State COVID cases climb
Breakthrough cases part of spike
Amid one of the most substantial surges since the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19 breakthrough cases have spiked in the past week with nearly 25,000 fully vaccinated people getting ill, figures released Thursday show.
In total, Connecticut has seen more than 83,000 breakthrough cases, which are infections among people who have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks. According to the state, 3.29 percent of all fully vaccinated residents have now contracted COVID-19.
The overall percentage of fully vaccinated people hospitalized with COVID has also risen to 32 percent, from about 20 percent early last week. Health care officials from Connecticut's largest hospital networks said Thursday that the "vast majority" of their fully vaccinated patients had not received a booster shot.
“For people who are boosted, many people are having mildly symptomatic disease, some are even asymptomatic. People who are vaccinated, but not
boosted, are having more significant symptoms, but are still largely protected,” Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said. “What we have to worry about are the unvaccinated.”
The increase in breakthrough cases follows a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks. On Thursday, the state reported 8,823 new COVID-19 infections were found among 38,674 tests for a positivity rate of 22.81 percent, a very slight increase from the rate reported Wednesday.
This jump in infections comes amid a broader spread of the omicron variant, which officials said Thursday now accounts for 90 percent of the new cases in Connecticut.
Hospitalizations jumped a net of 108 patients for a total of 1,784, one of the highest numbers since the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020.
“I thought that omicron was less dangerous, why do we have our hospitalizations continuing to go up? One, just because we have so much infection in our state. Number two, there’s a number of breakthrough infections. Mainly it’s the unvaccinated,” Gov. Ned Lamont said, noting that some COVID-19 patients in hospitals are there for other reasons like surgeries.
In the past week, 121 people died from COVID, up from 83 deaths from the previous weekly tally, according to the state. These weekly figures show that deaths have increased three-fold since the beginning of December, when 44 deaths were reported. Of the new deaths reported, 35 were among fully vaccinated people, state data shows.
“So if you look at the data more closely, if you look at who was getting hospitalized, more than 65 percent of our patients that require inpatient admission for COVID-19 are unvaccinated,” said Dr. Syed Hussian, chief clinical officer at Trinity Health of New England. “And unfortunately,
those individuals tend to have poorer outcomes.”
While deaths are rising, the figures are still much lower than those reported during the COVID winter wave in late 2020 and early 2021. In the first week of January 2021, the state reported 329 deaths.
“Fatalities, thank god, are relatively low compared to where we were a year ago and that’s thanks to vaccines,” Lamont said.
Health officials have said deaths are a lagging indicator, the last to rise following overall infections and hospitalizations.
“The vaccines are doing what they were designed to do to prevent severe disease and death. We do have breakthrough infections that take place. Usually most of those are mild, but the large chunk of our patients that require critical care and services are unvaccinated,” Hussian said.
Booster mandates
Amid a rise in breakthrough cases, Lamont announced Thursday that the state would amend its vaccine requirement for nursing
home staff to now include that they receive a booster shot.
“That will pay dramatic dividends,” Lamont said, setting a deadline of Feb. 11 for them to receive boosters. “That will open capacity in our hospitals, make it easier for us to transfer people from the hospitals to our nursing homes.”
Lamont credited vaccine efforts in nursing homes for keeping the number of fatalities down, but said the state must avoid what was seen early in the pandemic when nursing home residents were hit hardest by COVID-19.
Lamont said the state’s hospitals will also require all staff to get a COVID booster to make sure “they have more people in the hospital, and less people having to quarantine at home.”
Mag Morelli, president of the nursing home association, LeadingAge Connecticut, said nursing home staffs have been “amazingly resilient” during the pandemic, becoming experts on COVID-19 infection control.
“We must do what we can to
support them and protect them. And the vaccine and booster are an important part of that protection,” Morelli said.
Hospitals were among the first industries in Connecticut to adopt employee vaccine mandates during the pandemic, and took action against employees unwilling to get inoculated.
“There’s new evidence that’s saying the effectiveness of the vaccine does wane over time, and caregivers in Connecticut were some of the first to be vaccinated. So given the compelling evidence that booster doses, especially for those who have seen the effectiveness of their initial vaccination wane, does prevent serious illness,” said Patrick Charmel, president and chief executive officer of Griffin Hospital.
Charmel said the Connecticut Hospital Association on Thursday changed its mandatory vaccine policy to include boosters.
“That’s how we keep our hospitals safe,” Lamont said. “That’s how we have the capacity to take care of each and every one of you.”