Conn. reaps rewards of pandemic caution

Gov. Ned Lamont may have more support than he knows.

Ever since the early days of the fourmonth pandemic — when masks, gloves and toilet paper were scarce — there has been no shortage of opinion about virtually every executive order the governor has issued.

Much of it came from political rivals urging Lamont to let Connecticut get back to business, summoning the weary cliché that the cure was worse than the disease.

Yet when Lamont announced he was indefinitely postponing Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan Monday, it was met with a muted response.

No public outcries about keeping bars closed and maintaining a cap for private gatherings at 25 people indoors and 100 outdoors.

We’re choosing to interpret this hush as a chorus of approval. Either way, it was the right call at the right time.

Ultimately, Connecticut’s survival during this crisis will be determined by its residents. Lamont can issue all the mandates he wants, but his caution only has meaning if it is heeded.

The Fourth of July is notorious for misbehavior, evidenced by crowded emergency departments and drunken driving arrests.

But Connecticut’s discipline in handling the pandemic was rewarded over a long holiday weekend during which hospitalizations resulting from COVID dropped to 69, the lowest it has been since March 23. Of the nearly 25,000 tests conducted from Friday through the weekend, only 259 people tested positive.

Lamont has not been reflexively cautious. He did allow 50-percent capacity indoor dining when our neighboring states did not.

But he considered the landscape — the complete United States landscape — and opted not to risk his goal of avoiding taking steps backward. So bars remain closed, and gyms and indoor dining will remain capped at 50 percent.

Even the most cynical Connecticut resident likely gasped at weekend images of crowded beaches in Florida, which has replaced the tri-state as a hot spot for the coronavirus.

There are other lessons to be learned from the errors of the Sunshine State, which seems to be brazenly plunging into reopening schools in August.

The clock is ticking toward the new school year. Lamont needs to proceed with the same spirit of vigilance.

He has pointed to this ever-murky crisis offering a single clear lesson: “If we learned one thing, it’s how much safer it is outdoors than indoors.”

Business owners appear to be following his example.

Summer offers an irresistible invitation to get outdoors, along with the perils of public gatherings. It’s been telling that bar owners, anxious to draw back customers, responded to the delay with a measure of understanding.

State Rep. Vincent Candelora, a Republican from North Branford, opted to hold off on opening a gymnasium he owns, recognizing the problems arising in regions with more lax protocols.

“Given what is happening in other states, Connecticut is taking a pause,” Candelora said.

For the sake of one another, let’s all take that pause together.

Connecticut’s discipline in handling the pandemic was rewarded over a long holiday weekend during which hospitalizations resulting from COVID dropped to 69, the lowest it has been since March