fight the virus by moving and breathing deeply, even when it hurts. This is based on what respiratory therapists call pulmonary hygiene, which holds, among other things, that prolonged bed rest can be harmful in all sorts of ways. Worth watching, but remember: Cuomo's not a physician and neither is Daybreak, so if you're sick and need advice, your own doc is the place to turn.
The seasons go round theygo round and aroundsaid the tulipdancing among her friendsin their brown bed in the sunin the April breezeunder a maple canopythat was also dancingonly with greater motionscasting greater shadowsand the grasshardly stirring
— From "April," by Alicia Ostriker
Go have a good day. See you tomorrow.
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