Daily coronavirus updates: All Connecticut counties now experiencing ‘substantial transmission’ of COVID-19 as hospitalizations continue to climb

The entire state of Connecticut now has substantial risk of COVID-19 transmission, with Litchfield County Tuesday joining the state’s seven other counties posting elevated levels of transmission.

The state and federal Centers for Disease Control recommend that all residents in areas of substantial risk, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public indoor spaces, though Gov. Ned Lamont has stopped sort of issuing new mask mandates.

Hospitalizations

With the delta variant raging largely among unvaccinated residents, the number of hospitalizations in Connecticut Tuesday climbed to 165 - an increase of 17 since Monday and of 49 since Friday. Tuesday’s hospitalizations are the highest it’s been since May 18 when the state had 168 hospitalizations.

The bulk of the hospitalizations are in Fairfield, Hartford, and New Haven counties.

Positivity

Connecticut’s COVID-19 positivity rate has dipped under 2.5% again.

Connecticut on Tuesday reported 277 COVID-19 cases out of 12,253 tests, for a positivity rate of 2.43%, a slight decrease after surpassing the 3% mark Monday. Since the start of the pandemic during the winter of 2020, there have been 356,164 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Connecticut.

Deaths

The state is now reporting deaths only once a week on Thursdays. As of last week, a total of 8,293 people have died from COVID-19 in Connecticut.

The United States has now recorded 614,020 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Vaccinations

As of Tuesday, 70.2% of all Connecticut residents and 80.5% of those 12 and older have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 63.4% of all residents and 72.8% of those 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jessika Harkay can be reached at jharkay@courant.com