Lamont warns rest of month crucial in battling COVID.
Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday said that the pre-Christmas COVID hospitalization rate seems generally stable over the last week, but he warned that the big test is ahead of the state over the rest of the month, during the heart of the yearend family holidays.
With a 6.8-percent infection rate for tests over the previous seven days, relatively stable hospitalizations and about 30 percent of the state’s ICU beds being taken by COVID patients, the governor was guardedly optimistic. Still, he announced 81 COVID-related fatalities occurred over the weekend, bringing the state’s death toll to 5,444.
There was a net increase of 33 hospitalizations over the weekend for a total of 1,243 patients, in a daily fluctuation that had 67 new hospitalizations on Sunday. On May 10, there were 1,242 hospitalizations as the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic was subsiding from the high of 1,972 on April 22.
The testing rate over the weekend was 6.08 percent, with 7,231 positive tests out of 119,015 tests given.
“I don’t know if we’re bending the curve,” Lamont said during a virtual news conference from the State Capitol hours after the state’s first vaccines were administered to health professionals in Hartford. “But at least we’re trying to flatten it a little bit, but the next two weeks will tell us a lot. It’s something that seems to be, for now, under
control. If the hospitals decide they’re getting closer to capacity, they can throttle down on the electives.”
Earlier in the day the
governor visited Hartford Hospital as the first 15 medical professionals were inoculated.
“I know this is a time where we’ve got the festivities and the holidays and the family,” Lamont said. “We don’t need another surge like we had a bit after Thanksgiving, so I want to temper my optimism with a note of caution: be careful a little bit longer and we’ll get out of it a little bit faster.”
Lamont, 66, said he won’t try to jump the line and get a vaccination before his age group becomes eligible, probably in the late winter, according to the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This depends upon the supply chain,” said Lamont, whose guest for the news conference was Keith Grant, an advanced practice registered nurse who is the senior system director for infection prevent at Hartford HealthCare and was among the first vaccinated on Monday.
Grant said that a recent survey of Hartford HealthCare employees, including food services and security personnel, about 65 percent said they would seek vaccinations when they became available.
“If you look at studies across the country, this is not dissimilar,” Grant said.
“I think demand is going to outstrip supply for quite some time,” Lamont said, noting the target of having all health care workers vaccinated by the end of January. “Overall, I think Connecticut does it pretty well, errs on the side of caution. Can we always do better? Yep.”