School Reopening Decision Coming In August: Lamont

CONNECTICUT — School superintendents and other officials continue to work on a slew of back-to-school plans that encompass all the health situations that might hit Connecticut in the fall.

The state plans to make a decision on the school reopening plan in early August, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

The current low coronavirus rate in Connecticut supports reopening schools, Lamont said, but if that changes a month from now Connecticut’s school plan will change as well.

“If things change quickly, and they can, our schools do have a back up plan as needed,” Lamont said.

The state has three levels for reopening: a full reopening with all students in school five days a week, a hybrid plan where some students attend in-person and some do distance learning, and full distance learning.

“We are hoping to bring back all of the children because we know, as everyone knows that there is nothing more effective than having the children in their classes with their teachers,” said Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.

A hybrid plan would have some students attend classes in-person while the rest do distance learning. The different groups would alternate.

Full distance learning could also be done if the health situation warrants it, Rabinowitz said. CAPSS is working with superintendents district by district to make sure all students have the hardware and internet access for distance learning.

Schools shouldn’t reopen if there is widespread community transmission of the coronavirus, said state Epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Cartter.

Fall could bring challenges

The fall could bring a resurgence of coronavirus activity in Connecticut, Cartter said. Continued social distancing would help keep a possible resurgence of the virus, he said.

The best measure to determine the level of coronavirus spread in a community is the positive test rate, Cartter said, noting that Connecticut has been below 1 percent while some parts of Florida have a rate greater than 20 percent. Going above 5 percent would be “very concerning,” Cartter said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines assume that there are 10 coronavirus cases for every confirmed case. Earlier in the pandemic when testing was scarce, that figure was closer to 100 for every positive case.

A recent CDC study found that around 4.8 percent of the United States population has been infected by the virus.

At Connecticut’s current rate it could be assumed that there are around 5,000 new cases per week statewide, he said.

A bad scenario for Connecticut would be if a COVID-19 resurgence overlaps with the flu season, Cartter said. Connecticut’s flu season typically lasts from late December through February.

If a resurgence is impossible to avoid it would be better for it to occur before the influenza season, he said.

The coronavirus isn’t behaving like an influenza pandemic, which usually comes and goes in waves. The 1918 flu pandemic nearly disappeared over the summer, but came back in the fall for a second wave.

“That did not happen with COVID-19, this virus is not influenza,” he said. “We are seeing levels of transmission that are higher than we had hoped for. It turns out that the influenza model was not the right one.”

Health officials had relied on the influenza model because there hasn’t been a recorded coronavirus pandemic before.

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Commercial labs running into long test result delays

Lamont said the state is aware that some commercial labs like Quest Diagnostics are running into long lag times between when a test is administered and when results are released. The state does have a contract with the lab, but it mainly uses in-state labs.

State Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe advised those seeking a test to ask a test center what lab they work with if they are worried about delayed results.