The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Middletown acting health director: No. 1 symptom is now loss of taste, smell
MIDDLETOWN — The rise in COVID-19 cases in the city and state was not unexpected, according to Acting Director of Health Kevin Elak.
As of Friday afternoon, 761 additional cases were reported in Connecticut, with seven deaths and eight hospitalizations since the prior day, Gov. Ned Lamont announced. That places the state’s total number of positive tests at 30,554.
By early Friday afternoon, the number of reported daily positive cases in Middletown stood at 12. On Thursday, 15 were recorded, and on Wednesday, two were, according to Elak. Updates are received by his office throughout the day.
“I don’t think it’s a fluke at this point. It’s completely expected that there would be another surge in the fall. It’s the nature of pandemics. We got a little bit of a reprieve over the summertime,” Elak said.
Mayor Ben Florsheim recently spoke with local members of the entertainment and wedding industry about a possible return to Phase 2, an action the governor has left up to leaders of each municipality.
Florsheim said he is waiting for additional data, and hasn’t yet made a decision either way.
“If we were to do that, we’re going to go all in, and it’s going to be a couple months probably before we revisit it. What I don’t want to do is take this day-to-day, week-to-week approach with guidelines that affect people’s lives and their livelihoods, their routines,” he said.
“If we’re going to change things, we want to make sure we get all the evidence that that’s what we need to do, and we need to commit to the decision, and then revisit it as new information comes up — but not in a willy-nilly way,” Florsheim said.
During this new wave, symptoms are no longer as traditional, or even distinct, as they were at the onset of the pandemic, Elak said, noting he is now seeing mild cases — as well as people who have a slightly elevated or even normal temperatures.
“A lot of people say they thought it was just allergies — or maybe a cold. They decided to get tested, and were positive. They might have had a low-grade fever. The trend I’m seeing is people feel the worse the first couple of days, and then get better,” Elak said.
A temporary loss of taste or smell is now the No. 1 symptom he sees, he said, something he’s heard from most patients. “If, all of a sudden, you wake up and you can’t taste your coffee or smell something, that might be a reason to go get tested.”
Since the spring outbreak, the severity of local cases has declined, as has hospitalizations, the mayor said. “We’re not seeing people have to go on ventilators and that sort of thing. The hospital capacity has not been at all a concern the way it was a few months ago.”
“That’s going to be more challenging in the colder weather because there’s going to be a lot more happening inside. Doubling down on this is going to be essential,” Florsheim said.
The state is using a fourcolor system for COVID cases per 100,000: gray (less than five), yellow (five to nine), orange (10 to 14) and red (15 or more).
Middletown’s rate per 100,000 as of Thursday is 11.8. It is bordered by eight towns, two of which (Cromwell and Middlefield) are red, four are in the orange zone, (Berlin, Meriden, Durham and East Hampton) with Portland in yellow and Haddam, gray.
As much as Florsheim is unhappy with the rise in cases, he said he’s heartened by how “Middletown has led the way through this,” referring to a new partnership between the public schools and Community Health Center, where students are now able to get rapid COVID tests at school.
“I think we have the most advanced, robust testing set up of any school district right now,” Florsheim said. “That’s a credit to CHC and [Superintendent Michael] Conner for working together to make it happen.”
There has been some push back from parents and staff about the Board of Education’s decision earlier this month to remain in a hybrid learning model. “I really think the approach we’ve taken with schools, as difficult as I know it’s been for families and parents, has been totally vindicated.
“I don’t know of a single district at this point that went back to full-time after starting in hybrid that hasn’t now go back to being hybrid after full-time,” Florsheim said.
The mayor’s office was flooded with calls and emails in reaction to the district’s action, he said. “As chaotic as this period has been with a hybrid schedule, the really unfair thing to do to families, and even worse alternative is to give them even more unpredictability — go back and forth” constantly.
Elak cautions that any cases the city reports on a particular day aren’t necessarily tests done on that day. Test results, which can take hours or days to come in, depending on the laboratory used, are first reported to the state health department, and then the municipality. “It could be almost a week ago.”
Elak’s office, which does contact tracing, hasn’t seen evidence of any outbreaks in restaurants or the schools, or people knowingly coming into contact with others when they have the virus.
People are not necessarily being exposed at large gatherings, said Elak, who has heard people tell him they visited their parents, or were exposed to a few friends, then later found out someone tested positive.
“That’s how it spreads in households, which is concerning, especially when you have multi-generational households with young kids, parents and grandparents. That’s where you worry about the older folks or people with compromised immune systems,” Elak said. “No one is knowingly going out when they’re sick. They don’t even know they’ve been exposed until it’s too late.”
With many people planning Halloween gatherings, particularly indoors, over the weekend, they should keep in mind that getting tested the next day, for instance, is by no means fail safe, Elak said. “It’s probably going to take a few days before enough of the virus is in your body before it can be detected by a test.”
He’s fielded calls from people asking that very question. “You still need to quarantine for the full 14 days. You can’t really ‘get out of’ quarantine. Even early on, you’re probably going to test negative. If you did test positive, it’s probably not going to be because of that exposure.
“Testing negative is only a snapshot in time. You really need to self-isolate for the full 14 days. We’ve had people start to get symptoms on day 14. That’s how long the incubation period can be.”
For a list of testing sites in Connecticut, visit portal.ct.gov/coronavirus.
“If we were to do that, we’re going to go all in, and it’s going to be a couple months probably before we revisit it. What I don’t want to do is take this day-to-day, week-to-week approach with guidelines that affect people’s lives and their livelihoods, their routines.”
Ben Florsheim, Middletown Mayor