Cheshire Medical reports highest COVID-19 positivity rate since winter surge

May 25—Cheshire Medical Center is reporting a continued increase in its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests, which has reached its highest level in months.

The Keene hospital's data — which officials report every other week, half as often as in earlier stages of the pandemic — show that between May 13 and May 19, the positivity rate rose to 21.9 percent. This rate is specific to tests performed by Cheshire Medical.

This continues an upward trend that began toward the end of April, after an almost two-month lull. The hospital reported a positivity rate of 15.2 percent as of May 5 and 17.4 percent as of May 12.

"I think the people who should be worried are the people that aren't vaccinated," Dr. Don Caruso, Cheshire Medical's president and CEO, said Wednesday. "There's so much right now that you are going to be exposed to."

With 615 new cases of the viral disease per 100,000 people over the past two weeks, Cheshire County is facing a "substantial" level of community transmission, according to the N.H. COVID-19 dashboard, which currently shows every county as falling into this highest category of transmission.

Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website — which uses slightly different metrics than the state dashboard — indicates a medium level of community transmission in Cheshire County as of last Thursday.

Cheshire Medical Center's positivity rate had stayed below 10 percent — a figure officials have said helps prevent the hospital from getting overwhelmed — since late February. The hospital reported an all-time high around 33 percent in the final weeks of January, which came amid a four-month stretch of rates above 10 percent dating back to early October. This is the first time the rate has topped 20 percent since Feb. 3, when the hospital reported a positivity rate of 23.7 percent.

In mid-March the percent positivity was 5.9 percent.

Caruso said the number of patients at the hospital with the virus has also increased. As of Wednesday morning, 12 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, though no one was in the ICU with the disease, he said. At the height of the winter surge, the hospital saw 29 inpatients at once.

"It's reflective that there is a lot [of COVID-19 transmission] in the community, but the number of people sick from COVID needing hospitalizations is low," he said.

While he said those who are up to date on their vaccines should not be concerned, those who aren't vaccinated or who are susceptible because of risk factors should exercise caution due to the high positivity rate.

"Positivity is high right now," he said. "Those people who are at risk should mask, and those people at risk should not be going to gatherings."

This latest increase could be due to a variety of reasons, Dr. Aalok Khole, an infectious disease physician at the Dartmouth Health affiliate, told The Sentinel earlier this month. Relaxed mitigation measures, more social gatherings and increased transmissibility of the variants currently circulating are all likely factors, Khole said.

Cheshire Medical is remaining vigilant amid the recent uptick, Khole said in a statement emailed to The Sentinel on Wednesday.

"We continue to maintain a watchful eye," he said. "We are seeing an uptick in hospitalizations locally, no doubt, but looking at the trends all around, and given that majority of these patients are not as sick as we last saw in December 2021 and January 2022, we are hopeful that we won't see a wave that overwhelms operations."

Cheshire Medical continues to urge people to practice COVID-19 safety measures, such as staying home when sick and washing hands frequently. The hospital also still encourages mask-wearing in public, especially in crowded spaces or for those who are immunocompromised.

As the weather starts to warm, health officials say that the more people can have any social gatherings outdoors, the better, as this makes it harder to contract the virus.

Health experts also continue to push those who haven't done so to get a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot(s), as these are the best way to protect yourself and others from a serious case of the viral disease.

More information and resources about COVID-19 are available at sentinelsource.com/news/coronavirus.

People can schedule a COVID-19 vaccine or booster appointment at vaccines.nh.gov or by calling 2-1-1.

Staff writer Olivia Belanger contributed reporting to this article.

Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @rspencerKS