Dozens of health workers urge closures
Letter calls on Lamont to restrict gatherings, gyms, indoor dining
Dozens of local physicians and nurses in Connecticut are urging Gov. Ned Lamont to immediately close down gyms, prohibit indoor dining and ban all unnecessary gatherings, as hospitals once again begin to fill up with coronavirus patients.
Thirty-six medical workers — who work directly with COVID19 patients — signed onto a Nov. 24 letter that they sent to Lamont and copied to acting Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford.
“The rapid increase in admissions and severity of illness that we are seeing here in the ICU and the wards is incredibly concerning,” the letter reads.
Lamont’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter laid out the gravity of the situation, as Connecticut’s coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths spike to levels not seen in months. On Friday, hospitalizations passed 1,000 for the first time since mid-May. So far in November, the state has reported 345 coronavirus-linked deaths — which is more than in the prior four months combined.
With that context, the medical workers’ letter asked the state’s leaders to intervene now, before the second wave of the pandemic gets even worse.
“Based on what we know about the epidemiology of COVID-19, we are confident that a decision to close indoor dining and gyms and ban all other unnecessary public gatherings would protect our citizens from this lethal disease, keep our hospitals and caregivers from becoming overwhelmed, and save lives,” the letter reads.
Lamont has so far shown no sign of shuttering indoor dining or closing gyms — even as some public officials, including in the states of
Michigan and Washington and the cities of Philadelphia and San Francisco have taken those steps.
Lamont has capped gatherings at a maximum of 10 people, although he’s said he doesn’t plan on banning all socialization outside of households, as Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has temporarily done.
Dr. Luke Davis, who spearheaded the Nov. 24 letter, said he believes it’s time for Connecticut
officials to do more.
“Weknowit’s going to be a long few months, and so we think it’s time to contract a little bit,” he said.
Davis — a clinician at Yale New Haven Hospital and an epidemiologist at Yale’s School of Public Health — added that the pending COVID-19 vaccines offer a light at the end of the tunnel. But while the federal government may begin distributing a vaccine as early as December, the distribution and administration process is expected to take months.
During those months, people will continue to die of COVID-19.
“We just don’t want people to be the last casualties of a war that we think we’re going to win,” Davis said.
He said the letter to the governor focused on indoor dining, gyms and gatherings because medical professionals see those three areas as particularly prone to spreading the virus. That’s because indoor dining cannot be done while wearing masks, because gymgoers breathe much more heavily while working out and because the holidays are likely to spur many more social gatherings.
“As critical care physicians, having seen a lot of this, we really believe in the precautionary principle,” he said.
And the state’s coronavirus outbreak is already taxing the hospitals.
The Yale New Haven Health system recently said that 80% of its intensive care capacity was full, according to Associated Press. And on Friday, the state reported that 1,017 people were hospitalized with the virus. The number of hospitalizations is expected to keep rising for at least several more weeks.
“We’re running out of room, basically,” Davis said. And “our ICU numbers are just going to continue to go up.”
Beyond physical space, Davis said he worries about the quality of care that patients will receive as medical workers are stretched thinner and thinner, and as workers are assigned to duties outside of their usual specialty.
“I think we’ve all tried to be patient,” Davis said. “But just given the way the epidemiology has evolved, we feel like there’s an opportunity to intervene in these specific areas and hopefully prevent a further rise in cases.”
After Davis sent the initial letter to the governor, seven additional medical workers signed on, for a total of 43 signatures. On Friday, three days after sending the letter, Davis also started an online petition with the same message — as of Sunday evening, 166 people had signed the petition.