State YMCAs report small COVID-19 positivity rate

MIDDLETOWN — After four months since reopening, YMCAs of Connecticut report that they have had over 658,000 visits at 43 locations across the state.

Each visit creates a chance that someone who is positive for COVID-19 will enter a facility, according to a press release from the Northern Middlesex YMCA.

Over this period, just 42 individuals have reported that they have tested positive and, after contact tracing, no cases have originated at a YMCA. There have been 42 positive cases, which reflect a .00638 percent positivity rate, or 638 per 100,000, the YMCA said.

“We have done everything in our power to be good stewards of community health by providing vital community services and clean and safe environments,” Michele Rulnick, Northern Middlesex YMCA CEO, said in a prepared statement.

On June 17, when Phase 2 went into effect, YMCAs reopened cleaner than ever and having created new safety measures to protect employees and visitors, according to the news release.

These included enhanced employee training, new cleaning equipment and systems, adding reservation software systems, reorganizing exercise spaces and spreading equipment, adding entry health check procedures and developing contingency procedures for potential positive cases at the YMCA, the release said.

“When it’s determined that a member or employee tests positive, or has been in close contact with a positive case, our detailed action plan ensures individual quarantine and contact tracing to ensure that there is limited or no spread of the virus,” Rulnick said.

For information, visit midymca.org or call 860347-6907.