Sherman COVID-19 cases spike
Small town confirms ‘dramatic increase’ of 27 cases in December
SHERMAN — Many towns have seen an increase in novel coronavirus cases — but for the town of Sherman, the spike has been extraordinary.
“Sherman has had a dramatic increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases,” First Selectman Don Lowe said during this week’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting.
In the past three weeks, 27 new cases have been confirmed, he said.
“We don’t know if that’s an increase because of Thanksgiving gatherings, but we suspect that it may have something to do with it,” Lowe said.
No known particular cause has been identified for the rises in local cases, Lowe said, but the spike is “pretty remarkable … in the wrong way.”
“Since Oct. 21, we’ve had 53 cases. That’s 53 cases in a little less than 10 weeks,” he said. “To put some perspective on this: From May to Oct. 21, we only had one case.”
That the six-month span with only one case came after the town had 14 confirmed cases in March and April, said Lowe, who is urging residents to be “as diligent as possible” — especially over the holidays.
Lowe said he and Sherman’s emergency management director, James Reilly, met with health director Tim Simpkins and leaders from New Fairfield to develop a plan to address the pandemic.
Last week, New Fairfield officials approved $200,000 to cover COVID-related expenses like vaccination services, contact tracing and community testing sessions over the next several months.
New Fairfield First Selectman Pat Del Monaco said the plan is to perform the services and initiatives “in conjunction” with Sherman, and New Fairfield will seek a 20 percent reimbursement from the neighboring town.
During Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting, however, Lowe said Sherman has not yet decided what it will do.
“We’re still deciding whether we are going to work in tandem with New Fairfield,” he said. “It hasn’t been decided whether we’re going to work in conjunction with this and if we are going to have a budget to give them or our own separate budget for that. We don’t know that yet.”
Lowe said Sherman doesn’t have enough details to decide whether it will “dovetail with New Fairfield or not,” but a decision will be made “as fast as possible.”
“I’m not saying we aren’t and I’m not saying we will yet. We still have to work that out,” he said. “It’s a very, very important issue, but we’re trying to get this right and trying to approach this in the right way.”