Harrison Thorp 7 a.m.
Friday, April 17, 2020 7:02 am

CONCORD - A Dover assisted living facility is the latest to fall prey to a new cluster infection of COVID-19, health officials announced on Thursday.

DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette announced during a news conference in Concord Thursday afternoon that Bellamy Fields, of Garrison Road, had seen five residents and five staff members test positive recently, adding to concern of a troubling trend of nursing homes with outbreaks.

"Especially in some of these long-term care facilities where some of our most vulnerable citizens and family members are we're still seeing the mortality rate unfortunately take its toll," said Gov. Chris Sununu.

That brings to six the number of nursing homes across the state that have been hit by cluster outbreaks.

Quick testing of all residents and staff at such facilities are vital, said Shibinette and several quick-testing strategies, including the five-minute test developed by Abbott Labs, will be employed whenever such an outbreak occurs, Shibonette added.

The strategy is to get both residents and staff who are infected quickly quarantined and onto a treatment plan.

No other area assisted care facilities have thus far been hit with severe outbreaks, officials say.

Shibinette reported 71 new positive test results for COVID-19 on Thursday, continuing an upward trend after a lull last week and including two people under the age of 18.

Meanwhile, fatal cases of the disease claimed another two Granite Staters from Rockingham and Hillsborough counties, the state's two hardest counties.

Total confirmed COVID cases have now reached 1,211.

Of those new cases with complete information, 55 percent are female and 42 percent are male, with one female and one male under the age of 18 and the rest adults.

The new cases reside in Rockingham (33), Strafford (7), Hillsborough County other than Manchester and Nashua (4), Merrimack (4), and Sullivan (1) counties, and the cities of Manchester (13) and Nashua (8).

Nine new hospitalized cases were identified for a total of 187 (15%) of 1,211 cases.

Locally, Dover remains the hardest-hit local town, with 20-49 cases, Rochester, Farmington and Somersworth remain at 5-9 apiece and Farmington and Milton remain in the 1-4 range.

During Thursday's press conference Sununu stressed that while online learning will continue at state schools through the summer, he hopes for a new model that can be in place for a return to school this coming fall.

In Maine, state confirmed cases rose to 796, while COVID-19 related deaths stand at 27.

York County has 164 confirmed cases, 34 hospitalizations and six deaths. Numbers are not available in Maine for individual cities and towns.