Conn. prepares for worst-case virus scenario
COVID, flu and RSV continue to spread in state
As Connecticut experiences alarming levels of respiratory syncytial virus, rising levels of influenza and steady levels of COVID-19, state officials are bracing for a worst-case scenario this winter, public health commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani said Monday.
At a virtual press conference, Juthani said Connecticut was “in the midst of a bad season” for the flu and can expect a rise in COVID over the coming weeks and months. Hours later, the Department of Public Health reported the state’s first flu death of the season — a person in their 50s in New London County — underscoring the risk ahead.
In preparation for the winter ahead, Juthani said, DPH has renewed its push for both COVID and flu vaccination, reviewed applications from hospitals for alternative sites of care within their facilities and coordinated with national organizations that provide send medical professionals to areas that need reinforcements.
One key challenge, Juthani said, is managing the transfer of patients between their homes, the hospital and long-term care facilities.
“We need the entire hospital system to be working together so that patients are just waiting for insurance approval, for example, to be able to move to another level of care,” she said.
Connecticut, like much of the country, has already faced a crush of respiratory viruses this fall. RSV slammed the state earlier than usual, overwhelming the state’s major children’s hospitals. While RSV cases have since slowed, flu has surged at far higher levels than in other recent winters, posing a particular threat for older residents.
According to a state tracker, Connecticut has documented nearly 6,000 flu cases this season — including nearly 2,000 in the past week alone — resulting in 102 hospitalizations so far this season. Cases have so far been concentrated in Fairfield County, though Juthani said she expects transmission to increase statewide in the coming weeks.
“It is continuing to trend up, so we can only expect it will continue to get higher,” she said.
DPH released few details Monday about the first flu death of the season. Connecticut typically records dozens of flu deaths a year but saw hardly any the past two winters due to masking and social distancing measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID currently remains fairly steady in Connecticut, though the state’s numbers have risen slightly in recent days. As of Friday, Connecticut had recorded 2,445 cases over the past week, with a test positivity rate of 8.2 percent. According to official data published Thursday, the state had 378 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up from earlier this month.
Juthani said that while COVID remains difficult to predict, she expects a spike sometime soon.
“I’m still of the belief that COVID will surge,” Juthani said. “I would hypothesize that it is going to be higher this winter at some point, and my guess would be in January or February.”
Each of the past two winters, Connecticut has experienced major COVID-19 surges in December and January, resulting in thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths.
Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist at Hartford HealthCare, said in midNovember that he expected both flu and COVID to hit Connecticut hard.
“I would still expect towards the end of November that COVID numbers are going to rise, [and] flu numbers are already rising and are going to continue to rise as well,” Wu said. “So it may end up being that twindemic everyone was talking about, where they rise together.”
On Monday, Juthani emphasized that it’s not too late for residents to get bivalent COVID boosters, which protect against both the original strain and the omicron variant, as well as annual flu shots.
Vaccines, she said, are “our best shot at reducing the severity of disease.”
“It may prevent disease, it may not be completely protective, but it will certainly, especially for our oldest patients, reduce the severity of disease going forward,” she said.