Deaths climb amid surge

Lagging indicator has followed an increase in cases, hospitalizations

More than a month after Connecticut’s positive COVID-19 test rate began steadily rising, the state now appears to be seeing a similar rise in coronavirus-related deaths, according to data released by Gov. Ned Lamont’s office.

The state’s positivity rate, which had sat mostly below 1% during the summer, began to rise in early September and on Tuesday hit a four-month high of 3%. Several weeks later, hospitalizations began to rise as well, also hitting a fourmonth high on Tuesday.

Andwhilebothof those numbers dropped slightly on Wednesday — positivity rate dipped to 2.6% and hospitalizations dropped by four to 213 — the data shows that deaths are now also on the rise.

On Wednesday, the state reported that eight more people have died with COVID-19. In total, 4,567 people in the state have died with since the pandemic began. Deaths had tapered off over the summer, when the state reported a number of zero-death days.

In the month of August, the state reported a total of 33 coronavirus-related deaths. In the month of September, that number ticked up to 43.

And now, about two-thirds of the way through October, the state has already reported 59 coronavirus-related deaths.

The number of deaths is still nowhere near the level seen during Connecticut’s COVID-19 peak, when the state would sometimes report triple-digit deaths in a single day. However, the rising numbers point to a trend toward more — not less — coronavirus spread throughout the state.

At a Wednesday press appearance, Acting Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford said the surge was expected.

“We are seeing an increasing spread as we had been expecting and predicting there would be a resurgence of COVID spread in the fall so we aren’t surprised and we are prepared,” Gifford said.

Also on Wednesday, the state reported 416 newly identified coronavirus cases, out of a total of 15,846 tests administered. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 64,871 people in Connecticut have contracted the virus.