By Gregory B. Hladky and Isabella Zu
Connecticut will be the first state in the nation to conduct a broad survey to determine how prevalent the coronavirus is throughout the state’s population, the governor announced today.
The research project will take blood samples from 1,400 people chosen randomly from Connecticut’s population to discover how many have antibodies showing they’ve been infected by the virus. Experts believe that many people who are exposed to COVID-19 either don’t have any symptoms or only very mild symptoms that could be mistaken for something else.
The survey will be led by scientists from Yale University in collaboration with Gallup, a nationally known analytics and advisory company, Quest Diagnostics, and the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine.
“Connecticut has an urgent need to understand the extent of prior infection with COVID-19 in order to guide our efforts to protect the state’s residents, mitigate the harms of the virus, and implement efficient programs in the areas of greatest need,” Gov. Ned Lamont said.
“This innovative new approach puts some of the best scientific minds in the world at work with data that may be able to tell us how deeply this virus has impacted our communities and who may be more susceptible to infection,” said Diedre Gifford, Connecticut’s acting public health commissioner.
Researchers hope to find out how much of the state’s population has been infected by the virus, how many people have experienced mild or no symptoms, and whether different factors, such as age, location, or underlying health conditions, are associated with contracting COVID-19.
Missed testing goal
The Lamont administration’s stated goal for ramping up COVID-19 testing as Connecticut moves to reopen its economy was to test at least 50,000 people a week by the end of May. But reports for the final week of last month indicate fewer than 36,000 tests were actually conducted.
Lamont pointed out today that testing has increased this week, including the 9,250 tests that were conducted over the past 24 hours. “We have more testing capacity than people getting tested right now,” Lamont said during his regular daily briefing.
The governor also said that the increase of just eight COVID-19-related deaths since Monday “is the lowest fatality rate we’ve had in months.” The Connecticut death toll for the pandemic is now at 3,972.
As of today, 268,570 coronavirus tests had been conducted during the pandemic in Connecticut, according to the latest state reports. Confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases resulting from those tests totaled 239 new cases.
“These trends are all in the right direction,” Lamont said.
