Positivity rate lowest in months

Nursing home cases, deaths decline again as vaccine effort persists

After a brief plateau in Connecticut ’s COVID-1 9 numbers, the state’s test positivity rate has begun to decline again, official numbers show.

Gov. Ned Lamont on Friday reported 830 new coronavirus cases out of 45,062 tests, for a rate of 1.8%, marking Connecticut’s second straight day below 2%.

The state’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 2.2%, the lowest it has been since late October.

Connecticut currently has 428 patients hospitalized with COVID19, down five from Thursday and down more than 60% from mid-January.

Hospitalizations have been roughly flat this week after a steep decline through February.

As of Thursday, 104 of 169 Connecticut municipalities remained under the state’s “red-alert” advisory, down from previous weeks.

Lamont on Friday reported 11 additional coronavirus-linked deaths, bringing the state’s total to 7,704 during the pandemic. The United States has now reported 521,290 COVID-19 deaths over the past year, most of any nation, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Connecticut continues to rank among the national leaders in COVID-19 vaccination, with 21% of the population having received at least one dose and 9% having been fully vaccinated.

Connecticut reported 22 coronavirus cases and five deaths due to COVID-19 among nursing home residents between Feb. 24 and March 2, down from 483 cases and 111 deaths during the

first week of January.

Nursing home cases and deaths have declined steadily over the past six weeks, likely in part due to high rates of vaccination among residents there. Nursing home staff and residents were among the first groups eligible for vaccination in December, and officials say more than 90% of residents agreed to receive a vaccine.

Though nursing home staff were less likely to accept vaccines, that group saw only 31 COVID-19 cases from Feb. 24-March 2, compared to 362 the first week in January.