100 more National Guard members deployed for New Hampshire COVID-19 response

January 6, 2022

WMUR 9 | By Mike Cronin

CONCORD, N.H. – Another 100 National Guard members will be deployed to help deal with rising COVID-19 cases and high numbers of hospitalizations in New Hampshire, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday.

About 30 guard members will be sent to long-term care facilities that have asked for help, while 70 will help out in the hospital system, the governor said. There are currently 70 New Hampshire National Guard members helping health care facilities across the state.

“There’s no doubt that the men and women of the guard, who have been knocking it out of the park every time, will continue to do a tremendous job,” Sununu said.

The governor said the deployments will happen soon, probably within the next week.

he move comes as active COVID-19 cases spiked to a record 14,936 cases, well above Wednesday’s record of 12,149, which was about 1,500 cases higher than the previous record, health officials said.

More of the state’s strike teams will also be going to long-term care homes in Bedford and Nashua in the hopes of freeing up dozens of hospital beds.

Sununu said some of the state’s mitigation measures are beginning to work, with statewide hospitalizations slowly dropping over the past month.

“This does not mean that we’re out of the pandemic. We don’t want people to think that by any means,” he said. “What this means is our health care system is managing. It’s tight. There’s no doubt.”

The governor also noted that the next Booster Blitz is scheduled for this weekend, and about 1,500 appointments are still available on the state’s COVID-19 website.