Hospitalizations up for second straight day

Stats suggest possible start of holiday uptick

Thenumberof patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Connecticut increased for a second straight day Tuesday, in what may be evidence of a post-holiday spike.

Experts had warned that Connecticut’s COVID-19 hospitalizations could increase a week or so after Christmas, due to increased travel and gatherings. Sure enough, hospitalizations are up nearly 100 so far this week, after declining last week.

Overall, it remains difficult to find patterns in Connecticut’s COVID-19 numbers, which spiked from October through mid-December but have fluctuated up and down in recent weeks. The state currently sits just below its mid-December peak in terms of both hospitalizations and the share of tests that come back positive.

Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday announced 2,332 new COVID19 cases out of 30,458 tests, for a positivity rate of 7.7%. Connecticut’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 6.8%, as high as it has been in more than three weeks. The state has now conducted nearly 4.5 million COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic.

Connecticut currently has 1,149 patients hospitalized with COVID19, up 38 from Monday and up 93 since Saturday. Hartford County leads the state in hospitalizations, with 336, followed by 319 in New Haven County and 293 in Fairfield County.

Additionally, t he s t ate announced 24 more coronavirus-linked deaths, bringing its total to 6,192 during the pandemic. Deaths, typically a lagging indicator, have not slowed in recent weeks, even as other metrics have flattened. In fact, the state has now reported 265 COVID-19 deaths in the past week, its most in a sevenday period since late May.

The United States has recorded 355,650 coronavirus-linked deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University, by far the most of any country.

Connecticut continues to rank ahead of most states in terms of vaccine distribution, having administered more than 81,000 doses as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with about 2.3% of the population having received a shot.

State officials say all health care workers, nursing home staff and residents, and medical first responders who want a vaccine