Danbury Coronavirus Updates: Morgue At Airport, Graduation Doubts

DANBURY, CT — There are approximately 265 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the City, Mayor Mark Boughton confirmed Wednesday in his nightly live stream. The figure is not exact, as Boughton said the state had some problems with its reporting system.

Boughton said, according to Gov. Ned Lamont, Connecticut's "peak times for infections will probably be between April 15 and April 20," but said the dates are not exact and the timeframe would be influenced by how well residents practiced social distancing.

The temporary morgue set up at Danbury Airport outside one of the hangars, is not meant to handle an overflow of COVID-19 deaths, but all the deceased of Danbury

"The rules have changed about how to conduct a funeral," Boughton said. "Families are taking an extra couple of days to decide what to do with the deceased... that's created a backlog of people looking to go through the burial process."

The mayor requested that people not throw their used masks and gloves in the parking lots outside of supermarkets, and said that the Connecticut Grocer Association had just published regulations limiting how many people can be inside a grocery store at the same time, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When asked by a viewer about the fate of the Danbury High School 2020 Graduation Ceremony, Boughton was decidedly not optimistic.

"I think it's a pretty good guess that Graduation will not proceed," the mayor said. "But I don't have a firm commitment from the Board of Ed and the superintendent (Sal Pascarella). For example, if by the end of April, we're through this, and schools are back open, then we might have Graduation."

Boughton says he has appealed to the Governor to defer property taxes, but right now they are due," noting that, "I don't have the authority to waive the property tax payment."

Earlier in the day, Lamont announced that a 6-week-old newborn from the Hartford area died from the virus; the baby is believed to be the youngest victim of the virus in the country.

The governor also said that there were another 429 positive coronavirus cases in Connecticut along with 16 new deaths in the past 24 hours. There have been a total of 3,557 cases and 85 deaths in the state, as of Wednesday.