Test UConn adds more off-campus cases

be more chance for intermingling, people coming from infected state to Connecticut to go to UConn,” Lamont said. “But I’d say a half a percentage point increase, I feel pretty good compared to what I see in other states.”

Connecticut currently has 70 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down one from Tuesday after several days of increase. Hartford County’s hospitalizations in particular have nearly doubled over the past week, leaving the area with more patients than any other Connecticut county, though still a fraction of its total from earlier in the pandemic.

Experts have predicted Connecticut’s cases will increase in coming weeks and months due to students returning to school, events moving inside and residents growing tired of abiding by pandemic-related restrictions.

The state reported two additional coronavirus-linked deaths Wednesday, bringing its total during the pandemic to 4,487. According to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University, the United States has now seen 196,436 deaths due to COVID-19.

UConn announced only one additional COVID-19 case Wednesday among students who live on campus in Storrs but 16 among students wholive off-campus, continuing a recent trend.

Of the 16 students who have tested positive since Tuesday, 11 were already in quarantine and seven lived in The Oaks apartment building, whose residents have all been asked to isolate for 14 days.

UConn currently has 33 students in isolation beds on the Storrs campus, with 212 beds available.

Wednesday marked the end of quarantine for UConn’s Garrigus Suites, where students had been required to isolate for 14 days.

“After careful monitoring and compliance, we have achieved our goal of halting the spread of the virus in Garrigus,” Eleanor Daugherty, UConn’s dean of students, wrote in an email to students. “This is a heroic undertaking for everyone. Together, we flattened the curve.”