‘Things change very quickly’
With fewer COVID testing, vax sites, city needs to be ‘nimble’
STAMFORD — On Thursday, Stamford’s 7-day rolling average was 18 new COVID-19 cases per day. A week earlier, it was in the single digits. And for a blissful week in late June, its rolling average was only 1 new COVID case per day, according to analysis by Hearst Connecticut Media
That is to say, the city’s coronavirus numbers are marginally on the rise.
The trend is hardly a local issue. In a matter of weeks, the
delta variant — a more infections strain of COVID that experts believe is the dominant viral strain nationally and in Connecticut — has dramatically altered the pandemic’s course in the United States. Just like their federal counterparts, Stamford officials are readjusting to the uptick in cases and hedging their bets on what comes next.
“I’m looking at the alarm,” Mayor David Martin said this week when asked about the pandemic’s future in Stamford. “It hasn’t been triggered yet, but I’m looking at it to make certain that the ringer is really working.”
Most Connecticut counties, including Fairfield, are now considered to have “substantial” COVID transmission, meaning there have been more than 50 cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period. People there should resume wearing masks in indoor public places under the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state Department of Public Health said Friday afternoon anyone over the age of 2 who lives, works or travels through the affected counties should wear a mask in indoor public settings.
Gov. Ned Lamont has so far resisted issuing a renewed mask mandate for the state. Only unvaccinated people are required to wear a mask indoors in the state. Universal masking is also required in some public settings, such as state courthouses, public transit and transportation hubs.
“If (the governor) believes, with his health department, he needs to go to more aggressive restrictions, I’ve got his back,” Martin said. “I don’t want to see people die because we’re afraid to do what we have to do to keep people safe.”
But when asked whether he had the authority to institute a city mask requirement unilaterally, the mayor was apprehensive about ruling one way or another.
“I don’t know anymore,” he admitted.
Lamont’s emergency powers declaration empowered local officials like Martin to create masking rules in their municipalities. But that was early in the pandemic, and the parameters of what the mayor can and cannot do have become unclear.
Masking rules aren’t the only thing that has changed since the pandemic was at a similar level locally — the very infrastructure for keeping COVID at bay has both contracted and shifted in the last two months.
COVID testing was more centralized than it is now.
“The state, for over a year, set up a really remarkable testing infrastructure that allowed people to very easily, very conveniently get tested whenever they felt the need to, whether it was because they had symptoms or they were exposed or they needed to for work or for travel,” Community Health Centers Vice President Amy Taylor said. CHC operated testing sites at both Cove Island Park and Scalzi Park until July 1, when the focus shifted.
While still widely available and often free, mainly through pharmacies like CVS or at urgent care facilities, it is no longer the primary defense healthcare providers have against COVID.
“I think the focus had to shift to, ‘How does the state appropriately allocate its dollars to really end the pandemic?’ ” Taylor said.
The state received $1.4 billion in coronavirus relief funds in April 2020, and $230 million went towards testing efforts throughout the state. Both she and Martin said that money was instrumental to keeping local COVID responses nimble, but by early summer, they were no longer imperative in the same way.
“Vaccination is going to be the key to stopping this,” Taylor said. Other health experts line up behind that same sentiment. Even with “breakthrough” COVID cases, or infections in fully vaccinated people, increasing, the threat still lies with the unvaccinated.
“It’s primarily individuals that are unvaccinated that are ending up in the hospital,” said Dr. Asha Shah, a Stamford Health infectious disease specialist. “The breakthrough cases that end up in the hospital continue to be quite rare. And we’ve seen them here and there since January, but not enough of a trend that it’s alarming.”
About 63 percent of all Connecticut residents are considered fully vaccinated as of Thursday, according to the CDC. Of those, only about 1,000 have had breakthrough infections, according to data released by the state Thursday.
Like CHC, Stamford Health rejiggered its resources in the face a declining local caseload this summer. The hospital shuttered its South End vaccine supersite. Now, it is inoculating people at the Stamford Health Medical Group Walk-In Center, located at 292 Long Ridge Road, by appointment only.
As for altering the current pandemic strategy or re-implementing mask mandates, Shah — like Martin — said the hospital and community would have to be reactive as the situation evolves.
“What we’ve learned from the pandemic, over the past year and a half, is that these things change very quickly,” she said. “We’ve become very accustomed to being nimble here.”