By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org CONCORD â A top state health official provided an upbeat report on COVID-19 to the Governorâs Reopening Task Force and advocated for the reopening of schools across the state. Patricia Tilley, deputy director of the state Division of Public Health, said that evidence and data show there are few problems related to the transmission of the highly contagious virus seen in grades K-12. Currently, in all of the schools there are four clusters (three or more with exposure) involving 63 people, she said. It represents a small percentage of the state cases, Tilley said, with total cases in the schools so far at 1,782.