Danbury Coronavirus Update: Death Toll 38, Fireworks Canceled

DANBURY, CT — Mayor Mark Boughton confirmed that three more residents have died from the new coronavirus, bringing the City death toll from COVID-19 cases to 38.

"To their families, we send out our prayers and our hearts," Boughton said, during his nightly news conference.

The total number of positive cases of the virus in Danbury is 930, as of Tuesday. The steady upward climb of positive test results was expected, Boughton said

The mayor made a point of clarifying, as did Gov. Ned Lamont earlier in his daily news conference, that the much-discussed date of May 20 is not the day "we go back to work," but a "reassessment date."

"We're close to a thousand cases in Danbury, 38 people have lost their lives, we've got to be careful," Boughton said. "We don't want to go back too early and have another flare-up."

Boughton says that before any of that kind of normalcy can return the City needs a vaccine; a test whereby residents can easily determine they have the COVID-19 antibody and are thereby immune; and good treatment in place for the infected and most vulnerable.

The mayor said he is anxious to get back to work himself, in part because he has been reviewing the latest City budget and didn't like what he saw.

"It is a disaster, because we have no revenues coming in right now," the mayor said, and needs to be revised to factor in many new and unexpected expenditures.

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"It's going to be a long time before you can go to a Yankee game or a Mets game or an outdoor activity like that, an outdoor concert," according to Boughton, and the annual Candlewood Lake fireworks are "not happening."

When asked if any plans had been made to accommodate a Danbury High School graduation ceremony in some form, Boughton said nothing was currently on the table, but he was leaving that up to the Board of Education. "Perhaps they can do something virtual, at least the speeches. We just can't put 5,000 people in the grandstands for a Graduation, you are just asking for people to get sick," he said.

Earlier in the day, Boughton, along with Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, were invited to join Gov. Ned Lamont at his daily presser to answer questions and offer their insights as mayors who, as Lamont described, "have been on the front lines."

"I don't think anybody anticipated how contagious this virus really is," Boughton said, noting how that aspect of the pandemic impacted the City's nursing homes and elder care facilities.

Boughton praised the "strategic partnership" he said Danbury had with Putnam County, calculating that about 50 percent of the Greater Danbury area's economic activity comes from New York State. He also lauded the support the City received from the State since the onset of the outbreak.

Boughton was grilled about the preparedness and capacity of Danbury Hospital during the early days of the outbreak, and acknowledged that the rapid ramp-up was tough on some health care staff who found themselves working extra shifts. But as far as "space and beds, we didn't get close to being full," he said.

In the days since, with the assistance of the National Guard, the City has built out additional health care infrastructure, both outside the hospital and in the O'Neill Center at Western Connecticut State University.

"If there is another problem later on, if there is another flare-up, we certainly have enough capacity to handle way beyond what the hospital is rated for," the mayor said.

Statewide, Connecticut had another 23 coronavirus associated deaths reported Tuesday along with 608 new lab-confirmed cases and a net hospitalization increase of 19 patients — one of the state's lowest net increases for hospitalizations for the virus to date.

A total of 1,532 tests were reported in the latest batch. There have been 13,989 confirmed coronavirus cases, 671 deaths and 1,779 current hospitalizations in Connecticut.