16 new deaths plus 17 previously unreported
The state logged its highest total of new deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday, with 16 new fatalities plus 17 more from the last two weeks that had not previously been announced publicly.
That brings the Connecticut death total to 69 from COVID-19 infection, up from 36 that were reported publicly Monday — a 92 percent jump.
The increase added urgency to Gov. Ned Lamont’s call for residents to stay home, and led him to say the social distancing
rules were not working well enough. In a radio appearance early Tuesday, the governor said he may order new restrictions — though he had not done so as of Tuesday evening.
Separately, Lamont and his banking commissioner announced that homeowners affected by the pandemic through job loss, furlough or other circumstances will have 90-day grace periods on mortgage payments and 60-day delays on foreclosures. The relief was the result of agreements made between the state and more than 60 lending institutions including credit unions.
The 17 fatalities from the last two weeks had not been reported to the state Department of Public Health, said Josh Geballe, the state's chief operating officer, but the state was “able to identify that had been reported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner over the last two weeks.”
Neither Geballe nor Lamont explained how and why the deaths reported to the medical examiner had not made their way into the total count of the Department of Public Health.
The number of new deaths from the virus in Connecticut has gone up and down day to day, with the rate of deaths as a percentage of total confirmed coronavirus cases hovering at about 1.4 percent. With the new deaths, the percent of total confirmed cases that have died is 2.2.
What hasn’t changed is the percentage of those deaths among older people. The vast majority of fatal infections are in people older than 80 years old.
More than 59 percent of the total deaths from coronavirus in Connecticut have been patients over 80.
Lamont claimed Connecticut is the fourth most affected state by the virus, per capita, with New York first, followed by New Jersey and Louisiana. “I feel like a general sending troops into battle without protective gear,” Lamont said, praising first responders and medical personnel.
The death toll in the United States increased by 543 as of Monday night, a total of 3,580 people, more than the number of people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Banks agree to delays
Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez said that homeowners who miss payments will not be subject to creditscore violations, and any delays in paying would simply result in extending monthly payments.
For instance, a homeowner who has 200 monthly payments left on a mortgage would still have 200 payments left, but the length of the mortgage would be pushed out by up to three months.
Perez said 62 credit unions and banks have signed on to the initiative so far and he expects more to join, and suggested that homeowners wait until later in the week to contact their banks or mortgage servicers to work out individual agreements.
“I know this is March 31,” Lamont said. “I know this is a day of some anxiety because bills are due.” He hiopes that between flexibility from banks, insurers and employers, workers and homeowners can weather the pandemic with as little financial damage as possible before the state can return to work. “I just wanted to give everyone a little more confidence.”
In the tally of cases, Stamford saw a near-tripling, from 157 to 401, with the possibility that a lag in test results resulted in the big one-day increase. Geballe explained that the waiting times of tests vary because some hospitals contract them out to private testing groups that could take days longer.
Lamont, who is in regular communications with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed that the pandemic peak is expected in seven to 21 days, when hospitals will be at their most stressed.
More restrictions likely
Earlier in the day, Lamont said voluntary social distancing isn’t working very well among young people who might spread the coronavirus to vulnerable populations, and he’s thinking about narrowing the list of so-called essential businesses as the state anticipates the infection peaking over the next couple of weeks.
“We’re definitely at a point where you’ve got to stay home and probably we have to take a look at what is an essential worker and to continue to tighten that up in terms of any possible confusion,” Lamont said during an interview on WPLR-FM, the classic rock station. “I’m looking at more ways to keep people at home, at least for this 30-day period.”
But a lot of social-distancing is succeeding, he added, then voiced concerns about what is coming.
“Certainly I think that April is going to be a horrible month,” Lamont said during the 15-minute radio interview. “That’s based upon what we saw overseas, in Italy where it may be slowly beginning to recede; a little bit of Seattle, Washington. Those places that were a month, a couple weeks ahead of us. That’s really the best indicator we’ve got. We’re obviously looking at the trend lines here in the state, where we continue to accelerate.”
“I’ve been a little reluctant to close our big parks because it’s one of the few outlets that people have,” Lamont said. “Stay six feet away. It’s a relief. I do worry about going by the basketball hoops where I’ll see, you know, sometimes 15 kids having a game. So I think we’ve got to be a lot stricter on some of these places where people tend to congregate.”