More than 3,000 New Hampshire residents have now died from COVID-19.
The latest grim milestone in the state’s journey through the pandemic came this week, as state officials shared its latest weekly update on fatalities, hospitalizations and case counts.
New Hampshire announced its first COVID-19 case a little over three years ago, on March 2, 2020. The state reported its first confirmed death from the virus several weeks later.
Those We've Lost: NHPR's COVID-19 Remembrance Project
Older adults and long-term care residents have been hit hardest by the virus in New Hampshire, according to state data. While the pandemic has claimed the lives of Granite Staters of all ages — including six people under age 30 — more than 75% of people who’ve died from COVID have been older than 70.
More than 40% of the state’s COVID deaths have been connected to long-term care settings. Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and similar institutions were especially vulnerable at the outset of the pandemic, before the introduction of vaccines and other mitigation measures. As the pandemic wore on, the state saw more people dying outside of these settings.
At this stage in the pandemic, the state’s data shows lower mortality rates for Black, Latino, Asian and American Indian/Alaska Native residents than for white residents.
Black and Latino New Hampshire residents were especially hard hit when the pandemic first arrived, and those disparities persisted in the state’s vaccine rollout — mirroring patterns seen across the country. But an analysis by the Washington Post found the “mortality gap” has since reversed.
“A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of [2021], becoming roughly equal,” the Post wrote. “And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people.”
In its analysis, the Post noted that the virus has been especially deadly for “unvaccinated adults — who polls show are more likely to be Republicans — with a ferocity that puts them at a much higher risk of infection and death.”
