CT positivity rate jumps to 6.1%

30 communities throughout the state now at red alert level

Connecticut’s COVID-19 positivity rate reached 6.1 percent Thursday, the highest since June, prompting a grim Gov. Ned Lamont to say the second wave of the pandemic is upon us.

“Red alert” municipalities — those with an average of 15 new cases per day per 100,000 population in the two weeks ending Oct. 24 — increased to 30 from 19 a week ago. The numbers don’t include cases in prisons or long-term care facilities.

Lamont said he will allow fully two thirds of the state the flexibility to revert to Phase 2 reopening protocols, including both red- and orange-alert communities with between 10 and 14 daily infections per 100,000. Lamont recommended red and orange

towns “err on the side of caution.”

New Haven, in the orange-alert group, reverted back to Phase 2 Thursday. Windham had already done so previously.

“There’s no good news in these numbers,” Lamont said during his daily briefing from the State Capitol. “I look hard to find a silver living and I can’t find it in these numbers, except perhaps that we have done a lot of testing. It’s a one-day number, but the trend line is clear.”

Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said local officials have anticipated the rise, however, “I don’t attribute this to people letting their guard down. I attribute it to the cycle we’re seeing nationally and elsewhere in the state.”

Middletown now has a culture of most people recognizing the risks and taking appropriate health and safety measures. Still, even he finds himself being around more people than he probably should.

During a recent director’s call, Florsheim said he believes city employees may be getting a little lax about visiting one another in their offices and not maintaining adequate social distance. “All of us have been guilty of that.”

“We have to make sure we’re not being complacent, because, just as we started to think of ourselves as hotspot back in the spring, we started to think of ourselves as an oasis in the last couple months. We’re not there anymore,” the mayor said.

The closely watched 7-day average of positive test results is 3.1 percent, still well below the national rate of 6.3 percent. But it’s up from 1.6 percent in just nine days, leading Lamont to say the 6.1 reading is not an aberration. “I wish I could say that,” he said.

Among southwestern Connecticut communities, the 30 red-alerts now include Bridgeport, Stamford and Ansonia, joining Danbury and Norwalk from last week. Fairfield had been red and dropped to orange — barely, at 14.6 daily cases — as one of 53 cities and towns in that group.

Norwalk, at 36.3 cases per day, is the state’s second-highest behind New London’s 47.7. Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling has declined to push back to Phase 2, saying the governor should keep the state under uniform rules.

Phase 3 allowed capacity in restaurants and personal care facilities to increase from 50 percent to 75 percent. Asked about large groups of non-related people within restaurants, which are legal under both Phase 2 and Phase 3, Lamont said he may consider revisiting that.

Most of the red alert towns remain in Southeastern Connecticut.

“I think in terms of erring on the side of caution, allowing municipalities to do the right thing, just like what Windham has done, I think it important,” Lamont said, noting that Phase 3 only began on October 8.

Phase 2 had a ban on indoor performing arts events and a maximum 25 people for private indoor gatherings.

“These are all things which you can do as municipalities on your own,” Lamont said. “It sends a signal that we are taking this seriously and we know that the COVID infection is ramping up.”

The governor is offering flexibility on playing winter indoor sports, such as ice hockey

Connecticut added 1,319 positive coronavirus tests Thursday, for a total of 70,446 statewide since the pandemic began. That is not the number of people who have been sick, as some people with COVID-19 can receive multiple positive tests and some do not get tested at all.

There are also 321 patients currently hospitalized in the state, an increase of 12 since Wednesday. Five new fatalities brought the state total to 4,609 in a pandemic where the first death occurred on March 17.

“Let’s face it, we’ve gone from one to two to three, and this six-point-one may be a harbinger of things to come,” Lamont said, noting that nationwide, infection rates are soaring. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, but we’re going to weather it together.”

Statewide, the number of new cases per day over the last seven days jumped to 20 with Thursday’s results, from 17 one day earlier. That’s approaching the national rate of 22.6, although the national rate is one day behind as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Among surrounding states, Massachusetts is seeing new case numbers about the same as Connecticut. New York is significantly lower, among the lowest in the nation. And Rhode Island is more than double, much worst than the nation.

The one bright spot has been the number of tests. The state logged 21,739 new coronavirus tests, a total of 2,254,342 tests since the pandemic began.

The state has logged 70,446 cases since March, for an overall infection rate since the start of the pandemic at of 3.1 percent — the same rate as the last week.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Education rolled out a dashboard showing school-by-school COVID-19 cases on Thursday, which will be updated every Thursday. It showed a total of 130 cases among staff, up 25 from the previous week; and 250 cases among students, up 19. Combined, the cases are well under 1 percent of the roughly 550,000 students and staff in schools.