Winter Is Coming: CT DPH Warns Of 2nd COVID-19 Delta Variant Wave

CONNECTICUT — Dr. Manisha Juthani, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, is warning that winter is coming. That's the season when respiratory viruses up their game, and the coronavirus is no different.

"When the humidity drops, virus molecules tend to stay in the air longer," Juthani explained to reporters. "So just like all other coronaviruses we know (COVID-19) is potentially going to come back this year."

Juthani made her remarks during a news conference in Hartford Wednesday morning.

"With the delta wave, honestly I was wishing we were going to have a longer summer," she said. "We've seen what's happened over the past two months, and so we have to be prepared that we will have another cycle like that through the winter. "

Juthani said she was hopeful that "maybe we will just get away with a ... slight uptick, not very high numbers, because of the very high vaccination rates that we have in the state of Connecticut."

As of Wednesday, a little over 68 percent of residents have been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Nutmeg State is fourth in the nation, behind Vermont, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia in total vaccine doses administered per 100,000 population.

Juthani said she anticipates a coronavirus vaccine for children age 5-11 to be approved within the next several weeks, and that should change the recovery calculus somewhat. Dropping another group of 400,000-plus people into the state's vaccine eligibility pool should substantially reduce the number of residents who will come down with the virus, she said.

On Wednesday, the state's reported daily coronavirus positivity rate dropped to its lowest point since July, 1.78 percent, with 450 cases confirmed Monday, out of 25,302 tests taken.

Out of the 1,954 cases of COVID-19 recorded by the state Department of Public Health in the past seven days, 630, or 32.2 percent, were among residents who had already been completely vaccinated.

The number of residents hospitalized with the coronavirus continues to drop. The number is down nine beds overnight, to 250.

Most of them (88) can be found within hospitals in Hartford County.

As of last Thursday, 8,483 Connecticut residents have died from COVID-19-associated illness.

See Also: 10K State Workers 'Non-Compliant'; Mandate Deadline Extended

• Quinnipiac Students Vandalized Administrator’s Residence: Report
• 5,000+ Fentanyl Pills Seized In Traffic Stop On I-95: State PD