Lamont Rethinking Bar Reopening For Phase 3

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont said that he is rethinking about allowing bars to reopen as part of the state’s third reopening phase in light of some indicators from Southern states experiencing a surge of coronavirus cases.

“As I’ve said before, we’ve never opened bars, certainly not indoor, we thought about that for phase three,” Lamont said. “Probably would say I’m rethinking that looking at what’s going on in other parts [of the country.]”

Connecticut's third reopening phase is expected sometime in mid-July.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered bars closed in the state and scaled back indoor restaurant capacity to 50 percent after a surge of cases in the state. The move mirrors Connecticut’s current state. Florida banned alcohol consumption at bars recently after reopening them.

Connecticut continues to hit positive milestones in its battle against the coronavirus; hospitalizations dropped below 100 coronavirus patients for the first time since the early days of the pandemic. Admission rates have been mostly flat for a couple of weeks, and the improvement in the net hospitalization rate comes from discharges, Lamont said. He cautioned residents not to expect the net hospitalization rate to drop much more because the overall number is so low now.

Connecticut reported another 59 cases out of 6,354 results, which keeps its positive test rate below 1 percent. Another four deaths were reported.

Meanwhile, some other states in the country are heading in the opposite direction of Connecticut with quickly growing case numbers and new record daily highs.

“I do get anxious because there is a very narrow margin for error,” he said, noting that Arizona’s positive test rate surged suddenly.

Arizona’s positive test rate went from 10.8 percent on June 4 to 22.6 percent on June 25, according to COVIDActNow.

Lamont also stuck by his decision to join New York and New Jersey in the tri-state 14-day quarantine for travelers coming from states being battered by the coronavirus. He referenced a growing cluster of Westchester County cases that is being linked to graduation events. One of the teens who attended had recently traveled to Florida.

Connecticut is looking into coronavirus pool testing, in which multiple test samples are combined and tested as a group, Lamont said. The White House coronavirus task force is looking into that possibility, with task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx saying it could give the country a testing capacity of 5 million people per day instead of 500,000 per day.

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