The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Gov: COVID deaths ‘are still cresting’
While CT fatalities increase, hospitalizations decline
Connecticut’s official death toll attributed to COVID-19 has surpassed 7,000, just two months since the state eclipsed 5,000 deaths.
Forty-four deaths reported Thursday increased the state’s death toll to 7,020 during the pandemic.
“Connecticut has seen a sustained and intense epidemic peak that has been at a high level,” said Dr. Daniel Weinberger, an associate professor in epidemiology of microbial diseases at the Yale School of Public Health.
He noted there are “lags” from when people contract the virus to when they develop symptoms and die. The reporting process adds a further delay, Weinberger said.
“Deaths that are being reported now could reflect people who were infected several weeks ago or longer,” he said. “The deaths of some people who were infected during the holiday period could just be reported now.”
While deaths from the virus have continued to mount, Connecticut’s hospitalizations and the percentage of daily positive tests have remained relatively stable in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Connecticut reported 1,426 new infections, diagnosed from 40,185 tests for a one-day
positivity rate of 3.55 percent. Hospitalizations declined to their lowest point since Nov. 24, with 21 fewer patients, dropping the statewide total to 995.
Connecticut reached 7,000 deaths as January became the deadliest month at any point during the pandemic, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Gov. Ned Lamont noted on Thursday that the seven-day positivity rate dropped to around 4.4 percent.
“Obviously, fatalities are a lagging indicator, but hospitalizations are down, vaccinations are up,” he said. “It’s breaking my heart, we ought to be bending this curve very, very soon. And it’s not Connecticut — it’s happening in 49 other states as well, those fatalities are still cresting.”
The grim total comes as Lamont has said the state is in a race to vaccinate as many people as possible ahead of new COVID variants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned a highly transmissible variant of the virus first detected in England could become the predominant strain in the U.S. by March. Other variants have been identified in Brazil and South Africa.
South Carolina officials announced Thursday the first two U.S. cases of the South African variant, the Associated Press reported. Neither person had recently traveled, and the two cases were found in different parts of the state, raising concern among South Carolina health officials.
Lamont’s office announced four new cases of the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, had been found in Connecticut on Monday, bringing the statewide total to eight known cases.
In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced earlier this month that England would go into a second lockdown after COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped, the Associated Press reported. The lockdown closed schools for in-person learning for all children except those of key workers and vulnerable students. Nonessential
businesses and personal services were also ordered to close.
Connecticut’s state epidemiologist Dr. Matt Cartter told school superintendents during a recent call the U.S. could take similar measures if the virus becomes the predominant strain here.
But Lamont clarified on Thursday he didn’t believe the variants will result in schools going back to fully remote as they were last spring.
“Right now, I think the vaccines are going to be able to stay ahead of whatever
risk there is there,” he said. “I’m fairly confident that if we continue our flow of vaccines ... we’re gonna be having school in March.”
On the vaccine front, the governor said the state expects to see a 16 percent increase in the number of doses it receives from the federal government starting next week — up to about 54,000 a week from 46,000.
Lamont said those doses will come from Moderna.
There have been 299,876 people in the state who have received their first shot, while 64,379 have
received their final dose. Some 35 percent of the state’s 75 and over population have been vaccinated, according to the governor’s office.
The state plans to open six additional vaccination sites where residents can schedule an appointment over the phone.
Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer, said those sites will include Bristol Hospital, as well as locations in Danbury, Kent, Middletown, Stamford with others to be announced next week. Another 80 people, many who work as contact tracers, have been redeployed to help with the state’s vaccination phone line. Fourteen sites are also available through CVS and Walgreens.
As more people are vaccinated, the governor indicated he would ease some restrictions as early as next week. Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have already begun rolling back curfews at restaurants.
Lamont suggested he would eliminate a numerical cap on houses of worship.
“I think we’re gonna to do that. Look, I’ll be blunt — we’re gonna have all the folks 75 and above vaccinated, at least that want to get vaccinated with their first dose within a couple weeks,” the governor said.
But a leading state Republican has accused Lamont of claiming their idea as his own after they said he rejected their proposals to ease restrictions on houses of worship.
“We saw the same maneuver in December when Gov. Lamont dismissed House Republicans’ suggestion to fund an aid program for our state’s hospitality industry, only to announce his own program days after rejecting our proposal,” Republican House Leader Vincent Candelora said.
The Connecticut Catholic Conference said it welcomed the possibility, calling it “an important step toward welcoming back more of our faithful to Mass and the sacraments.”
The statement said the church remains “firmly committed to ensuring that all steps are taken to promote public health and safety.”