CT Coronavirus Positivity Rate Drops Back Below 5%

CONNECTICUT — After spiking to a 10-month high on Tuesday, the daily Connecticut COVID-19 positivity rate dropped over 3.35 percent overnight.

In the latest numbers released Wednesday afternoon by the state Department of Public Health, another 789 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed. With 15,841 tests taken, Connecticut's daily coronavirus positivity rate is 4.98 percent, down from the previous day's 11-month high of 8.33 percent. The total number of total tests performed since the pandemic began is now 12,588,536.

Connecticut Department Of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani blamed the surge in infection on a "perfect storm" of the normal increase in respiratory ailments during the winter, residents' waning immunity, and increased family gatherings since the Thanksgiving weekend.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday the second case of the coronavirus omicron variant was detected in Fairfield County. The patient is a man in his 20s who had completed his vaccine series, developed mild symptoms last Thursday, and was confirmed positive on Saturday using an at-home test.

On Wednesday, Groton-based drug maker Pfizer credited three doses of their existing COVID-19 vaccine with neutralizing the omicron variant in lab tests. That extra jab increased antibodies by a factor of 25, compared with a standard 2-dose vaccine series.

"Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it's clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine," said Albert Bourla, Pfizer's CEO. The results have not been peer reviewed.

Pfizer began working on an omnicron-specific vaccine on Nov. 25, and expects it to be ready for deliveries within 100 days, pending regulatory approval.

The state may have gotten a day's reprieve from rising coronavirus infections, but the number of beds holding COVID-19 patients continues to climb, in Connecticut and nationwide.

The current national 7-day daily average for Nov. 24–30, was 6,386. This is a 5.0 percent increase from the prior 7-day average (6,082) from Nov. 17–Nov. 23, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Connecticut, hospitalizations jumped by 50 beds overnight. Five hundred seventy-five patients are currently hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19; of those 442 ( 76.9 %) are not fully vaccinated.

Most of those hospitalized (183) are in Hartford County.

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For a town-by-town breakdown of new COVID-19 cases in Connecticut, see the Connecticut Data Portal.