⏩ State’s pandemic reopening group to disband.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group will disband - after about one month - on May 20, when the state’s first phase of the new normal will begin.

But the 50-member panel may not go far away, even as most of their duties will be taken over by a Boston-based consultant whose $2 million contract will be paid with federal disaster relief funds.

Lamont said Friday that the Boston Consulting Group has experience on coronavirus and appropriate responses used by the six other states including New York and Massachusetts that have joined Connecticut in a regional consortium. “It’s one more way that we can better coordinate our efforts there,” Lamont told reporters during his daily briefing from the state Capitol on Friday.

“When it comes to track and trace, when it comes to testing strategies, when it comes to opening and closings, ways that we can coordinate on a regional basis, they’ll be there working right alongside our different departments and commissioners, lending us the expertise that they’ve got as we ramp up implementation,” Lamont said, describing the advisory group of business representatives and health experts as “winding down” by the time Wednesday May 20 comes around.

“Next week they put in place the very best health metrics we had,” Lamont said. “We’re testing now against those metrics to see how we’re doing. Now we have to implement for the next three months, and BCG is going to get us started there.”

Josh Geballe, commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services who is also Lamont’s chief operating officer, said that the public health interventions include “a wide variety of things that have never been done before in state government in Connecticut or really anywhere else.” He said the reopening phases require “reengineering” a state’s economy that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed residents over the last two months.

“I think most people can appreciate that it is an immensely complex piece of work, so having some people who can work side-by-side with us 18 hours a day, seven days a week, bringing in all the inputs that we’re getting from all of the stakeholders is incredibly important to our effort to be able to move at the speed that this crisis depends, and do so in as smart a way as possible,” Geballe said.

Lamont said he expects a final report from the reopening committee before it disbands. Even then, at least the leaders of the group will remain in touch on an informal basis, he said, singling out Dr. Albert Ko, department chairman and professor of epidemiology at Yale Medical School. “He’s paying special attention to this, as somebody who’s spent his whole life on infectious diseases,” Lamont said. “This is his moment. He’s put in place a team.”

Lamont said that the $2 million contract with the consultants will be paid primarily through federal disaster relief.

On Wednesday, state Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said that the hiring of the consultants should have been discussed with legislative leaders.

“Instead of working with lawmakers to develop Connecticut's strategy to get people back to work safely, the governor is contracting out our legislative authority with little transparency,” said Fasano. “Now, this consulting firm has been hired in the dark to be the state's 'control tower' on one of the most significant issues ever to face our state, and they are being paid a significant amount using either state taxpayer dollars or federal taxpayer dollars when the state's finances and core services are already under strain.”

Timothy Phelan, who as president of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association is a member of the advisory group, said Friday that he had not heard that the group would be phased-out next week, but realized that Advance CT, the former Connecticut Economic Resource Center, would act as liaison to the governor on issues of reopening.

“I’ve been honored to be on the advisory board and very happy that retailers are involved,” he said, pointing to the group’s next meeting on Monday. “Maybe there’s another way of hearing from us without the advisory board, because I’m confident that they will take our thoughts into consideration. I hope they keep the lines of communication open.”

Another advisory group member, John Olsen, the emeritus president of the state AFL-CIO, said he expected that the panel would meet until there were initial plans in place, but didn’t know that Lamont planned to finish their work next week. “We pretty much responded, reached out to our constituencies and returned with feedback,” Olsen said Friday. “The proof will be whether they’re going to get it done. The protocols are pretty extensive.”

The longtime labor leader and former state Democratic chairman stressed that to succeed, the reopening process has to be supported by state residents. “We have to have the confidence of the people,” he said, stressing the fact that unlike many states, Connecticut did not shutdown major manufacturers or large construction projects during March, April and May.

“There are still some issues like OSHA rules and worker’s compensation agreements that concern me, and it’s important that employers and employees refresh themselves constantly, in order to avoid forgetting and falling back to habits from before the virus hit,” Olsen said.

Olsen pointed to the Boston Consulting Group’s contract and noted that there are many similar contracts in various state departments that are a matter of routine. “Consultants don’t come cheap,” he said. “I think we have phase one and two, and phase three will take care of itself and phase four is back to normal. I applaud the governor because he’s not afraid to listen to other ideas.”

Laptops, credit ratings and beaches

The state Department of Public Health announced Friday that 66 fatalities were reported overnight and into the day, bringing the total dead to 3,285 in the coronavirus pandemic. A net decrease of 71 hospitalized patients made for a total of 1,033, which is equal to the total COVID-19 patients hospitalized on April 4.

In other pandemic-related developments, the Governor’s COVID-19 Learn From Home Task Force on Friday announced that the first batch of about 17,000 Dell laptops is ahead of schedule and will arrive next week in New Britain, Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Danbury, East Hartford, Hamden and Hartford.

The task force has also distributed a survey on distance learning and Internet connectivity to districts to gauge some of the barriers facing under-served communities. In all, nearly 60,000 laptops will be given to pupils.

Also on Friday, State Treasurer Shawn Wooden announced that Moody’s Investors Service, S&P

Global Ratings, Fitch Ratings, and Kroll Ratings affirmed Connecticut’s credit scores and stable outlooks in the coronavirus pandemic. Moody’s confirmed at ‘A1’ score; S&P at ‘A’; Fitch at ‘A+’; and, Kroll a ‘AA-’. The rating agency reports credit the state’s robust budget reserve of about $2.5 billion.

“In these tough times, a little good news is more than welcome,” Wooden said in an afternoon statement. “What matters most is that maintaining our credit standing allows us to continue to access funding for strategic investments for our state at attractive interest rates, saving taxpayers’ money.”

Lamont on Friday said that state shoreline beaches will officially open on Friday May 22 with limited capacity, but with staff monitoring visitors on their social distancing and wearing of face masks. Beach blankets must be 15 feet apart.

Earlier in the day, Lamont joined the governors of Delaware, New York and New Jersey in a multi-state agreement to open beaches on the same date. Connecticut’s state parks have not been closed during the pandemic, but some have been closed to traffic after reaching attendance quotas established by Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“Working together as states to make sure they can be enjoyed responsibly makes sense,” Lamont said in a statement. Groups of more than five are prohibited. If social distancing fails, the DEEP will close beaches.

The DEEP plans to release an operations plan that towns and cities will be welcome to adapt for their own locations. It will publish a detailed operations procedure that will be published online at www.ct.gov/DEEP/Parks.