By Gregory Hladky and Mark Pazniokas
The latest Connecticut statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic today showed a continued decline in the number of people hospitalized with the virus, but the number of fatalities in the state rose by 79 — bringing the death toll to 2,168.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the overall numbers were an extension of “the positive trend we’ve seen now for over a week.” Coronavirus hospitalizations dropped by 41 since Tuesday and there are now 1,691 victims of the disease in hospitals around the state.
But despite the falling statewide numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations, officials in southeastern Connecticut reported seeing a slight rise in hospital cases in their region.
Lamont and other officials at his regular afternoon briefing reiterated that, despite the generally encouraging trends, Connecticut needs to go slow about reopening its economy.
Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, who has now recovered from his own difficult, multiweek battle with coronavirus, warned that Connecticut needs to be cautious “every step of the way” and not reopen too soon.
“That would be perhaps the worst single thing we could do right now,” Marconi, a longtime Democratic leader, said.
State Rep. Jane Garibay, D-Windsor, is another recovered victim of COVID-19 and she also said the state must be extraordinarily careful about how it reopens.
“It’s just so easy to wear a mask,” she said. Both Marconi and Garibay said they cooperated with efforts by health officials to trace people with whom they may have been in contact while they were infectious.
Lamont was noncommittal about how Connecticut people should be planning for this summer. “It’s too soon to say what’s going to happen in July and August,” the governor said. He added that his own daughter, who is planning a Labor Day wedding, is continually asking him about the infection and hospitalization trends.
The governor’s afternoon COVID-19 briefing ended — abruptly and unusually — when a fire alarm went off. Fortunately, it was a false one, caused by a contractor.
The number of COVID-19 cases is continuing to drop in Fairfield County and the New Haven region, Yale New Haven Health officials said Wednesday, but southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island are “starting to see an uptick” in hospitalizations.
Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London now has 31 COVID-19 positive patients and Westerly Hospital just over the Rhode Island border has five, officials said.
Patrick Green, president of Lawrence Memorial, said the coronavirus surge in his part of Connecticut so far hasn’t been as big as was once predicted. Green said his hospital and Westerly Hospital, which are both part of the Yale New Haven system, currently have enough personal protective gear and ventilators to handle the COVID-19 caseload.
The news of the rise of pandemic cases in the eastern part of Connecticut came with renewed warnings from Yale-New Haven experts that it is far too early for this state to depart from social distancing and economic closures.
“If we loosen those up at this moment, we will see cases climb,” said Dr. Tom Balcezak, chief clinical officer for the multi-hospital Yale New Haven system. “This is not the time for us to loosen social distancing and other measures.”
Marna Borgstrom, CEO of Yale New Haven Health, agreed. “I don’t think we’re at a point where we can celebrate,” she said.
Balcezak and Borgstrom echoed Gov. Ned Lamont’s desire for dramatic increases in statewide testing before Connecticut’s economy is restarted in full. Borgstrom said the governor would eventually “love to get us up to 50,000 tests a day,” but stocks of supplies for testing and improved processing speed still need improvements.
Balcezak also warned that a COVID-19 vaccine is “at least a year away” and that various procedures and drugs now being tested on coronavirus patients, including using plasma from recovered individuals, are not yet proven to be effective.
But the dramatic increase in the use of “telehealth,” where doctors and nurses communicate with patients via computers and the telephone, is one innovation resulting from the pandemic that Balcezak said has been terrific. “I think that is something that will stay and stay forever,” he said.
Lamont also called on local officials today to set up “long-term recovery committees” to help manage municipal and community efforts to recover from the major economic and social issues triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the Lamont administration has not yet made any firm decisions about when to start reopening the state’s economy, the governor said creating these local panels to take a longer-term perspective will be a real help in the future.
“Responding to a disaster is a shared responsibility that calls for the involvement of everyone — state government, local government, and a wide range of community partners,” Lamont said in a statement.
The local recovery committees should include representatives of businesses, community and faith organizations, local government, nonprofits and philanthropic groups, according to the governor.
