Kristine and her husband, Eric Renaud, started justeatlocal.us; an interactive list of eateries in the Merrimack Valley, Southern New Hampshire and beyond that remain open in some capacity during the coronavirus pandemic.
Granite Geek: If there weren’t enough obstacles, COVID-19 testing faces math paradox
Noticias Actualizadas de New Hampshire: 11 de mayo
UNH, all state colleges ‘intend’ to open to students in fall
By Staff
Seacoastonline.com
Leah Zarrilli right, photographs her friends and fellow senior classmates, dressed with their graduation caps, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, Friday, May 8, 2020. Commencement ceremonies, which were scheduled for May 16, were postponed due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak. From left are Kelly Anderson, Devin Paquette, Megan Nolan and Zarrilli. The school has stated students have made it clear they want an in-person ceremony and UNH has not yet announced a date for commencement to be rescheduled. [AP Photo/Charles Krupa]
CONCORD -- The University of New Hampshire and all the colleges of the University System of New Hampshire and the Community College System of New Hampshire announced Friday they “intend to welcome students back to campuses for the fall term” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The schools announced they are “working closely with state leaders and health professionals to develop guidelines and criteria that institutions will follow to support a safe return.”
USNH enrolls 32,000 students combined at UNH, Keene State College, Plymouth State University and Granite State College. The state’s community college system includes Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth and Rochester.
Lisa Thorne of USNH said said the announcement reflects the intentions of the schools, but they also acknowledge the pandemic creates continued uncertainty.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
The Show Might Go On, The Show Won’t Go On, The Show Must Go On: The State of Theater in N.H.
By SEAN HURLEY
NH Public Radio
The Copenhagen Cast rehearsing on Zoom (top row, left to right): Amy Agostino, James Sears and Wayne Asbury.
In a normal year, theaters around the state would be preparing for their summer seasons. With gatherings currently forbidden and uncertainty hanging over their heads, many are simply canceling the whole season. Others are postponing or, as NHPR’s Sean Hurley found out, discovering new ways to reach an audience.
Once again I find myself sitting down at my computer for a video conference call. But this time it’s different. This time I’m watching a play, a rehearsal anyway, of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen:
Margrethe: Why did he come? What was he trying to tell you?
Bohr: He did explain later.
Margrethe: He explained over and over again. Each time he explained it became more obscure.
In full rehearsal since January, Director Gary Locke and his three actors had to stop meeting in person, but continued to work on the play via Zoom. “I couldn’t imagine not doing it,” Locke says. “This is a monster, this play, for the actors. And I had one of my actors started working on this in October. The other two were working on it in November. Well how could I, in March, say to them, ‘Nah. Hang it up.’ No. But I think we're further along than anybody else. I'm quite sure of that.”
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Under Covid, paid leave becomes a reality in NH
Federal, state programs put focus on long-debated policy
By Bob Sanders
NH Business Review
For Nikki Curran of Windham, it didn’t seem she had much of a choice. Her employer for the last 11 years, Autism Bridges, a private company headquartered in Bedford, had closed its four therapy centers in three states in response to Covid-19.
Instead, the firm sent its staffers into clients’ homes. But Curran was afraid to go. The Windham schools had sent their students home, and Curran’s 12-year-old son has chronic breathing issues, putting him at high risk should he get the virus.
“We are very careful and very scared,” said Curran.
At first, she and her husband — who teaches middle school in Derry and was soon working remotely — juggled their schedule. But on April 1, Autism Bridges gave Curran roughly half-time office work and some telemedicine jobs and provided her with paid family leave for the rest.
Read the full article.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Venerable but vulnerable: Centenarians hit hard by virus
The Telegraph
In this photo taken on April 1, 2020, 103-year-old Ada Zanusso, poses with a nurse at the old people's home "Maria Grazia" in Lessona, northern Italy, after recovering from Covid-19 infection. To recover from coronavirus infection, as she did, Zanusso recommends courage and faith, the same qualities that have served her well in her nearly 104 years on Earth. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (Residenza Maria Grazia Lessona via AP Photo)
BOSTON (AP) — Centenarians have always been a rare breed. Now they’re an endangered species.
The 100-plus crowd — those most venerable of human beings — is succumbing rapidly and heartbreakingly to the coronavirus pandemic. Entire limbs are being lopped off family trees, and their wisdom and lore are dying with them.
“We’ve been really upset,” said Thomas Perls, a professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University who directs the New England Centenarian Study. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people passing away … cutting these incredible lives shorter.”
“For families, they’re the pride and joy, the anchor, the link to the family’s history. They’re a huge big deal,” he said. “If you have a healthy centenarian who’s cognitively intact with no signs of Alzheimer’s, to me they’re practically immortal. COVID has interfered with that formula for sure.”
Reliable estimates of the numbers of centenarians who have perished in the pandemic are elusive, primarily because most state and government health agencies tracking deaths lump them into an 85-and-older demographic. That age bracket has seen more deaths than any other, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the COVID-19 Tracking Project and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But anecdotal evidence, including newspaper and online death notices, suggests that COVID-19 is exacting a grim toll among the estimated 70,000 centenarians in the U.S. In tiny Rhode Island alone, at least eight people aged 100 or older have died, public health officials say.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Despite economic stumble, luxury real estate market remains solid
By ADAM DRAPCHO
THE LACONIA DAILY SUN
A sunset over a beach in Laconia. For people quarantined in Boston or New York, real estate in the Lakes Region is looking more appealing than ever, according to local real estate agents. (Courtesy photo)
For a professional couple at or near retirement age who own an apartment in Manhattan, or a family stuck in a Boston home as they watch through social media as their neighbors ride out a quarantine at their lakehouse, the prospect of owning a weekend or vacation home in the Lakes Region seems at least as good as ever.
Those, combined with low inventory, are some of the reasons why prices in the local real estate market have held steady, even during a time of historic unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And that spike in interest is occurring when real estate professionals now have more tools at their disposal to show homes and meet with clients in a virtual capacity.
Real estate agents said that prices are being buoyed by a lack of inventory, which predated the coronavirus by months and has continued into the spring selling season.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Local farmers see record sales, strain in labor
By ABBE HAMILTON
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Local farms have been slammed with demand this spring, and credit it to the appeal of shorter, more reliable supply chains in the face of a global pandemic. Many farmers hope the support will continue after their customers go back to work.
In Rindge, Craig Jensen of Sun Moon Farm said they’re selling four times the usual volume of salad greens. Sales didn’t falter at the Connolly Brothers Dairy Farm in Temple even after the usually lucrative Maple Month was canceled, co-owner Chris Connolly said. The farm stand is now staffed full time after traffic more than tripled.
Anticipating high demand, several farms have asked the Cheshire County Conservation District for help taking new forms of payment, District Manager Amanda Littleton said.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
COVID-19 and pets: A Q&A
By Paw Prints Heidi Bassler, veterinarian
Associated Press illustration
The pet parents’ concern about COVID-19 and how it might affect their pets has heightened in the past few weeks. Recently, we have heard multiple news stories of animals contracting this virus.
First, there were dogs in Hong Kong and a cat in Belgium. Then the infamous story of the tiger and other large cats at the Bronx Zoo. A mink farm in the Netherlands came next. Now more stories of companion animals — cats, dogs, hamsters, and ferrets — in the United States and elsewhere contracting the new coronavirus.
What does this all mean for your pets? Let’s do a quick Q&A with some fact-based information.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Beer Going Down the Drain
By Ryan Lessard
Granite State News Collaborative
When New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, ordered a halt to dine-in services at restaurants and bars the day before March 17th, it was a hit for local craft breweries that had already sold hundreds of kegs of beer to restaurants.
Since then, breweries have struggled with the loss of the wholesale market, and sales from their own taprooms, with some reporting that their wholesale revenue has plummeted 20 percent.
Now, after kegs they sold in early March have languished on unused tap lines statewide, brewers are faced with a new dilemma: many of those kegs are going stale.
Since no brewer wants an inferior form of their product to be experienced by consumers, potentially harming their brand, they have little choice but to dump thousands of gallons of stale beer down the drain and replace the kegs at their own cost once restaurant business resumes.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Noticias Actualizadas de New Hampshire: 8 de mayo
By DANIELA ALLEE & MARIA AGUIRRE
NH Public Radio
CREDIT VICTORIA VALENTE OF DERRY
Hoy en "¿Qué hay de nuevo, New Hampshire?”, te contamos:
Se reportan 3 nuevos fallecimientos y 104 casos más de COVID-19. New Hampshire ya tiene más de 2,800 casos confirmados.
Las pruebas ya están disponibles para quienes creen tener síntomas, los mayores a 60 años y aquellos con graves condiciones de salud. No se requiere seguro médico pero sí reserva previa.
Entra a https://www.nh.gov/index.htm para reservar una cita.
El departamento de educación de NH permite ceremonias de graduación en persona que respeten distanciamiento, aunque sugieren desfiles o eventos virtuales. *Nashua pospondrá indefinidamente las ceremonias de sus dos colegios.*
Para escuchar estas y otras noticias, haz click en el audio.
Si vives en el área de Manchester, te sientes enfermo y no tienes un doctor, llama a 603-668-1547 para evaluar si necesitas un examen gratuito y una cita.
#inthistogether
The State We're In: Covering the Economy May 7th 2020
New Hampshire has gone from having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, to one of the highest. New Hampshire Business Review reporter Bob Sanders brings us the stories behind the statistics and Keene Sentinel President, Terrence Williams discusses the impact of the pandemic's economic fallout in the Monadnock Region.
Pregnant mom of 3 still waiting for unemployment check
By Paul Briand
Seacoast Media Group
Jen Montgomery, a pregnant mother of three who lives in Dover, says she’s been unemployed since March 23 from her bartending job in Portsmouth. As of Thursday, May 7, she said, she has not received an unemployment check. Courtesy photo.
Jen Montgomery, a mother living in Dover, said she has been unemployed since March 23 from her job as a bartender at the Elks Club in Portsmouth because of the coronavirus pandemic. She began filing for unemployment with New Hampshire Employment Security right away.
As of Thursday, May 7, she had not received a single payment, she said.
“I’ve been applying for unemployment since then and it said pending,” she said in an email to Seacoast Media Group. “I’ve called the unemployment office five times and they say the state is looking into my wages. Then Monday this week I was denied again, so for the last seven weeks I’ve had no income, still no stimulus check. I have three kids and I’m pregnant with my fourth. How long is this going to keep happening? I was told again by unemployment to file a new claim again this week and see where it goes, and I explained to them that the system is not fair and I literally have nothing.”
NH residents trust science, state response more than federal
Granite State News Collaborative
New Hampshire residents have more confidence in the state government and scientific organizations to respond to the pandemic than they do in the federal government’s response, according to polls from the University of New Hampshire.
That could shape how people in the state behave as the government begins relaxing the economic shutdown despite scientists’ warnings that easing social distancing could cause an increase in new coronavirus cases, said Lawrence Hamilton, professor of sociology and senior fellow in the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH.
“It’s literally life and death in this case,” said Hamilton, who authored the survey along with Thomas Safford, associate professor and fellow in the Carsey School of Public Policy.
People who trust in the federal government are more likely to go to restaurants or salons as the economy reopens, while people who are more confident in scientists will likely continue social distancing.
Read the full article.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Covid-19 forced a chaotic transition to telemedicine in New Hampshire
By Annie Ropeik
NH Business Review
Physical therapist Cristin Zaimes meets remotely with a patient, whose picture is blacked out to protect their privacy. (Courtesy Cristin Zaimes)
For some healthcare providers in New Hampshire, the Covid-19 pandemic has jump-started a move to something they’ve wanted for years: more telemedicine.
But the state’s insurance system has been slow to catch up – and it’s still unclear if it can last.
Cristin Zaimes runs Oceanside Physical Therapy, a clinic in Stratham focused on pelvic health. She wants people to think of telehealth as more than just a lesser substitute for in-person care.
Zaimes says a lot of her clients come in with pain or symptoms that they’ve had for decades without knowing why. Their first appointments are mostly just conversation.
“People come to us and then don’t quite understand their condition, how it’s connected, what they should be doing, the modifications they should make,” she says. “So there’s a lot that can be done – education, watching movement, guiding exercise.”
Zaimes says all of that can happen easily through a screen, making care more accessible and comfortable for people in their homes. She’s wanted to do more of this for years, and she sees a huge opportunity right now.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Nursing evolves during COVID
The Conway Daily Sun
Staci Colbath (right) of Flatbread Co. of North Conway presents gift certificates for VNHCH nurses to Kelly Peckham, RN. Joe Viger photo.
CONWAY — On the front lines of a world health crisis, nursing professionals need our support now more than ever.
Their skill and commitment during the coronavirus pandemic make a lifesaving difference every day.
Nurses have played a major role in healing humanity — from war and disease to poverty and starvation. They continue to steadfastly do as they have always done — care for the ill, the injured, the infirm, the dying.
The American Nursing Association has designated May as Nurses Month. May was selected as May 12 is Florence Nightingale’s birthday. This recognition seeks to honor the individuals known as the heart of health care.
Visiting Nurse Home Care and Hospice this month is celebrating their dedicated nursing staff and has been joined by local businesses Sherman Farm, Flatbread Co., Fields of Ambrosia, McSherry’s Nursery and 302 West Smokehouse in providing gifts of thanks and recognition to these dedicated health-care professionals. “We wanted to do something for the visiting nurses,” said Michelle Dutton of Sherman Farms of East Conway. “We considered donating meals but realized everyone has different preferences. So we decided to donate gift cards instead. That way they can pick up what they need.”
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
No, it’s not business as usual for Makris Lobster and Steakhouse
By RAY DUCKLER
Concord Monitor
Jimmy Makris, owner of Makris Lobster & Steak House in Concord on May 7, 2020, talks about the police visit after a person complained about too many cars in the parking lot. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff
Jimmy Makris is getting fed up.
His popular restaurant, Makris Lobster and Steakhouse, has been shackled. The bills are piling up and not enough money is coming in, just like every other non-essential business since the coronavirus surfaced.
He’s closed, except for takeout, just as the governor ordered. In a little over a week, he could open at 50 percent capacity as the state begins to lift restrictions on businesses, but that’s still a losing proposition. Revenue won't be enough to cover expenses, he said.
Adding insult to injury, Makris had a pair of surprise visits – from the State Liquor Commission and Concord police – in the past week as yet another consequence from the pandemic appeared: The case of the nosy neighbor.
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These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.
Noticias Actualizadas de New Hampshire: 7 de mayo
By DANIELA ALLEE & MARIA AGUIRRE
NH Public Radio
CREDIT FLICKR / BHASKAR DUTTA
Hoy en "¿Qué hay de nuevo, New Hampshire?", te contamos:
El gobernador Chris Sununu permite que cualquier residente del estado que crea tener síntomas de COVID-19, como fiebre o escalofríos, pueda tener acceso a las prueba con reserva previa.
Las pruebas del coronavirus en NH para personas sin seguro médico, serán cubiertas por Medicaid, pero no cubrirán el tratamiento de la enfermedad.
El Consejo de Diversidad e Inclusión le pide al estado crear un equipo y un plan para abordar el impacto desproporcionado del COVID-19 en las comunidades latinas y afroamericanas.
Para escuchar estas y otras noticias, haz click en el audio.
En Nashua, su departamento de salud pública ofrecerá pruebas para COVID-19 en el estacionamiento de la iglesia St. Aloysius el viernes 8 de mayo de 3 p.m. a 7 p.m. Llama a (603) 589-3456 para pedir una cita.
Si vives en el área de Manchester, te sientes enfermo y no tienes un doctor, llama a (603)-668-1547 para evaluar si necesitas un examen gratuito y una cita.