New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Gov: Hospitalizations highest since spring
968 in hospital with COVID, 1,872 new cases reported amid surge
The state reported 77 hospitalizations for COVID-19 Wednesday — the largest one-day surge since spring, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
State officials also reported 1,872 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday from 31,232 tests for a daily positivity rate of just under 6 percent. The seven-day positivity rate stands at 5.5 percent, according to the governor’s office.
In Connecticut, 968 people are now hospitalized with the illness. Forty-five new deaths attributed to the disease were also reported Wednesday, bringing the state’s death toll to 4,926.
“We know that the next few weeks are going to be complicated,” Lamont said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
The governor pointed out
the month has presented several challenges with college students returning home, flu season starting and people turning out to vote.
As hospitalizations reached the highest-single day total since April 14, the Connecticut Restaurant Association on Wednesday announced its support of Lamont’s increased fines of up to $10,000 for businesses that commit COVID-19 violations.
However, the association says those fines should be balanced with more relief money from Hartford.
“If Connecticut is going to use fines as a stick, it should also use state grants as a carrot for restaurants that are following the rules while struggling to keep their doors open,” Scott Dolch, head of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, said in a prepared statement.
Lamont announced Tuesday evening that fines for businesses not complying with COVID-19 rules would increase from $500 to as much as $10,000.
The move was met with criticism by state Senate Republican Leader-elect Kevin Kelly, who said in a statement, “it’s wrong to provoke fear and implement enormous fines without defining a clear appeal process,” and better “communication and assistance” for business leaders navigating the pandemic.
“Instead of focusing on penalizing job creators and job growth, the governor must make a stronger commitment to focus on positive actions our state can take to help small businesses and jobs, while also reducing community spread so that our families can gather safely and more people can return to work,” Kelly said.
The governor said the heftier fines are also meant to give local officials more power to enforce the rules with large national chain stores, for whom a $500 fine might have simply been “the cost of doing business,” especially with Black Friday looming.
“This is the way that we show that we can avoid having to close down,” Lamont said, asked by a reporter whether the move is a compromise to municipal leaders who have asked for the state to roll back to the first phase of reopening restrictions.
Lamont said he would consider such a rollback after the holidays if there were a high amount of violations and businesses could not operate safely, “but more importantly, if I heard from the leading hospital executives that we’re getting close,” he added.
The governor suggested he would support the idea of applying the money raised from fines to go toward grants for businesses affected by the pandemic.
So far, no $10,000 fines have been issued, according to Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman, who joined the governor on his press conference call.
“Done safely with the state’s reopening protocols, we think eating indoors, we think shopping indoors is safe,” Lehman said. “We just want to make sure that the proprietors are taking it very carefully.”
The move, announced just before Thanksgiving, comes as state leaders and public health officials nationwide have raised alarm that the holiday could lead to an increase in infections as people gather around the dinner table.
The state on Wednesday also added 11 municipalities to the list of red zone municipalities for having at least 15 daily cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period.
The towns of Ashford, Guilford, North Stonington, Pomfret, Preston and Roxbury were downgraded this week from red zones.
Connecticut, like many states in the Northeast, has restricted gatherings to no more than 10 people and limited restaurant seating to eight people at each table.
Lamont said it will be up to local jurisdictions to enforce these restrictions.
“I’m not recommending you sit around ratting out your neighbors,” the governor said. “But let’s face it, if there’s 50 cars piled up outside and there’s a loud party, if you want to give us a notice or local police ... I think that’s a good thing to do.”
State and local authorities have occasionally taken a heavy hand with restaurants caught violating the rules.
The state Department of Consumer Protection has pulled the liquor licenses of two restaurants — Dixwell Social Lounge in Hamden and Legend’s Sports Bar in Bristol — for alleged COVID violations.
Dolch said the restaurant industry will continue to stand with the governor and call out businesses breaking the rules.
But he also noted surrounding states “are implementing bigger grant programs than Connecticut for their small businesses right now, because they know those businesses are vital to their state economies.”
Dolch was referring to a $50 million grant program announced by the governor last month and paid for with money the state received through the federal CARES Act.
But that effort fell short of the $70 million the state’s business associations requested, and the 20-employee cap to be eligible to receive the grants was also lower than what they were seeking.
Dolch noted the governor had recently mentioned digging into the state’s rainy day fund to help restaurants struggling under the weight of the pandemic.
“So our simple question for
Gov. Lamont is this: 'If we’re going to punish the few bad actors, how are we also going to help the many, many good actors?’ ” he said.
The governor’s office also announced the Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended its non-congregate sheltering authorization through Jan. 1. The program reimburses some of the costs to the state for non-congregate housing for public workers at risk for the virus along with other populations.