High-Infection COVID-19 'Red Zone' Towns Keep Climbing In CT

CONNECTICUT — The number of Connecticut towns on the highest level of alert for the coronavirus has more than doubled this week, according to the latest data released by the Department of Public Health.

As of Thursday afternoon, 54 towns reside in the "red" zone, up 29 from last week's report. Twenty-three towns now sit on the lowest infection "gray" rung, 35 are "yellow" and 56 are "orange."

The color codes correspond to guidance from DPH. Populations in the red zone have reported 15 or more cases per 100,000 people over a two-week average.

DPH Commissioner Manisha Commissioner Juthani placed the blame squarely on the spiky shoulders of BA.2, a subvariant of the coronavirus variant omicron. "BA.2 has been spreading faster than the original omicron variant and that state's test positivity has continued to increase over the past seven days," Juthani said in a statement released Thursday.

Significantly, BA.2 is proving far less lethal than omicron, or its predecessor variant, delta.

On Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont said the state's positivity rate is 6.26 percent in terms of PCR/NAAT tests over the last 7 days. Connecticut ceased sharing daily cases and a daily positivity rate as of Apr. 4. Instead, test positivity is being calculated as a seven-day rolling average.

The virus claimed 14 lives in Connecticut over the week — five fewer than logged the week before — according to the state Department of Public Health. The state COVID-19 death toll was 10,809 as of Thursday.

DPH reported the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Connecticut has continued to climb, rising to 139, up 12 beds over the past week.

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The number of COVID-19 cases among Connecticut PK-12 staff and students has been relatively steady through the first quarter of 2022.

On Wednesday, the Department of Public Health reported 1,182 total infections for students, down from 1,215 last week. DPH logged 373 positive COVID-19 cases among school staff, up from 332 the previous week.

Cases among staff and students had remained relatively low until the first week of November, when they began their climb. Confirmed cases among both groups shot up dramatically after the first of the year.

Here is the school-by-school breakdown:

As of Thursday, those residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 include more than 95 percent of those over the age of 55, 91 percent of those between 45-54, 94 percent of those between 35-44, 90 percent of those between 25-34 (up 1 percent this week), 85 percent of those between 18-24, 88 percent of those between 16-17, 81 percent of those between 12-15 and 48 percent of those aged 5-11.

All Connecticut residents over the age of 5 are currently eligible to receive the vaccines. The state maintains an online database of vaccination clinic locations here.

Instructions on how to get COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters in Connecticut are available online, as is a list of walk-up clinics sponsored by DPH.

See also: COVID-19 BA.2 Variant Spreads Faster Than Original Omicron in CT: DPH

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 560,121 cases have been identified among people who are not fully vaccinated. Eight hundred seventy-three COVID-19 related deaths have occurred among the 184,338 fully vaccinated persons confirmed with COVID-19.

The latest data show unvaccinated residents have a 3-times higher risk of infection and 6-times higher chance of hospitalization from the coronavirus, compared to the vaccinated.