NASHUA – According to the city’s epidemiologist Angela Consentino, trends in COVID-19 cases haven’t dimmed any expectations.

“We knew with the holidays that we were going to see an increase in cases,” she said. “It definitely wasn’t surprising to us. Forty percent of all of the cases that we have had during the pandemic occurred in the month of December. So, it’s been hugely busy for us and we’re hoping that now that the holidays are over, people won’t be gathering with their families as much and we’ll see a bit of a dip.”

With the vaccination, Consentino said she and the public health staff hope that will also put a dent in the number of new cases that they are seeing. She doesn’t believe that the introduction of the vaccine created unfound confidence in people, not treating the reality of testing positive for COVID-19 due to careless behavior.

“I don’t think so,” she said. “People are fatigued. We’ve been dealing with this for the past ten months. And most of the people who I have talked to who ended up sick due to a family gathering – they were having a small family gathering.”

Consentino added that people weren’t having large parties but rather were infected being a part of a small group of their family.

“People weren’t behaving inappropriately,” she said. “It’s just the nature of this virus. And I don’t think people were going out and about because they knew that the vaccine was on its way.”

Many people who tested positive for the coronavirus say they have no idea how they contracted the disease, as they have been careful and mindful of their behavior.

“The vast majority of our cases are community-based transmission,” Consentino said, “or no identified risk. So about 62 percent of New Hampshire cases have an unclear, unknown transmission source. So that means that person has no idea where they got COVID. They just went to a couple of places and so they can’t trace anything back.”

The second highest demographic after that is contact with someone who contracted COVID-19.

“This is typical of families who got sick, and then mom is sick and then the kids got sick,” Consentino said. “That’s typically what happens when family members get sick. We can clearly identify where the source of infection was, but the vast majority of infection is unclear and likely community-based.”

COVID-19 testing, which had previously been conducted on Tuesdays at the Elm Street Garage, has been moved to the National Guard Armory at 154 Daniel Webster Highway in Nashua, due to colder weather.

“Testing is going quite well,” Consentino said. “We always have a high turnout. And in the past month, we’ve definitely seen an increase in the number of people looking to get tested.”

Consentino added that the number of people being tested each week is about 200, compared to in the fall, when the city was testing between 100 – 125 people per week.

“That number has increased,” she said. “And our percent of positivity has been increasing. Last week, about 20 percent of the people who tested were positive. So this is higher than the Nashua positivity rate, which has been floating around 13 percent. But it makes sense for specific testing clinics that have 200 people to have a higher positivity rate, because people who are sick, and symptomatic or who have been exposed are getting tested, versus people who are testing because they are going back to work or have no risk factors.”

As for the number of vaccines in Nashua, city emergency preparedness coordinator Michael Apollo said the numbers have been on task with what was expected.

“I would say that the timeline has definitely been extended,” he said. “We’ve been hearing all along that there were going to be 20 million people vaccinated by the end of 2020. That just has not come to fruition.”

Apollo said that here at the regional level, the biggest challenge has been keeping up with the changes.

“And we’re trying to keep up with all the information streams,” he said. “Trying to find the common thread between them and keeping morbidity and mortality at the forefront of our minds and how we’re going to best eliminate that.”

The number of vaccines versus vaccinations here in Nashua have been on par, according to Apollo, as people often ask, “Will there be enough vaccines?”

“To be honest with you, we have been relying a lot on the local fixed site at Nashua High School South,” he said. “As far as I have heard, no one has been turned away due to lack of vaccines. In most cases, there’s actually additional vaccine available where folks that are still in the Phase One A group can go get it.”

Apollo added that often at the end of a day, it might be determined that there are additional doses left in the vial.

“They’re done with appointments at the end of the day, let’s say,” he said. “They contact us, and then we connect people who qualify for Phase One A who haven’t been vaccinated yet, and they go to the fixed site to eliminate those vaccines.”

Nashua High School South is one of the 13 fixed vaccination sites that the state is manning via branches of the armed forces.

“We work very closely with them,” Apollo said. “They are a valued partner, as we have been able to rely on them in the region.”

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