CT Coronavirus Rate Jumps Above 2 Percent

CONNECTICUT — Connecticut on Tuesday saw its highest positive coronavirus test rate since June on Tuesday, when it hit 2.4 percent as another 320 cases were identified.

Coronavirus hospitalizations continued to rise as well, with a net increase of 17 patients up to 172.

The rise in positive cases isn’t totally unanticipated, Gov. Ned Lamont said at a news conference. The state has been stockpiling personal protective equipment and ramping up testing capacity to around 150,000 tests per week. Connecticut still has plenty of hospital capacity even as the state nears 200 hospitalized coronavirus patients, he said.

“It is concerning, and we’re much better prepared than before,” he said.

Coronavirus hospitalization stays on average are lasting fewer days than when the state was at its peak in April, Lamont said. There is also a smaller share of hospitalizations that require intensive care than what the state saw at its peak.

Connecticut has seen an increase in social contact among people recently, which is helping drive the increase in cases, Dr. Albert Ko of the Yale School of Medicine said at the news conference. Ko was a co-chair of the state’s reopening committee.

The increase in cases is concerning, but the state is in a much better position for a rise in cases than it was months ago, Ko said.

“These are going to be brush fires, I expect them to be more brush fires than they are going to be wildfires,” he said.

Connecticut is in a better position to target and stamp out pockets of cases before they spread widely, particularly thanks to wide testing strategies, Ko said. That will allow the state to target specific hot spots like it recently did with Danbury and is currently doing with the southeast part of the state without drastically affecting the rest of the state.

The state’s testing strategy for nursing homes will also help prevent outbreaks before they happen, Ko said.

There are better therapies now than there were at Connecticut’s peak of hospitalizations in April, he said. Steroids can help hospitalized patients recover faster and reduce mortality; the anti-viral drug remdesivir has also been shown to reduce recovery times and mortality rates; and there is also promising research into the use of antibodies.

See also: CT's Coronavirus Quarantine Advisory Reaches New High

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