Latest Bethel Coronavirus Update: 73 Active Cases

BETHEL, CT — The state Department of Public Health has confirmed there are 73 cases of the new coronavirus in the Town as of Monday, up from 61 reported Sunday.

"The best way to respond is to keep doing what you’re doing," First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker posted on the Town website. "Keep following every prevention precaution that we are all familiar with by now to ensure you and your family members are safe. Like every scourge in human history, this will have an end date. By following all the right precautions we’ll get through it together."

Knickerbocker highlighted a number of initiatives hat he said illustrated how the COVID-19 crisis was bringing out "the best in people:"

• Over 7,000 breakfasts and lunches have been delivered by Bethel Public Schools.
• The town's social services department organized a food donation drive to help restock the Brotherhood in Action food pantry. Over 100 food donations and more than $400 in cash donations were received.
• A coalition of Bethel restaurant owners launched a GoFundMe drive to pay for meals for people in need as well as front-line health care workers. To date the program has raised over $18,000.
• Volunteers are now making face shields and hand-sewing face masks to help fill the gap in supplies of essential protection equipment.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced 1,231 more positive cases Monday, along with 17 more deaths and 79 hospitalizations. That puts positive cases at 6,906, the death toll at 206 and hospitalizations at 1,221. The state has tested more than 26,000 people for COVID-19.

Lamont said the state is using hospitalization and death data as a better indicator of infections because testing capacity can vary daily.

The governor remained optimistic that Connecticut could "flatten the curve" of the outbreak as hospitalizations and deaths appear to be going up linearly instead of exponentially.

Patch editor Rich Scinto contributed reporting to this story.

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