The Five Seacoast Communities With The Highest Active COVID Cases

These five Seacoast communities in New Hampshire have more than 20 active cases of COVID-19, according to officials from the NH Department of Health and Human Services.

On Wednesday, Rochester had 41 active cases, followed by Dover with 40 and Portsmouth with 33. Raymond and Exeter each had 22 active cases of COVID.

In Durham, where University of New Hampshire students are expected to start moving in on Aug. 27, there were seven active cases as of Wednesday.

Officials from NH DHHS announced 255 new positive test results for COVID for Tuesday. That makes 1,910 current COVID cases diagnosed in New Hampshire as of Wednesday.

Since the start of the pandemic in New Hampshire, a total of 103,989 cases of COVID cases have been diagnosed. One percent of the people who have been diagnosed have died.

There have been 1,396 deaths due to COVID in the Granite State.

According to officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Delta variant of the virus is more infectious than preceding variants.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, announced the need for everyone to get a vaccine booster eight months after vaccination on Wednesday.

"The available data makes very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, and in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease. Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout. For that reason, we conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability," Walensky said in a statement.

The booster shots will become available beginning the week of Sept. 20.

Contact Managing News Editor Kimberley Haas at Kimberley.Haas@townsquaremedia.com.