Positivity rate, hospitalizations highest in months
State to use new contact tracing tool with automatic alert
COVID-19 hospitalizations and positivity rate in Connecticut reached the highest single-day levels in several months Tuesday, state numbers show.
Gov. Ned Lamont reported 182 additional positive results out of 10,380 tests Tuesday, for a rate of 1.75% — higher than on any other day since June 23. That result comes after the state’s positivity rate had seemed to level off following an uptick in mid-September.
The state now has 92 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up 17 from Monday and up 22 from a week ago. The last time the state had so many coronavirus patients hospitalized at once, per official data, was July 3.
The uptick has been apparent across the state, with cases and hospitalizations rising everywhere from Fairfield County to New London. Health officials and medical experts have attributed Connecticut’s recent increase in COVID-19 cases to various factors, including colleges reopening, K-12 schools reopening, fatigue with social distancing measures, travel, small gatherings and more.
Still, Lamont downplayed the significance of Tuesday’s numbers.
“I tend to think it’s a short-term issue, not related to schools, not related to colleges, nothing that we can point to,” he said at an event in Waterbury. “But I do use this as a time to remind everybody: be especially careful for the next couple of weeks.”
Lamont noted that Connecticut’s spike Tuesday coincided with a similar uptick in New York City, where officials reported a positivity rate about 3% on Tuesday, up significantly over the past few days.
The state on Tuesday also reported two additional coronavirus-linked deaths, bringing its total during the pandemic to 4,505. The United States has now seen 205,676 COVID-19 deaths,
according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
Contact tracing tool coming
Connecticut residents will soon be able to use a contact tracing tool launched by Apple and Google designed to automatically alert users to potential coronavirus exposures, Lamont and the state’s chief operating officer Josh Geballe announced at a Tuesday morning press conference.
Geballe said the tool sends notifications to users if they’ve recently been in contact with another user who reports testing positive for COVID-19. However, residents can’t opt into the tool until their state agrees to participate.
“We’ve actually taken a bit of a cautious approach on this, watching some other states go first and making sure the technology’s proven out,” Geballe said.
Privacy is among the chief concerns for the system, but Geballe said the state is satisfied that those concerns have been addressed.
Lamont said at the press conference that Connecticut hopes to reach an agreement and then roll out the tool within the next 30 days, in conjunction with neighboring states New Jersey and New York.
“This is just another set of tools to give people a bit more information,” Geballe said.
press conference that some portion of the rapid coronavirus tests that Connecticut will soon receive from the federal government could be used in schools.
President Donald J. Trump’s administration announced Monday that it will be shipping out a total of 100 million rapid tests to all 50 states, including an estimated 1 million to Connecticut. In the first wave of shipments this week, Connecticut expects to receive about 69,000 tests, Lamont said.
“This is a pretty big deal,” Lamont said, adding that a “real-time response” could allow schools to make more informed decisions about students or staff members who are displaying coronavirus-like symptoms.
Geballe said that the speed of the tests could prevent schools from shutting down or quarantining students and staff in cases where a community member is suspected of having COVID-19, but turns out to be negative.
“Even if the test result is coming back in 24 hours and it comes back negative, in the meantime we may have had to close a school or we may have had to have a bunch of people stay home,” Geballe said. With rapid tests, “you can avoid some of those school closures.”
Max Reiss, Lamont’s spokesperson, said the state hasn’t formally decided how the new testing supply will be used, but officials plan to talk with school nurses about setting up the tests on-site.
“We are strategically looking to utilize [the tests] in educational settings,” Reiss said. “This is a great addition to our testing capacity.”
Geballe added that some of the tests may also be used by the state’s rapid response team, when responding to outbreaks in nursing homes, prisons or large cities.
Emily Brindley can be reached at ebrindley@ courant.com.
Tests from federal government could be used in schools
Lamont said at Tuesday’s