Tri-State Coronavirus Quarantine Considered: Lamont

CONNECTICUT — The tri-state governors are considering a quarantine for anyone coming from states with high coronavirus infection rates.

The tri-state’s infection rate has plummeted recently, with Connecticut reporting only about 1 percent of coronavirus tests coming back positive Monday. The opposite is happening in other areas of the country, particularly parts of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California.

Connecticut reported 27 positive coronavirus tests out of 2,115 results Monday. Three new deaths were reported, and hospitalizations dropped by nine patients down to a total of 140 currently hospitalized due to the virus. The lower total test figure was due to some issues importing data and not fewer tests being performed, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

Lamont said new guidance will come out “very soon” regarding the quarantine. He will also be talking to the governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts about their plans. He spoke with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo earlier Monday.

“We are talking about some sort of regional quarantine if these folks want to come to the New York metropolitan area, the Boston metropolitan area,” Lamont said. “Perhaps they should show they were tested in the very recent past or they should quarantine.”

The self-quarantine period would likely be 14 days, Lamont said.

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Around 100 of the country’s 3,000 counties are experiencing coronavirus infection flare-ups, Lamont said he learned on a call with Vice President Mike Pence’s coronavirus task force.

Some states are seeing positive test rates of 10 percent or higher, but those are skewed by certain metropolitan areas where the positive rate is 50 percent or greater, Lamont said. The biggest spike in some of those areas has been people between 18 and 35 years old.

It's been a few weeks since large protests started after the death of George Floyd and the state reopened, but the coronavirus figures continue in the right direction, Lamont said.

"I think what we are finding is wearing of the mask is probably the biggest determinate of what you see in terms of the infection rate,” he said, adding that he is thankful mask use in Connecticut was high.

Meanwhile, Lamont still is urging a strong testing program to keep infections under control. Anyone with symptoms should get tested immediately. People living in larger cities should get tested monthly, and the state will keep testing high-risk populations such as those living and working in nursing homes or prisons.

“Whatever you heard this past weekend about doing too much testing, ignore that,” Lamont said about President Donald Trump’s comments at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Instead, Lamont urged people to look more closely at the positive test rate as a determining factor in how widespread the virus is in a particular area.

Lamont added that the suggestions from Pence’s task force were to keep a robust testing plan in place.

Connecticut, like many other states in the country, is having a difficult time getting people to take part in contact tracing after they test positive for the virus. The tracing comes in the form of a phone call or text with a caller ID of “CT Covid Trace,” Lamont said.