The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
CT reports 5K new COVID cases
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 are mounting once again at Connecticut’s nursing homes as the state continues to break daily records for newly reported cases of the virus.
There were a total of 5,271 new COVID cases reported statewide over the weekend for a three-day positivity rate of 4.8 percent.
There were 27 more hospitalizations reported this weekend, increasing the statewide total to 875. There were also 43 more deaths associated with the virus for a total of 4,871 since the pandemic began in March.
Josh Geballe, chief operating officer for Gov. Ned Lamont, said ICU beds at Connecticut hospitals are now at 58 percent capacity. He said 30 percent of them have COVID patients.
Geballe said the state is also again setting up three COVID-19-only nursing homes for both hospital patients recovering from the virus and residents of other nursing homes where there are outbreaks.
On Thursday, the state reported 39 nursing home deaths confirmed or believed to be caused by the virus during the previous week, a little more than 67 percent of the 58 deaths reported statewide in the same time frame.
The mounting death toll at long-term care facilities brings the percentage of nursing home deaths back up to where it was in the spring, when they comprised 70 percent or more of the total COVID deaths recorded in Connecticut.
The deaths come as Connecticut has set records for the number of
new infections reported daily in recent weeks.
On Nov. 9, the state topped 2,100 new confirmed infections in the previous 24 hours, far higher than the highest one-day peak of 1,186 reported in April.
Last Friday, the state surpassed 100,000 total confirmed cases since the pandemic began, a figure that came as the nation is regularly seeing 100,000 new cases reported daily.
Geballe said most of the state’s nursing homes now have COVID-19 infections with a total 306 new cases reported on Thursday for the previous week.
Another 262 infections were reported among nursing home staff. At assisted living facilities, 59 new cases and three deaths were reported among residents in the same time.
Dr. Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer for Yale New Haven Health, said the rising numbers of COVID-19 infections in nursing homes is “not a surprise, given the communal living, the spread can happen there” more easily.
He said it would be important for nursing homes to limit visitors, because “the virus is so prevalent in the community.”
In the spring and summer, the virus raged through the state’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Early on, Lamont ordered nursing homes to stop allowing outside visitors, though the state later allowed for indoor visits under certain conditions provided homes went 14 days without a positive COVID-19.
In June, he announced an outside review of what had happened.
That review, delivered in an interim and a final report in August and September, was also intended to give state health officials a path forward through a second wave of the virus in the fall.
Staff with the state De
partment of Public Health also conducted surveys of long-term care facilities’ infection control plans, issuing fines in some cases. One nursing home, Three Rivers Healthcare in Norwich, was ordered to close in September following a deadly outbreak.
Nursing homes have been repeatedly mentioned as possible early candidates to receive a COVID-19 vac
cine.
On Monday, the drug company AstraZeneca announced its vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University had shown promising results, now the third leading vaccine effort shown to be effective against the virus.
Geballe called the news “encouraging and exciting,” and said the state is planning to have vaccine doses
on the ground and “ready to deploy” before the end of the year.
Lamont cited vaccination efforts as one expense he would be willing to dip into the state’s rainy day fund for, if more money from the federal government is not coming.
“When it comes to a vaccine, getting it distributed to the most people possible, I don’t think I can pinch pennies on that,” the governor said.
As a group of more than 60,000 Connecticut school employees on Monday called for the governor to switch all schools to remote learning, Lamont and state Department of Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona reiterated the importance of students remaining in the classrooms.
Cardona said the decision to close schools needs to be made at the local level.
During his COVID press conference, Lamont, who remains quarantined in his Greenwich home, also reiterated the importance for “smaller” and “different” Thanksgiving gatherings this week.
“Just be careful,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to allow your family to have a nice Thanksgiving.”