CONCORD – State health officials abruptly ended a press conference on Sunday about the third and fourth cases of COVID-19 in New Hampshire identified over the weekend – including the first in Rockingham County – while refusing to say whether the third person works at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon as do the first two.

Officials released little information about the fourth man in Rockingham County – the first positive test for COVID-19 outside Grafton County – except to say he is self-isolating after recently travelling to Italy and had been at home for several days after returning.

“We believe the exposure to the community (in Rockingham County) is low at this time,” said Dr. Benjamin Chan, the state epidemiologist, but stressed the investigation is in its early stages.

Church services were cancelled Sunday and for the rest of the week at Hope Bible Fellowship Church at 114 Seminary Hill in West Lebanon after the third man tested positive for COVID-19 at the state laboratory on Saturday. He had attended a service there on March 1 with the second man to be identified from Grafton County and about 60 churchgoers.

The total number of positive tests in New Hampshire now stands at four – three men in Grafton County and the latest man in Rockingham County, officials said. All are in isolation at home and the state is now monitoring 150 other individuals, officials said at the news conference.

Dr. Chan said the state laboratory has tested about 40 individuals for COVID-19 in the last week, about half on Saturday.

“We are certainly ramping up testing in our public health laboratory and we can certainly expect further tests to be conducted in the coming days and potentially even positive tests,” Chan said.

There is no connection to Vermont where officials recently identified the state’s first case of COVID-19, officials said.

Officials say they are precluded from releasing more details about individuals because of federal privacy statutes, frustrating reporters who sought to make the name of the town where the person is quarantined public because town meeting is Tuesday, March 10, and the patients’ place of employment.

In the case of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, one reporter said there are 8,000 employees so it is unlikely that that person’s identity would be revealed, but officials said only DHMC could release that information. A DHMC spokesman didn’t respond to questions on Sunday.

The state isn’t issuing any suggestions relative to whether people should gather at town meetings or other events at this point in the outbreak.

Officials said releasing too much geographical detail could identify the person, adding patients’ identity is confidential by federal law to protect them.

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