Number Of CT 'Red Zones' Soars As Hospitalizations Reach 300

CONNECTICUT — The number of Connecticut towns in the COVID-19 high-alert red zone has climbed by more than 40 towns, according to data released Thursday afternoon from the state Department of Public Health.

DPH now numbers 110 towns in the highest alert category, up from 67 just last week.

These "red zone" towns are: Ansonia, Ashford, Barkhamsted, Bethany, Bethlehem, Bozrah, Branford, Bridgewater, Bristol, Brooklyn, Burlington, Canterbury, Chaplin, Cheshire, Chester, Colchester, Colebrook, Columbia, Cornwall, Coventry, Cromwell, Darien, Derby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Haven, East Lyme, East Windsor, Eastford, Easton, Enfield, Fairfield, Franklin, Goshen, Granby, Greenwich, Griswold, Groton, Hampton, Hartland, Harwinton, Hebron, Killingly, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Litchfield, Madison, Marlborough, Meriden, Middlebury, Middlefield, Middletown, Milford, Monroe, Montville, Morris, Naugatuck, New Britain, New Canaan, New Hartford, New Haven, New London, New Milford, North Branford, North Canaan, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Orange, Oxford, Plainfield, Plainville, Plymouth, Pomfret, Portland, Preston, Prospect, Putnam, Rocky Hill, Roxbury, Salem, Seymour, Shelton, Somers, Southbury, Southington, Sprague, Stafford, Sterling, Stonington, Suffield, Thomaston, Thompson, Torrington, Trumbull, Union, Voluntown, Wallingford, Warren, Waterbury, Waterford, Watertown, Wethersfield, Winchester, Windham, Wolcott, Woodbridge, Woodbury and Woodstock.

The color codes correspond to guidance from DPH. Populations in the red zone have reported 15 or more cases per 100,000 people over a two-week average.

In the latest numbers released Friday afternoon by the state Department of Public Health, another 1,900 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed. With 52,595 tests taken, Connecticut's daily coronavirus positivity rate is 3.61 percent.

Thirty-one residents have died from COVID-19 over the past seven days, according to the state Department of Public Health. The coronavirus death toll in the state is currently 8,865.

Connecticut health officials are reporting that as of Wednesday, a total of 22,621 cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated persons in Connecticut have been confirmed. Of the 2,422,184 persons who have completed their vaccine series, 0.93 percent of Connecticut’s fully vaccinated persons have contracted the virus, an 0.06 percent increase from last week's report from the Department of Public Health.

According to the vaccine tracker maintained by the Mayo Clinic, about 71.7 percent of Connecticut's total population has received all their COVID-19 vaccine shots as of Thursday morning, up 0.2 percent from last week's tally. Nationwide, just 59.4 percent of the population has completed their vaccine series. Connecticut's vaccination rate is behind only that of Vermont and Maine.

As of Wednesday, those residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 include more than 95 percent of those over the age of 65, 93 percent of those between 55-64, 84 percent of those between 45-54, 86 percent of those between 35-44 (up 1 percent from last week), 79 percent of those between 25-34 (up 1 percent from last week), 72 percent of those between 18-24, 81 percent of those between 16-17, 72 percent of those between 12-15 and 21 percent of those aged 5-11 (up 8 percent from last week).

The graph above illustrates the slow progress toward complete vaccination.

Mansfield remains the vaccination outlier, still with less than 39 percent of its population fully vaccinated. Of all Connecticut municipalities, only Canaan, with its population of 1,053, has fully vaccinated all its residents.

Hospitalizations rose by 18 on Thanksgiving eve and remain unchanged on Friday in the latest report. Three hundred patients are hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 as of Friday. Of those, 27.3 percent are fully vaccinated.

Most of those hospitalized (92) are in New Haven County.

The charts above and below show the "relative risk," or the difference in risk when comparing rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.

The latest data show unvaccinated residents have a 45 times higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, compared to the vaccinated. Their risk of hospitalization is five times greater.

Although coronavirus deaths in Connecticut have declined markedly since February, it is important to note that death — and hospitalization — rates have consistently been higher among unvaccinated persons compared to fully vaccinated persons.