The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Conn. coronavirus data in short supply
Connecticut residents between the ages of 50 and 59 have so far been the most susceptible to contract the coronavirus, according to the state’s data.
However, it’s difficult to identify more precise trends since the state’s figures omit key data points such as sex and pre-existing conditions for the nearly 1,300 patients who tested positive for the coronavirus as of Friday.
The United States has now surpassed Italy and China for the most confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. However, the U.S. is one of the few countries among the top 25 affected by the coronavirus not to report these statistics, according to Global Health 50/50, an independent research initiative that calls for gender equality and health equity.
“Our reporting on this is brand new, and we are in full pandemic response mode, so it is a rapidly evolving situation,” Connecticut Department of Health spokesman Av Harris said in an email Friday. “The personnel we would normally have to do that kind of detailed reporting are involved in all measures of the pandemic response. It takes time to develop that type of detailed reporting, and we are just in the beginning of this pandemic.”
The latest figures show 1,291 confirmed cases statewide, including 173 people who have been hospitalized. Connecticut’s death toll on Friday rose to 27.
Preliminary Connecticut data show that patients who are 80 and older are infected, hospitalized and die at higher rates than any other age group.
The highest number of infected people, 275, are 50 to 59 years old.
Among 30- to 39-year-olds, 40- to 49-year-olds and 60to 69-year-olds, coronavirus cases range from 192 to 200.
Hospitalization numbers are highest among septuagenarians, 40 in total.
About 2.6 percent of people with the coronavirus have died in Connecticut. While the average is low, 18 percent of octogenarians have died, compared to 4 percent of people 70 to 79 years old.
In a news conference held Friday by Yale New Haven Health officials, Medical Director of Infection Prevention Dr. Richard Martinello said the hospitals are reporting sex, pre-existing conditions and age to the state and local health departments. The state reports this information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This data is compiled so it can be analyzed locally by scientists at Yale New Haven, and by the state public health department and by the CDC, Martinello said.
Dr. Tom Balcezak, chief clinical officer at Yale New Haven Health, said hospitals are in “almost constant communication” about data such as bed ability, the number of patients in intensive care units, testing numbers and positive test rates.
“All that data is being reported to public agencies,” he said. “I assume it would be available to the public. I think it is important for the public to know, since we see how it’s impacting other parts of the country.”
He added that it is vitally important that everybody work to stop the spread of the virus.
“I’m concerned we are just at the beginning of the outbreak,” he said. “If we don’t act fast to halt the spread, we will have a New York-style state of difficulty.”
Health directors and officials from the municipalities with the highest number of cases — Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, Westport and Danbury — said they are not releasing such details for those who have contracted the coronavirus.
The lack of depth in public reporting extends nationwide, but some municipalities are more forthcoming. New York City has started releasing the number of deaths, broken down by age, sex, pre-existing conditions and borough.
Italy, China, Germany, Spain, Iran, South Korea, France, The Netherlands,
Portugal, Sweden and Denmark separate cases and deaths by sex.
Internationally, trends show that men seem to be more at risk to contract, and ultimately die, from the coronavirus. People over the age of 50 and those with pre-existing conditions are also at higher risk.
In Italy, for example, men represent 58 percent of cases and 71 percent of deaths from the coronavirus.
jo.kroeker@ hearstmediact.com