CT COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Increase: Latest Town-By-Town Updates

CONNECTICUT — Reported COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are ticking up in Connecticut as the highly contagious and immune-evading BA.5 coronavirus subvariant takes hold as the dominant strain across the U.S.

Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani urged parents to vaccinate their children over the summer and for everyone to get a booster shot if eligible. Everyone 5 and older is eligible for a booster shot; people over 50 and those who are immunocompromised are eligible for a second booster shot.

"We're going into our first school season without a mask mandate in place," she said at a news conference. "And we're able to do that because we have these tools at our disposal, specifically vaccines."

DPH and the state Department of Education and Office of Early Childhood will update COVID-19 guidelines before the start of the school year. The last updated guidance came in March, when the state ended its mandatory school mask mandate.

For now, DPH isn't recommending universal masking in indoor places, Juthani said. That could change if cases continue to rise.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex and Litchfield counties in its medium COVID-19 community level zone. The rest of the counties are in the low zone. Connecticut last went into the high warning level in late May.

People who live in a medium COVID-19 community level are urged to consider masking if they are immunocompromised or at high-risk for severe disease.

Mask mandates aren't appropriate now that people have vaccines and other tools to keep themselves safe, Gov. Ned Lamont said. People should instead use their discretion.

DPH recorded 4,314 cases over seven days in its weekly Thursday report and a positive test rate of 10.5 percent. The agency reported 3,496 cases and a 10.64 percent positive test rate in the prior seven-day period.

The proliferation of at-home COVID-19 tests have made case counts less accurate over time, Juthani said.

"Our test results and percent positivity are an indicator that show us the general trends that are going on," she said, adding that hospitalizations are the number one metric for determining COVID-19's burden for society.

COVID-19 related hospitalizations increased by a net gain of 29 patients over seven days to a total of 293 hospitalized as of Thursday. Another 30 people died of COVID-19 complications since last week’s report. Nearly 11,100 people have died from COVID-19 complications in Connecticut since the pandemic began.

Recently, the U.S. has averaged 350 COVID-19 deaths per day and 5,100 daily hospital admissions., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a July 12 briefing. The BA.5 omicron subvariant has become the dominant strain in the U.S.

“We do know it to be more transmissible and more immune evading,” Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 press briefing July 12. “People with prior infection, even with BA.1 or BA.2, are likely still at risk for BA.4 or BA.5.”

Vaccination still helps prevent severe disease and death, she said.

COVID-19 cases are likely being vastly undercounted, Dr. Anthony Fauci said at the briefing.

“Although we’re having 100,000 to 150,000 infections that are reported, it is very clear that that is an underestimate,” he said. “And there are many people who are getting infected with mild to moderate symptoms who do home testing, who do not report it. So if you get 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 infections a day, you’re going to get an increase in hospitalizations that would be proportionate.”

Cases by town