FILE - This 2020 electron microscope image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - Rocky Mountain Laboratories shows SARS-CoV-2 virus particles which causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells cultured in a lab. On Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, the top U.S. public health agency said that coronavirus can spread greater distances through the air than 6 feet, particularly in poorly ventilated and enclosed spaces. But agency officials continued to say such spread is uncommon, and current social distancing guidelines still make sense. (NIAID-RML via AP)

CONCORD – The state Department of Health and Human Services announced 322 new positive test results for COVID-19 Sunday and four deaths.

They include two men from Belknap County, one man from Sullivan County and a woman from Coos County, all over age 60.

The state no longer reports the new number of patients hospitalized in their daily news release, just the total number in the hospital for COVID-19.

The last time the state reported the daily number was Nov. 13 and said there were 7 new hospitalizations for a total of 69 people in the hospital for COVID-19.

On Sunday, the state didn’t report the new daily number, but said there were 116 hospitalizations, an increase of 60 percent in 9 days.

That’s a daily PCR test positivity rate of 2.3%. Today’s results include 215 people who tested positive by PCR test and 107 who tested positive by antigen test. There are now 4,199 current COVID-19 cases diagnosed in New Hampshire.

Several cases are still under investigation. Additional information from ongoing investigations will be incorporated into future COVID-19 updates. Of those with complete information, there are thirty-three individuals under the age of 18 and the rest are adults with 53% being female and 47% being male.

The new cases reside in Rockingham (81), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (38), Merrimack (32), Belknap (22), Cheshire (12), Grafton (12), Strafford (10), Carroll (8), Coos (4), and Sullivan (3) counties, and in the cities of Manchester (57) and Nashua (20). The county of residence is being determined for twenty-three new cases.

Community-based transmission continues to occur in the State and has been identified in all counties. Of those with complete risk information, most of the cases have either had close contact with a person with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis or are associated with an outbreak setting.

There are currently 117 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. In New Hampshire since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 17,598 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed with 830 (5%) of those having been hospitalized.

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