CT Coronavirus Positivity, Hospital Rates at 8-Month Low

CONNECTICUT — The good coronavirus news keeps getting better in Connecticut.

The COVID-19 positivity rate has remained below 1 percent for three straight days, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday, when it sat at 0.9 percent.

Like the infection rate, the number of daily hospitalizations is also at its lowest point in eight-and-a-half months. The number of beds with COVID-19 patients dropped by 13 over the weekend, to 127. There were seven coronavirus-related deaths over the past three days, Lamont said, bringing the total for the pandemic to 8,219.

So many of the state's elderly have been vaccinated that the demographic now has "what you might think of as herd immunity," according to Lamont.

As of Monday, Connecticut residents who have received at least one dose by age group includes 93 percent of those over the age of 65, 82 percent of those between 55-64, 70 percent of those between 45-54, 65 percent of those between 35-44, 55 percent of those between 25-34, 50 percent of those between 18-24, 56 percent of those between 16-18 and 27 percent of those between 12-15.

State health officials had complained that the pace of vaccinations was beginning to slow recently, but Lamont on Monday said he was pleased to report a 22 percent increase in vaccinations over the past week. He estimated that about half of those could be attributed to the vaccines administered to the newest and youngest tier, residents ages 12-15. As of Monday, about 25 percent of that tier had been vaccinated, Lamont said.

As the infection rates drop, and the numbers of residents vaccinated begins to level off, the state will begin shuttering its mass vaccination clinics, according to Acting DPH Commissioner Deirdre Gifford .

"But there are plenty of places where people can still get vaccinated," she said, citing the relationships the state has with CVS and other pharmacies. DPH is also planning to have the vaccines made available to family physicians in private practices.

Gifford said she is waiting on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before making any determination regarding mask requirements for children under 12 years old in the coming school. She said she does not anticipate that any vaccine for that age tier will get the federal green light before the start of September.

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