CT Coronavirus Red Zone Increased To 100 Towns

CONNECTICUT — The state's list of communities in the red zone for coronavirus infections grew Thursday to an even 100. A week prior, it was at 68 municipalities.

The list is barely a month old. It started with just 4 towns with an infection rate above 15 cases per 100,000 people per day.

Another 37 towns as of Thursday were in the state's orange zone with between 10 and 15 cases per 100,000 people.

Bridgeport, Meriden and Danbury are the hottest of the coronavirus hot spots, with infection rates of 53.2, 52.3 and 49.9, respectively.

In an otherwise dark news conference Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont found one small beam of sunshine. New London and Groton were "bringing in the reinforcements," he said, having brought down their positivity rates "a little bit."

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, joined Lamont and projected that in the weeks following Thanksgiving, "the picture is going to look a lot more troubling in terms of spread generally, and pressure on the health care system."

The state Department of Public Health reported another 1,158 cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours and hospitalizations went up by another 33 beds.

Below is the list of towns in the red zone as of Thursday:

Ansonia

Beacon Falls

Berlin

Bethel

Bethlehem

Bloomfield

Bozrah

Branford

Bridgeport

Bristol

Brookfield

Brooklyn

Chaplin

Cheshire

Clinton

Cromwell

Danbury

Deep River

Derby

Durham

East Granby

East Hampton

East Hartford

East Haven

East Windsor

Easton

Essex

Fairfield

Franklin

Goshen

Greenwich

Griswold

Groton

Hamden

Hampton

Hartford

Killingly

Killingworth

Ledyard

Manchester

Meriden

Middlebury

Middlefield

Middletown

Milford

Monroe

Naugatuck

New Britain

New Canaan

New Fairfield

New Haven

New London

New Milford

Newington

Newtown

North Branford

North Haven

North Stonington

Norwalk

Norwich

Orange

Oxford

Plainfield

Plainville

Plymouth

Portland

Preston

Prospect

Redding

Rocky Hill

Seymour

Shelton

Sherman

Southbury

Southington

Sprague

Stamford

Stratford

Thomaston

Tolland

Torrington

Trumbull

Wallingford

Washington

Waterbury

Waterford

Watertown

West Hartford

West Haven

Westbrook

Weston

Westport

Wethersfield

Willington

Wilton

Windham

Windsor

Windsor Locks

Wolcott

Woodbury