State COVID deaths near 6,000
Hospitalizations also rise over holiday weekend
Gov. Ned Lamont hinted Monday he may ask the legislature to once again extend his executive authority during the pandemic, as Connecticut’s death toll has edged close to 6,000.
“I’m going to be discussing that with the legislative leaders and I think a lot of that will depend on where we are in the COVID infection rate a month from now,” Lamont said.
There were 113 more deaths associated with COVID-19 and 19 additional hospitalizations since Thursday, according to data released by the governor’s office on Monday.
The Connecticut COVID death toll now stands at 5,904 and there are 1,219 hospitalized with the disease.
During the four-day weekend, there were 8,457 new cases reported with a positivity rate of just over 6 percent.
State House Republican-Leader Elect
Vincent Candelora said Monday he would have “grave concern” about extending the Lamont’s executive order powers without better communication from the governor’s office, which he described as “shoddy and haphazard.”
Democratic lawmakers extended Lamont’s powers until February in a 6-4 vote on a 10-member legislative committee in September.
But Candelora said Republicans believe Lamont’s authority to modify laws under the civil preparedness law should be reined in and said the legislature should be able to see the scientific data behind restrictions imposed in the interest of public health.
“Globally, I think we’ve reached a point where the legislature can come in and make decisions,” Candelora said.
That came after President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill into law over the weekend, after originally lambasting the bill as a “disgrace,” and calling for $2,000 stimulus payments to Americans rather than the $600 ones included in the bill.
Lamont said Connecticut residents could begin receiving their stimulus payments “within a week or so.”
Unemployment benefits included in the bill should start arriving next week “or soon thereafter,” he said.
Money from the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides loans to businesses affected by the pandemic, will be distributed further into the new year.
So far, 36,276 doses of vaccine have been administered in Connecticut. Health care workers are able to be vaccinated at 76 locations around the state with another eight to be added this week. Seventytwo nursing homes have held vaccination “clinics,” during which both staff and residents are given the shot.
The state is set to complete the first-dose clinics at every nursing home by early January, Lamont said Monday. A release from the governor’s office said about two-thirds of the state’s nursing homes are expected to complete their first doses of the vaccine by the end of the weekend.
Lamont said he felt good about the state’s progress in distributing and administering the vaccine.
“I can tell you the residents are all lining up to get the vaccine, they know how important it is,” Lamont said, but he noted there was “some hesitancy” among nursing home workers to get the shot, and urged them to be vaccinated.
“It’s much safer for you, much safer for your family, much safer for all the residents that you’re taking care of,” he added.
Even as doses of the vaccine are going to nursing homes and health workers, exactly when and how the doses will be distributed to the next wave of recipients, as well as exactly who that second wave will include, is still unclear.
Part of the governor’s vaccine advisory group dedicated to figuring out how the vaccine will be allocated is expected to complete its recommendations next week, according to Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer.
Along with nursing homes and health care workers, the state expects to start vaccinating “second tier” long term care facil
ities, including assisted living facilities and residential care homes, “as soon as next week,” Geballe said.
Those facilities were placed at a lower priority than nursing homes, Geballe said, which have seen a high percentage of the state’s COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
That came as another member of Lamont’s staff has also tested positive for the virus, the governor’s office announced Monday.
A news release attributed to Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff, said the staff member was in the office Wednesday, but only had “brief interaction” with Lamont while wearing a mask and at a distance.
“The governor will not be self-quarantining as a result,” the statement said.
The staff member has not been identified. During Lamont’s afternoon press conference, Mounds said the staff member had symptoms, but was doing better.
Several other staff members in Lamont’s circle have tested positive in recent months.
Earlier this month, Lamont’s deputy communications director, Rob Blanchard, tested positive for the virus.
In November, Max Reiss, Lamont’s director of communications, also tested positive. A member of the State Police on the governor’s security detail tested positive for the virus later that month.