Lamont: 'Couple' More Weeks Of Restaurant Restrictions

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont was cautiously optimistic Connecticut’s coronavirus situation was getting slightly better Thursday after another drop in net coronavirus hospitalizations and a positive test rate that was trending downward.

“Our rates in this region are going down a bit and the rates across the country are going down a little bit,” he said.

Lamont appeared elated that Danbury and New Haven public schools welcomed back some students for hybrid learning. Both school systems have had mostly remote learning this school year.

Connecticut reported another 1,662 coronavirus cases Thursday and a 4.27 percent daily positive test rate. The seven-day average positive test rate dropped to 5.2 percent.

Net coronavirus hospitalizations dropped by 55 patients down to 1,069 Thursday. The state also saw a slight drop in the per capita daily coronavirus cases with 65.5 daily cases per 100,000 residents between Jan. 3 and Jan. 16 — the previous two-week daily average was 68.5.

Another 48 coronavirus deaths were reported, raising the total to 6,744 since the pandemic started.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top coronavirus advisor, said Thursday the country still remains in a very serious situation, but by some measures it was improving.

“When you look more recently at the seven-day average of cases … right now it looks like it might actually be plateauing in the sense of turning around,” Fauci said.

Lamont resisted calls to scale back business restrictions after Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said this week he will ease them in his state. Baker announced an end to the curfew that prohibited ordering food for sit-down service after 9:30 p.m., though restaurants will remain at 25 percent indoor capacity. Restaurants in Connecticut can operate at 50 percent capacity, but last call for food is at 9:30 p.m. and they must close by 10 p.m.

“Let’s take a look in a couple of weeks, but I appreciate the trend,” Lamont said.

Public schools reopening, college students coming back to campus and the return of winter high school sports were all reasons the state should sit tight and wait to see if the changes affected the coronavirus situation, Lamont said. There was also some concern about the relatively new coronavirus variants.

State Department of Public Health officials reported another two cases of the Covid-19 variant B.1.1.7 that was initially found in the United Kingdom. The two cases were family members of the other two people in Connecticut that had the variant. DPH is working with partner laboratories for genetic testing on some coronavirus test samples. The U.K. variant is believed to be more contagious than other strains of the virus, according to Acting DPH Commissioner Deidre Gifford.