NEWPORT, N.H. — A COVID-19 outbreak at Woodlawn Care Center has grown to include 35 people, two of whom have died.
The outbreak, the largest in the Upper Valley thus far, now includes 22 residents and 13 staff members, one of whom has recovered, said Chris Martin, Woodlawn’s administrator, in a Tuesday phone interview. Two residents died after contracting the disease.
Determining whether the residents died “with COVID or from COVID” is “above my pay grade,” Martin said. A third resident, who did not test positive, also died after the outbreak began on Oct. 21. A fourth resident is hospitalized, he said.
Still, the situation at Woodlawn may be improving. The Newport nursing home on Pine Street has not had any new cases in two days, Martin said.
“I hope we’re on the other end of the curve,” he said.
The nursing home had a positive response to a plea for additional staffing it issued on Saturday, he said. Six new workers have come on board and additional applications are processing. In addition to staff who are infected and isolating, Martin said others aren’t working during the outbreak because they have preexisting conditions or other issues.
Some staff members who tested negative for the virus reported that school districts asked them to keep their children out of classes, and that their spouses’ employers have asked them to stay home from their jobs, further complicating the situation, Martin said.
“A lot of the workers here have been stigmatized,” Martin said, noting that public health officials do not recommend quarantine for contacts of people who have had close contact with someone with COVID-19. “It’s awful.”
He said he hoped officials at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services could convince one large employer and two small school districts to reconsider.
“People are scared,” he said. “I think people thought Sullivan County would be immune.”
As of Monday, there were 55 active cases of COVID-19 in Sullivan County, including 32 cases in Newport and six in Claremont.
There were 102 cases in Grafton County, including 11 in Lebanon and five in Hanover.
In the past two weeks in Vermont, there have been 23 new cases in Orange County and 21 in Windsor County.
There were a total of 2,057 active cases and 56 people hospitalized in New Hampshire as of Monday. There were 526 active cases and 12 people hospitalized in Vermont as of Tuesday.
Two Mascoma Valley businesses reported cases on Tuesday. Pellerin Auto — an auto parts store, service garage and body shop on Route 4 in Enfield — was closed on Tuesday to allow for COVID-19 testing of all employees and a “thorough cleaning” after an employee tested positive for the virus, according to a post on Enfield’s town website.
“The employees have been diligent in wearing masks when with customers, but anybody who has been to Pellerin Auto within the last week may have had an exposure and may wish to contact their (primary care provider) or call 211 to obtain additional guidance and information,” according to the post.
The business is working with town and state officials to conduct contact tracing.
Several Pellerin Auto employees are also members of Enfield’s fire and/or rescue squads, Town Manager Ryan Aylesworth said in a phone interview. At this point, none of those people have tested positive, Aylesworth said.
A customer at Canaan Hardware & Supply tested positive for COVID-19 after shopping there Monday from 11 a.m. to noon, according to a Tuesday post on the store’s Facebook page. Store employees cleaned and sanitized the store before reopening on Tuesday.
The post urged those who may have overlapped with the infected person to watch for symptoms and consult a medical provider.
A spokesman for DHHS commended businesses for proactively alerting the community when exposures may have occurred.
“With community transmission on the rise, there is exposure risk when out in public even when wearing a mask, but being a close contact and therefore possibly exposed is defined as within 6 feet for 10 minutes,” wrote DHHS spokesman Jake Leon in an email.
He said that “testing is widely available throughout the state, and anyone concerned they may have been exposed is encouraged to seek testing.”
At an emergency meeting on Monday, the Cornish School Board voted to continue in-person learning in spite of the uptick in COVID-19 cases in the region, determining that the Woodlawn nursing home outbreak “was not a direct threat to our community,” according to a message Cornish Elementary School Principal Karin Denholm wrote to families.
Still, Denholm urged members of the school community to continue efforts to keep hands clean, stay physically distanced and to wear masks.
The School Board is slated to revisit its response to increasing numbers of cases in the region at its Nov. 16 meeting at 6:30 p.m.
■ A second person at Mascoma Valley Regional High School has tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent Amanda Isabelle said in a Tuesday letter posted to Facebook.
That person, whose role at the school Isabelle did not describe, has been home and in quarantine since Nov. 2, after a close contact had tested positive for COVID-19. The only two people this latest confirmed case interacted with at the school on Nov. 2 were staff members, who have also been in quarantine, Isabelle wrote. No other schools are affected.
■ A new COVID-19 case was reported at Hanover High School on Friday, according to a letter from Superintendent Jay Badams posted to the SAU 70 website.
The letter did not indicate whether the infected person is a student or a staff member. Officials would reach out to close contacts of the person with instructions, Badams wrote.
■ Dartmouth College had six active cases of COVID-19 — two students and four employees — as of Tuesday. Since July 1, 14 students and nine Dartmouth employees have tested positive.
The school had seven students and three employees in quarantine, as well as five students and 14 employees in isolation as of Tuesday. People in quarantine have not tested positive and do not have symptoms, but have some risk factor for COVID-19, such as travel. People in isolation have tested positive or have symptoms and are awaiting their results.
■ The Newport Montessori School reported a case on Nov. 2, according to the DHHS schools dashboard. An email to the school seeking more information about that case was not returned on Tuesday.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
