State’s positive rate falls to 2.5%
Deaths, hospitalizations still up as UConn bans off-campus gatherings
Connecticut reported a lower COVID-19 positivity rate Friday than it did Thursday, even as the state’s seven-day average remains far higher than even a week ago and hospitalizations deaths continue to rise.
The state on Friday reported 761 positive results out of 30,554 tests, for a rate of 2.5%. Though that figure is far below the 6.1% mark reported Thursday, it’s not far off the state’s seven day average, which stands at 3%.
Connecticut now has 329 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up eight from Thursday and up enormously from the summer months. Hospitalizations peaked just short of 2,000 in late April before falling as low as 42 in mid-August.
The state also reported seven additional coronavirus-linked deaths Friday, bringing its total to 4,616 since March. Connecticut will end October having reported 108 COVID-19 deaths total, as compared to 33 in August and 43 in September.
The United States, which is itself experiencing a dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases, has now seen 229,141 total coronavirus-linked deaths during the pandemic.
As COVID-19 has spiked recently in Connecticut, more local officials have opted to roll back reopening in their towns and cities. In Bridgeport, Mayor Joe Ganim announced Friday he would not only cut back capacity at restaurants to 50% but also require food service establishments to end indoor dining at 10 p.m. and close by 11 p.m.
Businesses in Bridgeport will be warned after one instance of
disobeying rules around masking and gatherings, then forced to close for additional violations.
New Haven, Stamford and Norwalk, among others, have also announced plans to roll back their respective reopenings amid recent COVID-19 increases.
“That sends a message [to residents] that this is very serious,” Mayor Harry Rilling of Norwalk said Friday. “We want to get that word out.”
UConn bans offcampus gatherings
In advance of Halloween on Saturday night, UConn has banned all off-campus gatherings through Wednesday, citing an increase in COVID-19 cases among students.
In a letter to students Friday, dean Eleanor Daugherty said the school had recorded three new cases among on-campus students and nine among off-campus students, resulting in “UConn’s highest single-day total in weeks.”
“There is no indication that these cases are related to one another or stem from a common source, meaning they are scattered,” Daugherty wrote. “This is cause for even greater concern, especially in light of the fact that the state’s positivity rate has jumped in recent days.”
After a large number of cases early in the semester, UConn had seen its COVID-19 numbers drop in recent weeks, with few or no new positive tests most days. With this recent increase, the school now has 15 students in university isolation.
Though UConn’s jump in cases this week coincides with surging numbers across Connecticut, Daugherty said in her email that wastewater analysis in Storrs shows “no indication” of a surge on campus similar to the one in the state as a whole.
Still, the school has prohibited off-campus gatherings over Halloween weekend, threatening that violators will be referred to the community standards office by the Connecticut State Police.
Massachusetts travel restrictions
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced Friday evening Connecticut and New Jersey have been removed from its lower-risk designation. The change means any Connecticut resident traveling into Massachusetts must fill out a state travel form, quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative COVID test.
The new rule is in effect beginning Saturday.
The move comes four days after Connecticut added Massachusetts to its own travel advisory list, requiring the same thing for Massachusetts residents crossing the border south.
Gov. Ned Lamont and his counterparts in New York and New Jersey announced last week they will not add each other’s states to their respective advisories no matter how high casecounts rise. Lamont’s staff said earlier this week they remained in “continuing conversations” with their counterparts in Massachusetts about the states’ now reciprocal travel orders.
There are now 40 states and two territories now on Connecticut’s travel advisory list, including the addition of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California this week.