CT cases climb
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Connecticut climbed to 1,291. Six more people have died, bringing the total to 27, and 48 have been hospitalized since Thursday, which Lamont called “the beginning of the surge.”
The 279 new cases made up about 15 percent of 1,900 new tests completed in the last day, Gov. Ned Lamont said. The large number of tests is attributed to many results arriving from outof-state labs, he said.
Patients are 10 times as likely to be hospitalized if they are over age 80 than under 50, he said. A total of 173 people have been hospitalized in Connecticut.
Less than 24 hours after announcing a loan program for small businesses, the Department of Economic and Community Development has already stopped accepting new applications, Lamont said. More than 4,000 businesses have applied for the no-interest loans, which were initially expected to be about $25 million total. “I think we’re probably going to double the capacity,” to $50 million, he said.
Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford HealthCare, said modeling indicates an expected peak of the virus in the second week of April.
Hospitals are working to add capacity in anticipation of a surge, and across the state, 39 percent of hospital beds are currently vacant, Josh Gabelle, Lamont’s chief operating officer, said. In Fairfield County, “there’s a lot more stress on the system already.”
Lamont praised Stanley Black & Decker for donating 75,000 surgical masks to Hartford HealthCare, and the tribes for donating more than 1 million surgical gloves. He also highlighted Custom Shop, an upholstery store in Glastonbury that is making and donating surgical masks, a “parachute manufacturer” making surgical gowns, and whiskey distilleries making hand sanitizer. “I was impressed by the number of folks with sewing machines who are making surgical masks,” he said.
Some of the equipment the state has ordered has been delayed, Lamont said; 3,000 thermometers are expected to arrive next week, while some of the surgical gowns and other equipment ordered
won’t arrive until next month. “We’ve got to take care of what we can take care of ourselves,” he said. It’s not clear whether that equipment was over-promised by the vendors, or if someone “came in with a higher bid.”
Geballe said he’s in discussions with a few Connecticut companies that could potentially manufacture ventilators, though details weren’t immediately available. The state has 932 ventilators across hospital systems, he said, and another 1,500 ventilators have been sought from the national stockpile in two separate, still unanswered, requests.
Flaks said hospitals in the state are piloting an innovation already being used in New York that allows two patients to use one ventilators.
Under Lamont’s latest executive order, issued shortly before 8 p.m. Friday, distilleries and other businesses can produce alcohol-based hand sanitizers and medical devices or protective equipment without registering as manufacturers, and health care providers can treat patients at facilities using their identification badges from other facilities.
He also suspended Department of Public Health licensing, renewal and inspection requirements, and waived the mandatory fees for children to participate in remote early intervention services, such as the Birth-to-Three program.
Speaking just after President Donald Trump signed the $2 trillion CARES Act for coronavirus relief, Lamont said he would have a better idea of how much money the state will be getting “within a week,” but that at least $1.5 billion will come to Connecticut.
Connecticut officials on Friday denounced discrimination against Asian-Americans,
which they say has increased due to misinformation and xenophobia stemming from the coronavirus outbreak.
The commissions on Equity and Opportunity, Human Rights and Opportunities and on Women, Children and Seniors, along with Attorney General William Tong and Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, held a virtual news conference Friday to raise awareness of the issue.
“We call for unity in the face of coronavirus (COVID-19) and condemn racism and discrimination targeting Asian-Americans — or anybody for that matter — related to the pandemic,” commission co-chairman Alan Tan said in a statement. “We are deeply concerned that recent incidents of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans in Connecticut threaten both our collective well-being and ability to manage this crisis.”
Tong calls for lift of research restrictions
Tong and 14 other attorneys general have asked the federal government to lift restrictions on fetal tissue research, which they say will help respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Scientists need every single tool available to find a vaccine and cure for COVID-19,” Tong said in a statement. “For years, fetal tissue research contributed to major medical advancements. We need to lift this partisan impediment and let scientists get to work.”
The Trump administration in June 2019 ended fetal tissue research at the National Institutes of Health, canceled a $2 million contract for a California university laboratory project and announced that research projects conducted at other universities with NIH funding would be reviewed by an ethics advisory board before being renewed. Fetal tissue is obtained from elective abortions.
The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement at the time that “promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration.” The restriction was criticized by scientists who said it would jeopardize research on diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, HIV and spinal cord injuries.
Tong and the other attorneys general, from states including Massachusetts and New York, argue in their letter to the department and President Donald Trump that “if we are going to rise as a nation to overcome this pandemic, then we need to utilize all the tools in our toolbox, including allowing our scientists to develop a vaccine and treatment to COVID-19. This means we need to permit research on all fronts.” They wrote that they support NIH scientists who are appealing the ban.
Plastic bag backlash
Three state departments issued guidance Friday on the suspension of the 10-cent tax on plastic bags, which Lamont announced Thursday. That fee is suspended through May 15, the Department of Revenue Services said.
Residents are still “strongly encouraged” to bring and pack their own bags, the Departments of Public Health, Revenue Services and Energy and Environmental Protection said in a joint statement. They said the order, which also allows retail employees to refuse to use customers’ reusable bags, aims to give flexibility to workers in response to their concerns about transmission of the coronavirus.
The Citizens Campaign for the Environment criticized Lamont Friday for caving to “the plastic industry’s efforts to capitalize on this pandemic for their own benefit.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “it may be possible” to get COVID-19 from a surface that has the virus on it, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.” Researchers from the NIH recently found that the virus can live on surfaces like plastic and stainless steel for up to two to three days.
Governors in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have already prohibited the use of reusable bags during the outbreak.