Daily COVID-19 positive test rate tops 10%
First time that figure has reached double digits in 8 months
Connecticut’s single-day COVID-19 positivity rate exceeded 10% Tuesday for the first time since May, a sign that the state’s outbreak might be worsening once again.
After a dip in late December, Connecticut’s positivity rate — which measures the share of COVID-19 tests that come back positive — has trended upward in recent weeks, perhaps due to holiday travel and gatherings and a new, more contagious strain of the virus.
The total number of COVID19
cases identified in the state has also increased recently, though hospitalizations have remained notably flat.
Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday reported 3,689 new cases of COVID-19 out of 34,422 tests, for a positivity rate of 10.7%. Connecticut’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 7.4%, the highest at any point during the state’s current wave.
After a difficult spring, Connecticut enjoyed a positivity rate well below 1% for much of the summer before spread increased again in the early fall. The state’s positivity rate hit 7% in mid-December but then began to decrease before rising again with this recent uptick.
It’s not clear whether the new
increase, which has not yet translated to hospitalizations, represents the post-holiday spike that officials warned about in December. Connecticut could also be seeing the effects of the B117 variant, which was discovered in New Haven County last week and is believed to be more contagious than other strains of COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, Connecticut has 1,154 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up 12 from Monday. Hospitalizations have remained surprisingly flat in recent weeks, after showing some sign of decrease in late December.
Windham County, hardly touched early in the pandemic, has been hit particularly hard lately, with the highest positivity rate of any county in the state and more hospitalizations than at any point previously, likely in part due to outbreaks at several nursing homes.
Additionally, the state reported 31 new coronavirus-linked deaths Tuesday, bringing its total to 255 over the past week and 6,449 during the pandemic.
The United States has now recorded nearly 23 million COVID-19 cases and 379,365 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
As Connecticut’s COVID19 outbreak has remained someone flat over the past few weeks, the nation as a whole continues to set records for coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. All three metrics currently stand at their highest level of any time during the pandemic, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Connecticut is currently finishing the first phase of its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, with a second phase set to begin next week.
The state has now administered more than 150,000 vaccine doses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with more than 4,000 residents having received both of their necessary shots.
Connecticut ranks among the leaders nationwide in the share of its population that has been vaccinated as well as the share of its allocated doses it has administered.