Coronavirus Hospitalizations Surge In CT; Highest Level In Months

CONNECTICUT — The latest data release from the state Department of Public Health showed a spike in Connecticut's key coronavirus metric.

Hospitalizations increased by 34 over the weekend, bringing the total to 208. The last time hospitalizations were above 200 in Connecticut was May 12.

The trend in Connecticut is by no means unique, and reflects a surge in hospitalizations nationwide, based on data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Connecticut, most of the new COVID-19 hospitalizations are in New Haven County, where 70 residents are now laid up with the virus.

Health officials said the rise in cases is due to the prevalence of the delta variant, which was first seen in India and was first detected in the United States in March. This mutation of the virus spreads 50 percent more quickly than the alpha variant first seen in Great Britain, which itself spreads 50 percent more quickly than the original coronavirus strain, according to Yale Medicine.

The daily positivity rate of the coronavirus, a function of confirmed cases compared against the total number of cases, has dipped slightly since Friday by a little under 0.2 percent to 3.33 percent total. The state recorded 38,702 more tests, and 1,287 of those came back positive, bringing the total number of Connecticut residents who have come down with COVID-19 to 359,363 since the start of the pandemic.

As COVID-19-associated deaths has slowed greatly, the state health department has taken to updating the death toll only once a week on Thursday. As of the end of last week, 8,296 residents have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

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