The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
TRUMP DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY
6 more virus cases as Conn. expands rules
HARTFORD — Six more state residents have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 11, state epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Cartter announced Friday.
Cartter said the new patients are from Darien, Greenwich, Westport and Bethlehem. During an interview after the daily news conference in response to the outbreak, he said he didn’t know whether any are hospitalized.
The new patients were broken down by Cartter as a woman between the ages of 30 and 40 from Bethlehem in Litchfield County; a man in her family between 60 and 70, also from Bethlehem; a woman between the ages of 40 and 50 from Westport; a man ages 50 to 60 in Darien; and a Greenwich man between 40 and 50.
A Greenwich man between 20 and 30 who tested positive for coronavirus in Utah, remains there. Another case that had previously been counted in the Connecticut total has been removed from the state’s list because they are from New York. The new cases are not related to international travel.
As of Friday, 136 coronavirus tests have been completed in Connecticut — 125 of which were negative. This data includes tests from the state lab — which conducted 115 tests — and private labs — which have performed 21 tests.
“Testing this week is much more available than it was last week,” Cartter said. “We expect that to continue.”
So-called drivethrough tests are available at Greenwich Hospital, Waterbury Hospital and Bristol Hospital.
“Greenwich has been open for a few days and Waterbury and Bristol hospital started today,” Cartter said. On Friday, Yale-New Haven Hospital announced it expects to be able to begin testing as many as 200 samples a day by Friday or Monday.
Cartter said that rather than go into a doctor’s office, those with symptoms are urged to call their doctor’s office ahead of time and let them know so someone from the office can bring an order out to the patient in the parking lot to limit any potential exposure.
The state’s ability to detect the virus will soon ramp-up, Cartter predicted.
“I think our focus for the next two weeks is to bring, as a plan, we have the Yale-New Haven Hospital Lab coming on board,” Cartter said. “We have three of these test sites at acute-care hospitals that are separate from the main hospital, at Greenwich, Waterbury and Bristol hospitals. We have additional ones that will be coming on line next week. These sites are using commercial laboratories for tests.”
There are still obstacles, however.
“Right now I think the biggest issue with testing is getting the sample taken,” Cartter said. “Many doctors’ offices are reluctant to have somebody come into the office and get a throat swab done because they don’t have enough personal protection that is routinely used. And we can’t send them to the emergency departments because they are full-up right now seeing people. So it’s really a question of accelerating these sites for testing.”
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Thirty percent of the state’s school districts with 56 percent of the state’s pupils have closed, said Department of Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona. Closed schools will be working with the state Department of Education to provide meals to students who rely on meals in schools. Many district have developed off-site learning programs via the Internet.
“If they don’t have Wifi access at home, materials are going to be developed and picked up by parents,” Cardona told reporters in the Gov. William A. O’Neill State Armory.
Utility companies are prohibited from any shutoffs during this time, said Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said.
Geballe announced that 850,000 people in the state’s low-income HUSKY program, will now be eligible for socalled telemedicine, in which they can call doctors’ offices and have those consultations covered.
Also Friday, the state Department of Social Services issued a ruling allowing Medicaid service providers to bill for tele-medicine appointments for both behavioral and general health. The move follows lobbying by come community health care centers, since the state allowed tele-medicine appointments in 2015.
More recently, last Friday the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut sent a letter to DSS urging the change. Hearst Connecticut Media published a column on the same topic Monday, and on Tuesday, Commissioner Deidre Gifford met with health providers.
Appointments must be by video connection, not just audio. The behavioral health coverage is permanent, Gifford said, and the general health waiver will last through the COVID-19 crisis.
“Congratulations to the Lamont administration for doing the right thing,” said Mark Masselli, founder and CEO of Community Health Center Inc., the largest primary care provider for Medicaid with 70,000 patients all over the state. “This is going to redefine and reimagine the way primary care is delivered in Connecticut.”
Masselli said CHC immediately notified patients and began enrolling people into the tele-health service Friday.
Other developments on Friday included an announcement that the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will immediately close all visitor centers, including the popular Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill and the Meigs Point Nature Center at Hammonasset State Park in Madison.
Geballe also announced that those applying for unemployment benefits becaue their employers are shutting down or furloughing them, because of the pandemic may be eligible even if they are not actively looking for work.
Geballe defended Gov. Ned Lamont’s expanded prohibition of any visitors, even lawyers and guardians, at state nursing homes. “The way you can best show your love for that person is to keep your distance,” Geballe said.