Daily coronavirus updates: New Haven County becomes first in Connecticut to reach ‘high transmission’ level for COVID-19

Jessika Harkay, Hartford Courant
·4 min read

Amid growing worry over rising coronavirus cases, New Haven County has reached the highest level of community transmission of COVID-19, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New Haven County’s COVID-19 case rate has reached 107 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past seven days, pushing it into the “high transmission” level, the CDC’s riskiest category. All seven other Connecticut counties are now in the “substantial” community transmission category.

Hartford County, now at the “substantial transmission” designation, is just a few cases short of landing in the “high transmission” zone. The CDC labels the level of community transmission in a county — based on the number of cases per 100,000 people or the positivity level — as low, moderate, substantial or high. High transmission is 100 or more cases per 100,000 people or a positivity rate of 10% or higher.

The CDC and the state Department of Public Health are urging all residents to voluntarily wear masks when in indoor public spaces. Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday that he plans to issue and executive order allowing towns and cities to order COVID-10 restrictions, such as mandatory mask-wearing.

“The vaccines work, including against the delta variant. They protect you against serious symptoms, hospitalization and death,” Hartford’s Mayor Luke Bronin said during a press conference Thursday. “That said, we’re also seeing that you can contract the virus [and] transmit the virus, even if you’re vaccinated, and that’s why it’s so important for all of us, regardless of vaccination status, to take extra measures, like wearing masks indoors, so that we can protect those that are immunocompromised or otherwise vulnerable to the virus, or the many, many kids who are not yet eligible for vaccination.”

Positivity rate

Connecticut reported 492 COVID-19 cases out of 18,065 tests, for a positivity rate of 2.72%, a slight decrease from Wednesday, when the positivity rate surpassed 3% for the second time this week. The state’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 2.8%.

There have been a total of 357,345 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Connecticut since the pandemic began.

Hospitalizations

The state has 155 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down eight within the last 24 hours, but still an increase of 43 since last Thursday.

New Haven County has a third of the hospitalizations in Connecticut for COVID-19, with 53 people, while Windham County is the one only one among the state’s eight counties that has no one hospitalized for COVID-19.

Cases of fully vaccinated people contracting the virus remain rare, the Department of Public Health said.

Since vaccines became available, the state said there have been 1,171 “break-through” cases, where a person tests positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Among these cases, 162 individuals were hospitalized an there were 27 total deaths. All of the deaths of those who were fully-vaccinated were between the ages of 55 and older, with 88.9% over the age of 75.

Deaths

Connecticut reported three COVID-19 deaths over the last week, bringing its total to 8,296 during the pandemic.

The United States has now recorded 615,059 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Vaccinations

As of Thursday, 70.4% of all Connecticut residents and 80.8% of those 12 and older have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 63.6% of all residents and 73% of those 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Around 96% of residents over the age of 65 are vaccinated. The lowest vaccine percentage remains those between 12 and 15-years-old at 55%.

Of the eight counties, Middlesex leads the state with the highest percentage of residents fully vaccinated at 70%, and those who received at least one dose at 76.2% so far.

Middlesex Health announced Thursday all medical staff, volunteers, vendors, contractors and students will need the vaccine by Nov. 1 unless exempted. Most hospitals in Connecticut will require their workers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus this fall.

Jessika Harkay can be reached at jharkay@courant.com.