The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
CT COVID hospitalizations fall to their lowest point since Nov. 12
Connecticut’s coronavirus-related hospitalizations fell to the lowest point since Nov. 12 on Friday, continuing a weekslong downward trend.
A net decline of 57 patients hospitalized for the illness brought the state’s total down to 674, now the lowest it has been since before the state saw spiking infections around the holidays.
The daily positivity rate also remained low. A total of 838 new infections were reported, resulting in a 2.2 percent positivity rate out of 37,791 new tests.
New deaths continued to mount however, with 27 more fatalities attributed to the disease bringing the state’s death toll to 7,381.
While Gov. Ned Lamont has not pinned what is driving the declining COVID-19 metrics, members of the administration have suggested vaccinations at nursing homes and other long term care facilities could be a factor.
“I think we had a fair number of people that may have been infected and may not even have known it,” Lamont said Thursday during his afternoon news briefing. “Obviously we’re up over about 12 percent now in terms of people who have been vaccinated, particularly those who are at the highest risk, that makes a big difference.”
As of Thursday, 580,432 doses have been administered in Connecticut. So far 162,788 people, or about 4.5 percent of the
state’s population, have received their second and
final dose of the vaccine. Thursday also marked the start of state workers and residents 65 and older being eligible to register for the vaccine.
As before, the governor urged patience, estimating the state still has around 300,000 people to vaccinate in the newly eligible group. It’s unclear exactly who specificly will be eligible to receive the vaccine next under Phase 1b of the state’s vaccine distribution plan. The group broadly includes essential workers like grocery store employees and school staff, but the state has opted for a tiered approach to vaccinating one group at a time within Phase 1b.
The falling trends in the state's COVID-19 data comes as 22 more cases of a highly infections variant
of the virus that causes COVID-19 were found in the state, Connecticut health officials reported Friday evening. Cases of the variant, known as B.1.1.7, were found in positive tests in 19 cities and towns.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday released guidelines on how schools can reopen safely during the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. President Joe Biden promised to reopen schools for inperson learning within the first 100 days of his presidency. But more recently the administration has appeared to backtrack on that promise, saying schools could be considered in-person if they’re open to students one day a week.
It is not immediately clear how much impact the CDC’s reopening guidance will have in Connecticut, where schools have largely remained open through mix of in-person and remote instruction.