New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
COVID hospitalizations top 1,000 in CT, deaths near 5,000
The number of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in Connecticut surpassed 1,000 on Black Friday with more than 3,000 new cases reported over the last two days.
Forty-nine new hospitalizations brought the total to 1,017— the highest it has been since mid-May.
The death toll attributed to the
virus climbed to just under 5,000, with 35 new deaths bringing the statewide total to 4,961
A total of 3,429 new cases were reported, with a daily positivity rate of just under 5 percent. The positivity rate was spread out over 71,327 new tests. The seven-day positivity rate stood at 4.94 percent.
Meanwhile, the state’s weekly nursing home report Friday showed more than half of the deaths reported in recent days involved nursing home residents. Sixty-eight more residents have died, according to the state’s weekly report on COVID-19 at nursing homes.
New cases among residents made up just 4.2 percent of the total statewide in the timeframe covered by the report, yet the resident deaths made up more than 56 percent of the 121 deaths reported statewide in the same time frame.
The data carries echoes of the spring surge, when deaths among nursing home residents regularly made up around 70 percent of the statewide death toll.
Nursing home staff are also impacted. Friday’s report included 303 new cases among nursing home staff, with no new fatalities.
Staff cases may contain some duplicates if nursing home staffers work at more than one facility, because the homes are each required to report staff cases to the state.
That comes as one of the state’s leading health care workers unions has said many homes are still facing shortages of N95 masks and gloves.
Long hours of mandatory overtime is also a concern, a spokesman for SEIU
1199NE said earlier this week.
Josh Geballe, Gov. Ned Lamont’s chief operating officer, said the state stockpile of PPE is full when asked about those concerns
earler in the week.
“We are aware that some facilities, nursing homes and other facilities, are responsible for procuring their own PPE,” he said. “Sometimes for a variety of reasons they do fall behind and then we’re there to step in.”
He said there may be “isolated cases” where that could be true, but said it is not “pervasive.”
In regards to staffing, he noted the state stepped in to shutdown Three Rivers, a home in Norwich, after health officials found “structural significant problems” with staff.
“The team at DPH is all over this and watching the data at every one of these homes very carefully and
stepping in where they need to,” Geballe said.
The state released the latest data soon after Lamont warned of COVID-related scams.
Connecticut testing sites are facing long lines as the state sees a rising tide of new infections. But with the demand, there have been some reports of scam testing sites.
Bridgeport officials recently notified residents of a “popup” testing facility taking an overflow of patients near a supermarket on East Main Street.
One problem— the testing site was not licensed, according to Bridgeport officials.
The site’s operators at one point claimed to be associat
ed with FEMA. By the time police and city authorities went to check on the site, it had vanished.
Lamont called those reports “troubling,” in a statement Friday after the Thanksgiving holiday, and warned residents to be on the lookout for such scams.
“Our residents should never hesitate to find a test if they are experiencing symptoms, living in a densely populated area, or living in an area with an outbreak,” Lamont said.
That came as hospitalizations soared nationally to more than 90,000 on Thanksgiving Day, higher than at any previous point in the pandemic, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.
Nationwide, the death toll attributed to the disease rose to more than 254,000 as of Thursday.
“Most testing sites are legitimate, but there are some people out there who are unfortunately hoping to take advantage of a highstress time for personal gain,” said Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle Seagull.
She said the scams should not deter people seeking a test, but urged them to “take precautions when choosing a test site.
The state provides a search bar for residents to find legitimate test sites on its COVID-19 website. The site also has a section on common scams to be wary of during the pandemic.
Residents can also call 211 to make sure a test site is genuine.
State officials have not received complaints of any other fake testing sites to date besides those in Bridgeport, according to a spokeswoman for Geballe’s office.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Consumer Protection also said Friday she was unaware of any additional complaints to the agency.
Attorney General William Tong said the joint federal and state COVID-19 fraud task force is investigating “a wide range of misconduct including healthcare fraud, price gouging, charities fraud and lending scams.”