COVID-19 cases in state at highest level of pandemic
COVID-19 cases in Connecticut are now at a higher level than at any previous point during the ongoing pandemic, state numbers showed Monday.
As the omicron variant spreads through Connecticut, the state has averaged a record 3,919 daily cases over the past week, with a test positivity rate higher than at any time since widespread testing began in spring 2020. Meanwhile, COVID-19 hospitalizations have continued to increase, reaching levels not previously seen since last January.
“It continues to tick up,” Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday. “We have less [transmission] than our neighbors, but big deal. The virus is continuing to infect people.”
Dr. Ulysses Wu, an infectious disease specialist at Hartford Healthcare, said Monday that the recent surge of COVID-19 cases owes not only to the arrival of the omicron variant — which researchers say accounts for more than half of Connecticut’s cases — but also to a variety of other factors.
“It’s due to waning immunity; it’s due to colder weather, people cohorting indoors; it’s due to social behaviors where people are gathering because they’re just tired, they’re just fatigued from COVID,” he said. “The rise in cases is due to all of those things.”
As COVID-19 has surged in Connecticut, so has demand for testing. The state has reported nearly 300,000 tests in the past week — a total that doesn’t include the increasingly popular at-home tests.
Lamont announced Monday that Connecticut will distribute 3 million free at-home tests, as well as 6 million N95 masks, to help slow COVID-19 in Connecticut.
Cases and positivity rate
Connecticut reported 14,654 new COVID-19 cases Monday
out of 136,857 tests, for a daily positivity rate of 10.71%, the second highest figure for any day since widespread testing began.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 9.83%, up dramatically from last week and easily the highest of any time in the past 18 months.
Unvaccinated residents have been about four times as likely to test positive in recent weeks as vaccinated residents, according to state numbers.
All eight Connecticut counties — along with nearly the entire remainder of the country — are currently recording “high” levels of COVID-19 transmission as defined by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With this level of transmission, the CDC advises people to wear a mask in public indoor settings.
Hospitalizations
As of Monday, Connecticut has 925 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up 88 from Thursday and the most at a time since Jan. 31. Hospitalizations have now nearly quintupled since the end of October.
According to the state, 79.1% of people hospitalized with COVID19 are unvaccinated. Hospital officials say the rate is even higher when looking specifically at people with severe symptoms.
Deaths
Connecticut reports COVID-19 deaths on Thursdays. Last week, the state recorded 75 deaths, bringing its total during the pandemic to 9,077.
As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have surged in Connecticut over recent weeks, deaths have risen but still remain far below the levels recorded last winter.
The United States has now recorded 817,031 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins
University.
Vaccinations
As of Monday, 87.8% of all Connecticut residents and 95% of those 12 and older had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 74.3% of all residents and 83.4% of those 12 and older were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Additionally, about 39.1% of fully vaccinated Connecticut residents 18 or older have received a booster dose.
The CDC warns that booster shots are sometimes misclassified as first doses, likely inflating
the reported number of first-dose coverage and understating the true number of people who have
received boosters.