With Connecticut’s COVID rate high, CDC recommends return to masking
Of the 73,339 tests administered in the past seven days in Connecticut, state officials reported 10,095 positive tests. This puts Connecticut’s positivity rate for the past seven days at 13.76 percent.
National leaders are urging a third of Americans, those who live in communities with medium or high transmission levels, to consider donning their masks again and using other protective measures against COVID-19.
By this metric, all of Connecticut should be wearing masks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since earlier this month, two-thirds of Connecticut’s population has been considered to have a high transmission rate, with the exception of Fairfield and New London counties, which have medium transmission rates.
For areas with high community levels, “We urge local leaders to encourage use of prevention strategies like masking in public indoor settings and increasing access to testing and to treatment,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a White House press briefing Wednesday.
“In areas where community levels are high, everyone should be using prevention measures and wearing a mask in public, indoor settings,” Walensky added.
In counties with medium transmission levels — Fairfield and New London counties — “individuals should consider taking prevention measures based on their own risk, like avoiding crowds, wearing a mask, increasing their testing, especially before gathering with others indoors,” Walensky said.
In the briefing, Walensky said more than 32 percent of Americans live in an area with a medium or high COVID-19 community level. That’s about an 8 percent increase from the previous week.
On Wednesday, 365 people in Connecticut were in the hospital with COVID-19, a slight increase from Tuesday’s 361 , according to state data. It’s also about 65 more patients than last Wednesday.
Hospitalizations are increasing nationwide, with an average of about 3,000 hospital admissions per day this past week, Walensky said.
However, these hospitalizations “remain much lower than they were during the omicron surge,” Walensky added.
Of the 73,339 tests administered in the past seven days in Connecticut, state officials reported 10,095 positive tests. This puts Connecticut’s positivity rate for the past seven days at 13.76 percent.
“As we’re currently seeing a steady rise of cases in parts of the country, we encourage everyone to use the menu of tools we have today to prevent further infection and severe disease, including wearing a mask, getting tested, accessing treatments early if infected, and getting vaccinated or boosted, especially if you’re over 50 and if your last dose was more than five months ago,” Walensky said.