CT Governor Urges Businesses, Residents, To 'Get Back To Normal'

CONNECTICUT — One week after lifting virtually every coronavirus restriction on residents and businesses, Gov. Ned Lamont took a victory lap while urging them to get back to normal.

The governor said his administration's new mantra will be a significant departure from the message he was trying to hammer home for residents over the past 14 months.

"I have spent the last year, plus, saying, 'Stay safe, stay home.' Today I'm saying: 'Get out of the damn house!'"

David Lehman, Connecticut's economic and community development commissioner, said the state's business activity is currently 92 percent what it was pre-pandemic, placing it 19th among the 50 states. "But we need to get to 100 percent," he said.

Lehman said the state had recovered "60-70 percent" of jobs lost since April of last year.

"Human behavior isn't going to change on a dime, after 14 months of a pandemic," Lehman said. He anticipates that people will be returning to work "slowly," due to their "different levels of risk tolerance."

Lamont appeared more hopeful, saying the state's parks and beaches had more visitors in 2019 than ever in the state's history. Highway traffic has begun to pick up, the governor said, but the "trains are less busy."

Lamont and Lehman made their remarks during a news conference at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford on Wednesday afternoon.

Among other business leaders, they were joined by Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, who said that Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks is offering more destinations than it did in 2019. These will include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Cancun. Dillon said that airport passenger traffic had dropped by 97 percent during the worst days of the pandemic, and now sits at around 40 percent.

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On May 19, the state lifted all mask-wearing and social distancing requirements, with exceptions that included health care facilities, public and private transit, facilities housing vulnerable populations, correctional facilities, and childcare.

Children must also continue to wear masks in school, through at least the end of current school year. State officials have not yet determined whether children will still be required to wear masks in school come September, Lamont said. Currently, the COVID-19 vaccines have only received emergency use authorization by the Food & Drug Administration, not full authorization.

Lamont said the daily COVID-19 positivity rate was 0.75 percent, which is more than a 0.7 percent drop from the data reported by the state Department of Public Health on Tuesday. Based upon the history of flare-ups following the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, Lamont said that Connecticut health officials would continue to monitor and report on the COVID-19's infection rate in the state through at least the end of the year.