Governor Lamont Provides Update on Connecticut’s Coronavirus Response Efforts

(HARTFORD, CT) – As the State of Connecticut continues taking actions in response to the global spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Governor Ned Lamont provided the following updates as of 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 29, 2020:

Data updates on testing in Connecticut

The following is a summary of the day-to-day newly reported data on cases, deaths, and tests in Connecticut. It is important to note that these newly reported updates include data that occurred over the last several days to a week. All data in this report are preliminary, and data for previous dates will be updated as new reports are received and data errors are corrected.

County-by-county breakdown:

For several additional graphs and tables containing more data, including a list of cases in every municipality, visit ct.gov/coronavirus and click the link that is labeled, “COVID-19 Data Tracker.”

Weekly update of the Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Alert Map: Thirty municipalities in red

The Connecticut Department of Public Health today released its weekly COVID-19 Alert Map, which indicates that 30 cities and towns in Connecticut are currently in the red zone alert level, the highest of the state’s four alert levels. They are:

• Ansonia*
• Bridgeport*
• Canterbury
• Cromwell*
• Danbury
• East Hartford
• Ellington*
• Franklin*
• Griswold
• Groton
• Hartford
• Killingly*
• Lisbon
• Middlebury*
• Middlefield*
• Montville
• New Britain*
• New London
• North Canaan*
• Norwalk
• Norwich
• Old Saybrook*
• Plainfield
• Stamford*
• Sprague
• Waterford
• Waterbury
• Watertown*
• Windham
• Wolcott*

*Newly added to the red-level alert list this week

The towns of Fairfield, Prospect, and Salem were in the red zone last week and have been downgraded to the orange zone this week.

The red zone indicates municipalities that have an average daily COVID-19 case rate over the last two weeks of greater than 15 per 100,000 population. The orange zone indicates those that have case rates between 10 to 14 cases per 100,000 population. The yellow zone indicates municipalities that have case rates between 5 and 9 per 100,000 population, and those indicated in gray have case rates lower than five per 100,000 population.

The weekly alert map is also accompanied by a chart that provides guidance on recommended actions based on the alert levels for individual residents; institutions such as schools, houses of worship, and community organizations; as well as municipal leaders and local health directors.

The Department of Public Health will be working with individual cities and towns in the higher-alert levels, including their local health departments, to provide community resources and help make community-level decisions.

The COVID-19 Alert Map is updated every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. and can be found in the Data Tracker page of the state’s coronavirus website at ct.gov/coronavirus.

Governor Lamont signs 78^th executive order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19

Governor Lamont today signed another executive order – the 78^th since he enacted the emergency declarations – that builds upon his efforts to encourage mitigation strategies that slow down transmission of the virus. Executive Order No. 9J enacts the following provisions:

• Municipal authority to revert to more restrictive pre-October 8, 2020 size and capacity limitations and rules for certain businesses and gatherings: Makes several modifications to the previously enacted order that allows municipalities to revert to Phase 2. Under this order, municipalities that are in the orange level of the state’s weekly COVID-19 Alert Map will also have the option of reverting to Phase 2, in addition to the red level municipalities, as previously ordered. In addition, there is no longer a deadline for municipalities to decide whether they want to revert to Phase 2. Effective immediately, municipalities can elect to revert to Phase 2 any time that it is categorized within the red or orange levels.
• Modifications to deadlines to allow early preparations for absentee ballot counting: Grants an extension to municipalities that want to pre-process absentee ballots but missed the Saturday deadline for providing notice to the Secretary of the State.

Dashboard for public reporting of COVID-19 school cases launched on Connecticut Open Data Portal

The Connecticut Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the Connecticut State Department of Education, today launched a dashboard for the public reporting of confirmed COVID-19 cases among PK-12 students and staff in all public and private schools. The data tables are searchable by school and will be maintained on the Connecticut Open Data Portal (data.ct.gov). Reported data will be updated weekly every Thursday and will reflect total student and staff cases as well as new cases reported from the previous week.

All Connecticut public and private PK-12 schools are required to report any new student or staff person in a school who is identified as having a confirmed positive test result for COVID-19. This includes any staff or students who are working or attending in a fully remote learning model. Districts have been instructed to submit their reports on the same day that their schools are notified or as soon as possible (e.g. if notified on a weekend). In order to balance transparency and the utility of these data with the need to protect individual privacy, suppression rules have been applied to the reporting of school cases. For example, if a school reports 1-5 cases then <6 is displayed in order to de-identify the data. If 6 or more cases are reported then the exact number is displayed. If no cases are reported, 0 cases will be displayed.

It should be noted that the experience in Connecticut since reopening began for the 2020-21 academic year indicates that transmission has been a rare event inside of school buildings even in communities with elevated transmission rates. This is likely due to the high-level of planning and compliance with mitigation strategies designed to prevent transmission between individuals.

Providing information to Connecticut residents

For the most up-to-date information from the State of Connecticut on COVID-19, residents are encouraged to visit ct.gov/coronavirus. Residents can also subscribe to text message alerts from the state by texting the keyword COVIDCT to 888-777.

Individuals who have general questions that are not answered on the website can call 2-1-1 for assistance. The hotline is available 24 hours a day and has multilingual assistance. Anyone who is out-of-state or requires a toll-free number can connect to Connecticut 2-1-1 by dialing 1-800-203-1234. This is intended to be used by individuals who are not experiencing symptoms but may have general questions related to COVID-19. Anyone who is experiencing symptoms are strongly urged to contact their medical provider.