Women continue to come down with COVID-19 at much higher rates than men in New Hampshire but they don’t get seriously sick as often, and men are much more likely to die from the novel coronavirus.
Granite Geek: If there weren’t enough obstacles, COVID-19 testing faces math paradox
N.H.’s local meat processing has avoided national turmoil
Concord Monitor
Workers cut beef into sections at PT Farm meat processing plant in North Haverhill, N.H., in September 2012. (Valley News — Sarah Priestap)
New Hampshire’s small but thriving meat-processing industry, the creation of years of effort accompanying the state’s resurgence in small farms, seems unaffected by the turmoil in the vastly larger industry in other parts of the country.
The state has four USDA-approved sites that can slaughter, cut and package beef for sale through stores, all of them tiny by the standards of national corporations. None has been reported to have shut due to COVID-19 or had reported outbreaks of the disease, perhaps in part because they have small, local work forces.
“People are taking it seriously,” said Peter Roy, owner of PT Farm in north Haverhill, who has about 15 employees at peak times. “There’s a guy who never missed a day of work in five years, he wasn’t feeling well so he stayed home to be sure. Nobody wants it here.”
The contrast with industrial meat-processing facilities, which hire seasonal labor, often new immigrants, and have high turnover, is striking, he said.
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Home-buying is still going strong in N.H. even though it’s gotten more complicated
Concord Monitor staff
Tom and Judy Clark get the sold sign after the closing at BHHS Verani Realty in Concord on April 30. The Clarks are moving up from East Boston to be closer to their children and grandchildren. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff
As you would expect, COVID-19 has created a lot of change in New Hampshire’s economy. But you might not have expected what those changes are for the real estate industry.
“We’ve been open for 15 years; March was our single best month for new orders,” Matthew Neuman, owner of Absolute Title, a property title company with offices in Concord, said last week. “And April – we’re not even done with the month and it’s our second biggest month ever.”
Despite economic uncertainty caused by business closings and the complications that social distancing has placed on document signing and house tours, the business of buying, selling and refinancing residences hasn’t slowed at all.
“I’ve had four drive-through (closings) today. … Real estate is booming in New Hampshire,” said Robin Mooney of Broker’s Title of Londonderry, speaking at a closing in Concord’s Fisherville neighborhood on Thursday.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.