New Details For CT Schools, Summer Camps Amid Coronavirus Threat

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont and other state officials outlined some plans for the rest of the virtual school year, as well as new details about when summer camps can open in the state. Lamont also announced Tuesday that net hospitalizations went up for the first time in nearly two weeks with a net increase of 36 patients, but said that it was only one day of data.

Another 648 lab-confirmed positive coronavirus cases were announced Tuesday out of 3,313 tests. Lamont said that the ratio of positive to negative tests was good news. Unfortunately there were another 77 deaths as well.

There are now 30,621 confirmed coronavirus cases in Connecticut and 2,633 deaths have been reported. A total of 1,500 people are currently hospitalized.

Connecticut had a drop in hospitalizations everyday since April 23.

Lamont had announced earlier Tuesday that schools in the state wouldn’t physically reopen this school year. Lamont said he was holding out hope that there was some way to partially reopen to give students some sense of conclusion, but in the end it wasn’t a safe option.

“This was no time to take that risk so sadly in terms of traditional classroom education that will not continue in this school year,” he said.

Lamont said he doesn’t foresee in-person graduations this June. He also said he doesn’t think it would be a good idea to have graduations all at once on the same date.

State officials are still looking into the best way to reopen for the start of the school year in the fall. More plans will come in the next month or two regarding mask use, class sizes and other requirements.

Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye announced that licensed summer camps will be able to open on June 29 with very specific guidelines.

More specifics about guidelines for camps will come by May 15.

The state is still looking at potentially allowing physical summer school in July, but those plans have yet to be finalized, said State Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona.

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