State’s positive test rate hits 3%

Daily hospitalizations reach highest level since late spring

With hospitalizations due to COVID-19 rising, Connecticut reported a positive test rate for the virus of about 3% Tuesday, hitting a high the state hasn’t seen since June 10.

“That tells you it’s going to take a little bit longer for us to get through this,” Gov. Ned Lamont said at a Tuesday press appearance in Windsor. “We still have a way to go.”

On Tuesday, Lamont’s office reported 434 new coronavirus cases, out of a total of 14,653 tests administered. The state also reported a net increase of 22 hospitalizations. There are now currently 217 people in Connecticut hospitalized with COVID-19. The state hasn’t seen that many people hospitalized at one time since June 13.

“I’m looking at the fact that the United States of America had the highest infection rate they’ve had in three months yesterday,” Lamont said. “Connecticut had the highest percentage infection rate that we’ve had in three months as well. I’ve been talking to Massachusetts, Rhode Island I was on [the phone] with New York and New Jersey. This is happening around our country and our around our region.”

Connecticut’s positivity rate is still low in comparison to some hotspot states. For instance, South Dakota in recent days has averaged a 37% positivity rate and Idaho has averaged a nearly 29% positivity rate, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

While Connecticut’s positivity may fare well when compared to other states with high numbers of positive tests, however, the rate is still trending upward.

In the late summer, Connecticut kept its positivity rate mostly under 1%, hitting a low of 0.4% in mid-August.

But in early September, the

number began to rate tick up. First, the rate jumped above 1% and remained there for about a month. Then, last week, the state reported three days with a positivity rate at or above 2%.

And now, the rate has jumped up again.

The spike also comes while states across the country and the Northeast see climbing COVID-19 numbers and experts warn that the winter and a shift to indoor events can add fuel to the fire.

“I think you all see what’s going on around the rest of the country with the spike in numbers, and Connecticut’s not an island unto itself,” Lamont said Tuesday.

And in Connecticut, it isn’t just the positive case rate that is on the rise.

Hospitalizations began rising shortly after the positivity rate began to increase, and the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in the state has nearly tripled since the last few days of September.

Coronavirus-related deaths have risen, too. In the month of August, the state reported a total 33 coronavirus-related deaths. That number increased to 43 in the month of September. And only two-thirds of the way through October, the state has already reported 51 coronavirus-related deaths this month.

Five of those deaths were reported Tuesday. In total, 4,559 people in Connecticut have died with COVID19 and 64,455 people have tested positive.

Nationwide, more than 8.2 million have contracted COVID-19 and 220,743 have died of the illness, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.