During Hartford visit, Birx warns of ‘troubling signs’ in Northeast

Says virus now spreading via families, social groups

“What we’re seeing in the community is much more spread occurring in households and in social occasions, small gatherings where people have come inside, taken off their mask to eat or drink or socialize with one another.”

— Dr. Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronavirus task force

States across the Northeast, including Connecticut, are showing “troubling signs” that they could be headed toward a coronavirus resurgence, according to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, who visited Hartford Thursday.

Increasing positivity rates and case numbers prompted Birx to swing through the Northeast, as she noted similarities between the trends in this region and those seen in other regions that later became COVID-19 hotspots. But, Birx said, with the proper intervention the Northeast states don’t have to face the same fate.

“It’s early here,” Birx said at a media briefing on UConn’s Hartford campus. “We can continue, in the Northeast, to contain the virus.”

In Connecticut, the daily positivity rate had remained mostly below 1% for weeks, but jumped above that threshold on Sept. 9. It has dipped back below that line only twice since then. The state’s hospitalization numbers, which rose to 138 by Wednesday, are also at the highest point since late June.

During Birx’s stop in Hartford —

which came one day after a similar stop in Long Island and just a few hours before a visit to Providence — she met with Connecticut state and local officials, as well as UConn officials, in a roundtable-style meeting. That meeting was closed to the public and the media.

But in her media briefing immediately after that meeting, Birx said she was glad to see that UConn in particular is taking steps toward monitoring the virus spread among its students and faculty.

Now, as the country moves toward colder weather, Birx said COVID19 is no longer spreading rampantly in work or school settings but is instead spreading within families and social groups.

“What we’re seeing in the community is much more spread occurring in households and in social occasions, small gatherings where people have come inside, taken off their mask to eat or drink or socialize with one another,” she said.

In events where COVID19 has spread, Birx said she’s noticed that many people seem to rationalize removing their masks or breaking their social distance because everyone at the event appears healthy. But people can be infected with the virus even if they aren’t showing symptoms.

“This is really a message to everyone in Connecticut: the kind of spread that we’re seeing now is very different from the spread we experienced in March and April,” Birx said. “What we did in the spring is not going to work in the fall.”

On a personal level, Birx urged Connecticut residents to continue wearing masks and socially distancing, even in indoor settings. And as the weather cools, she also advised residents to improve their homes’ ventilation by keeping fans on and cracking windows whenever possible.

With the state’s recent uptick in cases and hospitalization, Birx also said that the state needs to take higher-level interventions as well. She recommended increased testing and a push to educate the public on the necessity of getting tested if they believe they’ve been exposed to the virus.

“This is the moment to really increase asymptomatic testing, increase outreach to the communities, making sure that every community member knows that if they’re with individuals outside of their household, it could be a COVID-spreading event,” Birx said. “Physically distancing and masks work, even indoors.”