Danbury To Crack Down On Coronavirus Business Scofflaws

DANBURY, CT — Mayor Mark Boughton said the city would be cracking down on businesses that regularly violated regulations put in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

On his livestreamed "Live @ 5" update on Tuesday, Boughton addressed habitually non-compliant businesses directly: "We're not putting up with this anymore. You've been warned."

Boughton called one otherwise unidentified business "a menace to the public health of this city." Another business, which he said was known to be a site for an outbreak of the virus, refused to give city health officials information on their employees for contact tracing.

The new resolve comes after a weekend of local house parties celebrated on social media, as well as the third arrest of the owner of an Ives Street bar for flouting coronavirus regulations.

The mayor promised the city would be issuing injunctions and temporary restraining orders that would prevent non-compliant businesses from opening.

On the day when the state's COVID-19 positivity rate reached 4.1, a level not seen since early June, Boughton also announced he would no longer be featuring regular coronavirus updates on his live-streamed Facebook updates.

"People are a little rough," the mayor said, explaining that some of his staff have been brutalized in social media, and even stalked, in retaliation for their role in perpetuating what the commenters call a "virus hoax."

The mayor said the city would continue to provide updated numbers regarding new positive cases and COVID-associated deaths on its web page, but "We will not be taking comments."

Danbury is one of 19 municipalities classified as a "red zone" by the state Department of Public Health as a result of high COVID-19 infection levels. Red towns are home to 15 or more positive coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents.