WHERE WE ARE
Connecticut has surpassed 5,000 COVID-19-related deaths as 59 more residents died over the weekend, Gov. Ned Lamont’s office announced Monday.
The milestone is a signal of what the next few weeks could bring, said Scott Roberts, Yale New Haven Health’s associate medical director for infection prevention.
“It seems like we are clearly entering a second wave (of COVID-19) that is approaching the levels of the first wave, which I don’t think I would have predicted in the spring,” Roberts said. “It’s certainly concerning. The numbers of COVID are certainly going in the wrong direction in the state.”
He predicted the numbers will continue to get worse due to Thanksgiving.
“With Thanksgiving this past weekend, we saw pretty widespread travel,” Roberts said, forecasting that it will likely lead to a continued rise in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths over the next few weeks.
As of Monday, 5,020 Connecticut residents have died with the coronavirus since the
pandemic hit the state in March. The figure includes 59 new confirmed and probable deaths reported over the weekend.
“That’s a big number,” Lamont acknowledged during his Monday afternoon news conference.
“These are all members of our f amily. Generally not kids, but they’re parents and grandparents and we’ll miss them dearly,” he added.
There were 4,714 new cases reported over the weekend out of 106,821 tests for a positivity rate of nearly 5.5 percent.
“The only glimmer of good news I would give you is if our infection rate levels off or starts trending down, you’ll see that reflected in hospitalizations and then lower f atalities — hopefully soon,” Lamont said.
An additional 81 people were hospitalized for the illness over the weekend, according to Monday’s report. There are now 1,098 people hospitalized with the disease in Connecticut.
About 71 percent of the state’s 8,000 hospital beds are occupied, Lamont’s Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said. Around 59 percent of intensive care unit beds are occupied, about a third of which are being used by COVID-19 pat i ents.
He noted the percentages var y by individual hospital, and patients hospitalized for the vir us need “a high level of care” that “really stresses the system.”
More than beds, however, the governor ’s team po inted to staffing at hospitals as being a concern if the vir us surges.
Lamont said that while the National Guard can quickly set up field hospitals to give health care centers more space for patients, “beds are not go ing to be the issue, it’s people.”
Hospitals could move staff off elective procedures to focus on COVID-19 patients, as they did in the spring, the governor po inted out, but indicated that wouldn’t be an ideal situation.
As Connecticut reached 5,000 deaths, the nation is approaching 260,000 f atalities since the pandemic began, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Older people have over whelmingly comprised a majority of the deaths in Connecticut. More than 81 percent of the state’s deaths have involved people aged 70 or over as of last Friday, according to the state’s data.
The vir us has exacted a particularly heav y toll on residents of nursing homes and other longterm care f acilities.
Since the pandemic began, 3,465 residents of Connecticut nursing homes and assisted living f acilities have died, according to the state’s data reported on Friday.
Despite comprising less than 1 percent of the state’s population, residents of nursing homes and assisted living f acilities account for more than 70 percent of the COVID-19 deaths reported as of last week.
Nationwide, long-term care f acility deaths comprise around 39 percent of COVID-19-related f atalities, according to the COVID Tracking Project’s data.
The virus can still have lethal results in young people, however. Connecticut has recorded one death each in young age groups — those aged 0-9 years old and 10-19 years old, the state data shows.
Five deaths were recorded among those aged 20-29, and 24 among those who were 30-39 years old.
Though 15 other states have had more deaths from COVID-19, Connecticut is third in terms of death rates.
Connecticut has had 138 deaths per 100,000 residents, behind Massachusetts, with a death rate of 154 per 100,000, and New Jersey, with a death rate of 190 per 100,000, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New York City, if considered its own entity, has both the highest total number of COVID-19related deaths (24,268) and the highest death rate per capita (288).
The vast majority of coronavir us deaths in Connecticut happened between March and June. There were, for example, 114 deaths from coronavir us in Connecticut on April 21, according to state data, the worst single-day for COVID-19related deaths since the start of the pandemic.
But while Connecticut is not seeing as many deaths from the virus as it did months ago, the death rate over the last seven days is higher than the national average.
There has been a rate of 0.5 deaths per 100,000 Connecticut residents over the last week, above the national rate of 0.4, but well below states like South Dakota, where the death rate has been 2 .7 per 100,000 residents, according to the CDC.
With cases rising, Lamont has been issuing more restrictions in an attempt to slow the spread.
In early November, he rolled the state back to phase 2 of reopening, reducing indoor dining capacity at restaurants in addition to other restrictions. Other actions have included shutting down youth team sports until at least Jan. 19 and requiring masks at all times in gyms and fitness centers.
Some health care workers in the state have called for Lamont to shut down indoor dining and gym sin response to the rise in hospitalizations.
While the governor said Monday such a move would be the next step in terms of restrictions, and that he is watching hospitalization data closely, he suggested Connecticut closing restaurants alone would not have the desired impact.
“I’m working ever y day with my fellow governors,” Lamont said. “We can close down restaurants in just Connecticut, (if ) you think that would make a dramatic difference, we’re not sure it would, but we’re even less sure it would if we’re the only ones in the region that does that.”
“I’m hopeful the curve could bend without us having to take that drastic action,” he added.
Roberts said state residents need to continue doing their part by wearing masks, avoiding large gatherings and maintaining a social distance of at least 6 feet.
Though discouraged by the rising numbers, Roberts said the good news is that hospitals are in a better position than they were in the spring. Doctors know about more ways toeffe ct iv ely treat the illness, he said, including increased awareness about such treatments as steroids and the antiviral medication Remd es iv ir.
“I think the most promising is the data coming out about vaccines,” Roberts said. “All of them look very effective. I think the real challenge with the vaccine will be access and distribution.”