CT businesses face possible $10K COVID fine

Higher penalty aimed at discouraging large gatherings

Connecticut businesses could face fines up to $10,000 if they allow large crowds to congregate this holiday season, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday.

The governor’s order is aimed at dissuading large gatherings such as patrons at bars or mobs of Black Friday shoppers at malls.

“While the overwhelming majority of businesses in Connecticut have shown an incredible amount of leadership and have been fantastic partners in this front, we have seen a small number of businesses in flagrant violation of these public health rules, and that’s all you need to cause a superspreading event that leads to a large number of cases and hospitalizations,” Lamont said in a statement.

Lamont said he made the decision based on feedback from municipal leaders, health officials and members of the business community.

Previously, the highest fine that could be imposed was $500.

The new fines take effect at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

Residents who host private holiday parties that run afoul of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions can face lesser fines.

Organizing an event over capacity limits could cost residents $500. Attending such an event carries a $250 fine, not wearing a mask can carry a $100 penalty and failing to abide by the state’s travel advisory can net violators a $500 fine.

As of Monday, Connecticut residents must either quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative COVID-19 test if they travel from all U.S. territories and all states excluding Hawaii, New Jersey, New York or Rhode Island.

Connecticut, like many states in the Northeast, has banned private gatherings of more than 10 people, though Lamont has said what happens inside private homes is mostly on the honor system.

The increased fine, announced two days before Thanksgiving, comes as governors around the region brace for the possibility of infections spiking after the holiday.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf announced bars and restaurants cannot sell alcohol the night before

Thanksgiving, CNN reported, out of concern pre-holiday partying could lead to a rise in infections.

On Tuesday, Connecticut reported 540 new COVID-19 cases. They were found out of 13,208 new tests for a daily positivity rate of just over 4 percent. The seven-day average positivity rate stood at just under 5.5 percent.

Sixteen more patients have been hospitalized for the illness, bringing the statewide total to 891. Ten more deaths attributed to the disease were also reported, bringing Connecticut’s death toll to 4,881.

While the number of new infections fell from those reported over the weekend, the state is facing another pandemic-related challenge: Finding enough people to provide help.

“Last time, when we got hit ... we were worried about material shortages. We were worried about masks and gowns, we were worried about hospital beds, we were worried about lab capacity,” Lamont said Monday.

Now the state has personal protective equipment, or PPE, stockpiled; the National Guard can set up field hospitals in 48 to 72 hours to increase hospital capacity, and testing has expanded, the governor said.

But, there’s one “severe caveat,” Lamont said, “and that’s people.”

Those on the front lines say they’re also hitting exhaustion, as the pandemic enters its ninth month in Connecticut.

Pedro Zayas, a spokesman for SEIU 1199NE, a health care workers union that represents staffers in nursing homes as well as other settings, said the biggest complaints at nursing homes are “short staffing and mandation” of overtime work.

“Workers who have remained healthy have not had opportunity to rest, and human resources are running low,” Zayas said in an email.

Many workers are facing continuous shifts of mandated overtime “because the nursing homes cannot find enough staff to cover every shift,” he said.

As the pandemic raged through nursing homes in the spring, the union frequently raised alarms over lack of PPE, including distributing photos of its members who had fashioned homemade PPE to protect them at work.

Along with residents who have gotten sick, nursing home staff have also been infected. The state’s weekly report on nursing home infections from last

Thursday showed 262 new cases among staff. Some cases, however, may be duplicated if staffers work at multiple facilities. Three nursing home workers have died with the virus this year, according to the state’s data.

Dr. David Banach, head of infection prevention and an associate professor of medicine at UConn Health, said health care providers are not seeing shortages of PPE like they were in the spring. However, “we have to be thoughtful in the way that we use PPE,” he added.

Nitrile exam gloves have “been a focus recently,” he said.

Zayas said medical supplies are still not up to prepandemic levels, according to the union’s organizers, with gloves and masks still an issue.

N95 masks “are not to be found in most nursing homes,” he said, and many facilities “have only a handful.”

Concerns about staffing have led to some new methods to find volunteers or workers in areas of need.

In March, federal regulators opened a program to train temporary nursing aides, a qualification that in Connecticut requires an eight-hour online course and onsite training where they’re hired.