CT Coronavirus Infection Rate Among Highest In Country

CONNECTICUT — Coronavirus activity remains much lower than Connecticut’s second wave peak, but the state’s per capita case rate has slowly been moving in the wrong direction. Connecticut is tied with Massachusetts for the sixth highest infection rate in the country.

Connecticut averaged 26 daily cases per 100,000 residents over the past week as of Tuesday, according to The New York Times' coronavirus tracker. New Jersey is the highest at 47 cases per 100,000 and New York is at 31.

Connecticut’s case rate peaked near 70 average daily cases per 100,000 population over two weeks around the New Year and then began a sharp drop. It bottomed out near 21 cases between Feb. 14 and 27.

Gov. Ned Lamont has picked hospitalizations as his primary indicator on whether to tighten restrictions again. Coronavirus hospitalizations have trended downward during 2021, but have remained mostly flat since early March; the daily number of patients hovers around 400.

“This is no time for us to relax, we’re looking at New York we’re looking at Massachusetts, things have ticked up a little bit there,” Lamont said at a news conference Monday in response to a question from a Hartford Courant reporter. “But as I’ve said before, I'm a little less anxious about the positivity rate unless I saw a big ramp-up. I’m really focused on the hospitalizations right now.”

The state’s positive test rate has seen a slight uptick lately; March 15 and 21 was 3.29 percent compared to 2.82 percent between March 8 and 14. The daily positive test rate didn’t look great Tuesday at 4.49 percent, but there were fewer than 900 new cases reported and around 20,000 total test results.

Positive test rates can help determine if enough testing is being done in an area and could be an indicator of transmission, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Lamont ended coronavirus capacity limits at restaurants, gyms retail stores and many other businesses on Friday. Social distancing and mask use must still be enforced. Bars will remain closed.

Coronavirus-related deaths have recently dipped in Connecticut in a likely sign that vaccinations are beginning to show their effects on the elderly population. The state has already seen a massive drop in cases and deaths at nursing homes, which were among the first places targeted.

Around 80 percent of Connecticut’s population 75 and over has received at least one vaccine dose.

There have been 34 coronavirus deaths recorded between March 8 and 22 among people 80 and over, according to the state Department of Public Health; there were 80 deaths in the previous two-week period.