White House Advisor Commends, Cautions CT On Coronavirus Battle

CONNECTICUT — A top White House coronavirus task force advisor commended Connecticut’s recent success in battling the coronavirus.

Gov. Ned Lamont reported 547 coronavirus cases Thursday and a positive test rate of 2.02 percent. Coronavirus hospitalizations dropped by 16 patients down to 568.

“I love seeing the two percent positive number in Connecticut,” said Andy Slavitt, senior advisor for the White House coronavirus response team during a news conference. “Not just you governor, but the entire state should be commended for that. That’s an incredible achievement.”

Slavitt also congratulated Connecticut on its vaccination efforts, especially the focus on underserved communities. Connecticut is now administering more than 20,000 vaccine doses daily and routinely ranks among the top five states per capita for vaccine administration.

He cautioned Connecticut and the country that the battle against coronavirus is far from over, but there are positive trends in terms of fewer cases and increased vaccine supply. There is some short-term worry about variants like the ones first spotted in the U.K. and South Africa, but in the long term current vaccines can handle them or be easily modified to handle them in the future, he said.

“What happens with these variants is that they tend to grow before you could see how fast they’re growing because it starts with a very low number [of cases,]” Slavitt said.

President Joe Biden’s administration has procured more vaccine supply through contracts with a goal of delivering 200 million total Pfizer and Moderna doses by early April. That number could increase if Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine candidate gets emergency U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. Around 55 million doses have been delivered to date.

Biden used the Defense Production Act to secure raw material supply for vaccine manufacturers and to help enhance bottling efforts.

Sports

Lamont will allow competitive cheerleading and dance with precautions.

Spectators will be allowed at youth athletic events with a 25 percent capacity limit and a 200-person cap.

“Look I used to love watching my kids play hockey and basketball and I know that’s been sort of limited over the last few months,” Lamont said.

College sports will set their own spectator limits.