NH’s lack of house care raises COVID danger

CONCORD, NH (AP) – New Hampshire’s failure to provide home health services to skilled elderly and disabled people puts at risk of ending up in nursing homes badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic. This emerges from a lawsuit against state health officials Monday.

The lawsuit was filed by New Hampshire Legal Assistance, the New Hampshire Disability Rights Center, the AARP Foundation and the Nixon Peabody law firm on behalf of four people participating in a Medicaid waiver program called Choices for Independence, which helps participants supposed to stay in the city their homes.

“When CFI participants are deprived of the long-term community care that the state provides and is entitled to, they are exposed to serious health risks,” AARP Foundation senior attorney M. Geron Gadd said in a statement. “If the CFI waiver is not properly managed, it will not only deprive participants of the right to live at their leisure, but also significantly increase the likelihood of COVID-19 exposure in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.”

Pamela Phelan, litigation director for the disability rights group, said the plaintiffs were “a crisis away” from unnecessary institutionalization and, without the promised services, “they would spend hours or days alone in bed or in their own four walls”. . “

A spokesman for the attorney general said they had not yet received the complaint.

The payment

New Hampshire health officials reported 711 new positive test results for COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the state’s total to 52,307. Some test results from the past few days have been included.

Officials reported that 6,118 active cases and 267 people have now been hospitalized for a pandemic. A total of 934 hospital admissions were made (1.79% of all cases).

No new deaths were reported, bringing the state’s death toll to 869 (1.66% of all cases) and 679 in long-term care facilities (78% of all deaths).

The new virus cases include 85 people under the age of 18. The rest are adults with 52% women and 48% men. You live in Rockingham (128), Hillsborough County except Manchester and Nashua (119), Merrimack (112), Strafford (69), Cheshire (42), Sullivan (32), Belknap (23), Carroll (22), Coos ( 19) and Grafton (17) as well as in the cities of Manchester (54) and Nashua (38). The residential district was designated for 36 new cases.

The number of people confirmed as healthy rose to 45,320 (87% of all cases).

The Seacoast parishes with the most active cases on Monday were Dover (216), Rochester (126), Portsmouth (82), Somersworth (71), Hampton (63), Durham (53), Exeter (39) and Seabrook ( 36).

Race canceled

An annual New Hampshire sled dog race that typically attracts hundreds of people was canceled this year due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

The Laconia World Championship Sled Dog Derby was scheduled for February 12-14.

“Everywhere we turned we couldn’t get it to work because of COVID,” Jim Lyman, president of the Lakes Region Sled Dog Club, told The Laconia Daily Sun on Friday.

Lyman said social distancing restrictions have banned traditional spectator viewing areas.

Another obstacle is the continued closure of the US-Canada border to non-essential traffic, Lyman said. Between half and two-thirds of the mushers who take part in the Derby’s open-class events come from Quebec. The derby dates back to 1929. Since the early 1980s, it has been canceled 13 times due to poor snow conditions.

Associated Press material is used in this report.

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