Crackdown on violations a sad necessity

The frustration with month after month of COVID-related restrictions is understandable. Everyone is tired of it, and what’s most disheartening is that there is no end in sight. In fact, matters are due to get worse.

Accompanying a rise in coronavirus cases both in Connecticut and around the country is the onset of colder, darker days. Daylight saving time ends this week, meaning months of 5 p.m. or earlier sunsets. A cold front is moving in this week with a chance of snow in parts of New England, which will further curtail people’s outdoor activities. Whatever worked in the summer to keep people active and sociable while maintaining a safe distance from each other will become much harder as winter approaches.

And the rise in virus cases is real, and alarming. Though Connecticut maintained low numbers for months following the springtime peak that saw the majority of hospitalizations and deaths from the virus, those numbers are creeping back up again. The danger is real, and even though doctors are getting better at treatment and learning more every day about how to keep people who have the virus alive, there is no question the danger is heightened. Still, what has been reported around the state in recent days is a letting down of the guard. It needs to stop.

Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday posted a video purportedly taken in a Bridgeport establishment over the weekend that showed a crowd of people acting as though there was no pandemic to worry about. Two recent incidents at bars near college campuses in the state have been further cited as evidence that people are growing more lax with restrictions as the months drag on. Plenty of people could list more anecdotal examples of people not socially distancing in businesses or homes, potentially putting people at risk of infection.

This is all happening as the state saw a surge of new cases over the weekend, along with a dozen new deaths, bringing Connecticut’s death toll to 4,589. The seven-day positive rate stands at 2.4 percent, according to the governor’s office, leading to word that Connecticut officials may start taking a stricter stance on enforcing COVID-19 rules.

The governor, though, said he does not anticipate a rolling back of the staggered reopenings that have been allowed statewide over the past few months. Instead, Lamont say he was favoring a localized approach. “I think we’ve learned over the last eight months that we really can target our response, so it gives us a lot more flexibility than we had back in the spring,” Lamont said.

If that’s going to be the approach, there needs to followthrough. Local authorities need to step up enforcement and see that problems are found and dealt with. But more than that, people need to make smart choices. Stay out of indoor spaces where people aren’t wearing masks. Maintain appropriate distances whenever possible.

Even after everything that has happened, the hardest days of the pandemic are likely ahead. A vaccine will arrive, but it will not be a fast process. Everyone needs to gird themselves for difficult times to come.

People need to make smart choices. Stay out of indoor spaces where people aren’t wearing masks. Maintain appropriate distances whenever possible.