State’s positivity rate drops to 1.9%
Here are the most important things to know about COVID-19 in Connecticut.
Oct. 14 State’s positivity rate decreases to 1.9 percent
On Oct. 14, the State of Connecticut announced 164 new cases, four more deaths and 16 new hospitalizations. The positivity rate (the percentage of total tests that are positive) decreased to 1.9 percent, still a relatively high rate, but lower than the previously reported 2.4 percent on Oct. 13.
Dutch woman is first known death from COVID-19 reinfection
An elderly woman in the Netherlands has become the first known person to die from a COVID-19 reinfection, according to Dutch experts. She died nearly two weeks after being infected with the virus a second time. The lady had a rare bone marrow cancer called Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, but researchers said her immune system could have still been “sufficient to eliminate,” the virus.
COVID-19 financial losses amount to about $16 trillion, study says
A pair of researchers
from Harvard published a study this week in which they show that “the estimated cumulative financial costs of the COVID-19 pandemic related to the lost output and health reduction” is about $16 trillion in the United States. That’s equal to about 90 percent of the total annual GDP of the United States, translating to an average loss of almost $200,000 for a family of four. Those numbers are not so straightforward. Half of that $16 trillion is “lost income from the COVID-19–induced recession” — the rest is the estimated economic effects “of shorter and less healthy life,” researchers wrote.
Deaths 20% higher because of the pandemic
There were 20 percent more deaths than usual between March and July, according to one recent research letter published by scientists from Yale University and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Those deaths were not all directly related to COVID — only about 67 percent of those 225,530 excess deaths were from a coronavirus infection. The remainder are from pandemic-related issues (like increased poverty or stretched-too-thin hospital resources.
Effects of COVID-19 on mental health ‘will be profound:’ NYU researchers
Three mental health professionals from NYU expressed concerns in a research letter over what the sheer number of pandemic-related deaths might do to the people left behind. “Each COVID-19 death leaves an estimated nine family members bereaved, which projects to an estimated 2 million bereaved individuals in the U.S.,” they wrote. “Thus, the effect of COVID-19 deaths on mental health will be profound.” It’s not just the effects of dealing with death. There is also a significant amount of “stress and social disruption caused by the pandemic,” which has increased rates of depression and anxiety, and substance abuse. “A second wave of devastation is imminent, attributable to mental health consequences of COVID-19,” they wrote. “The magnitude of this second wave is likely to overwhelm the already frayed mental health system, leading to access problems, particularly for the most vulnerable persons.”