NH COVID-19 Changes Are Happening When it Comes to Weekly Pressers

Editor's Note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England radio personality and may contain the individual's views, opinions or personal experiences. Kimberley Haas is the managing news editor of seacoastcurrent.com.

A spokesperson for the NH Division of Public Health at the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on May 27 there would be no weekly press briefing that Thursday afternoon.

Laura Montenegro responded to a question from Seacoast Current on the subject at about 12:50 p.m. She said there would be no press briefing that day.

After nearly 15 months of twice weekly and then weekly press briefings, it appears there may no longer be a need for them.

New Hampshire Union Leader State House Bureau Chief Kevin Landrigan, who won a lifetime achievement award from the New Hampshire Press Association, says he thinks there was no briefing because Gov. Chris Sununu was at a Fox News event with Sean Hannity which aired on Wednesday.

But it could really be that after nearly 15 months of twice weekly and then weekly press briefings, we have moved past the point of needing them.

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that 62 percent of adults in the United States have had at least one vaccination and 50 percent of people over the age of 18 are fully vaccinated.

Since New Hampshire reported the first case of a COVID-19 infection back in March of 2020, I've always watched the weekly NH State press conference.

It was referred to as 'NH's Response To COVID-19' and featured Sununu, Dr. Beth Daly, Dr. Benjamin Chan and DHHS Commissioner Lori Shibinette.

Normally, the press release confirming the conference would always be emailed to the media on Thursday morning, and it would take place shortly after 3 p.m. that day.

Members of the media could attend in person, or they could call in and be announced.

There was no such email sent on May 27.

Last week's press conference was held on Tuesday, May 18, due to scheduling conflicts and, at that time, the Governor did mention that next week's would return to the Thursday schedule.

In that short amount of time, however, the active cases of COVID-19 have since plummeted to 411 and have hovered around that number for the past couple days.

This is the lowest number of active cases since late September of last year.

Editor's Note: It appears there will be a regularly scheduled press conference on June 3.