Greenwich COVID-19 Cases Continue To Trend Downward

GREENWICH, CT — With the calendar flipped to February, COVID-19 cases in Greenwich are continuing on a downward trend.

First Selectman Fred Camillo and Greenwich Hospital President Diane Kelly held their biweekly COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, and shared positive news on cases, hospitalizations and vaccination rates.

As of Wednesday, Greenwich Hospital was treating 26 COVID-19 patients, with four in the Intensive Care Unit. Overall across the Yale New Haven Health System, there were 270 patients being treated. There were 617 COVID-19 patients being treated in the system on Jan. 19.

"We have started to lift some of the restrictions on our visiting policy. We're still limiting just one visitor per patient," Kelly said. "This is a little less restrictive than it was last week."

Kelly noted that Yale New Haven Health is requiring all employees to get the booster shot by March 31.

Latest Town Numbers

In the town of Greenwich as of Feb. 1, there were 10,959 COVID-19 cases diagnosed since the pandemic began in March 2020. There have been 190 new cases reported since Jan. 25, and there are currently 195 active cases, down from 411 a week ago.

However, seven more deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in Greenwich. The town cautioned that there are lags in such reports from the state.

Fully vaccinated percentages by age group in Greenwich are as follows:

• Age 5-11: 46.37 percent
• 12-17: 93.98 percent
• 18-24: 95.39 percent
• 25-44: 76.08 percent
• 45-64: 85.31 percent
• 65-plus: 95.77 percent

Kelly was impressed by those numbers, but was disappointed with the 25-44 age group.

"Think about how long it took people to wear seatbelts, because that wasn't going to affect them," Kelly said. "I think this is where people are young, they're healthy and they're living their lives and it's a little bit of not thinking it's a possibility. The data is clear that without your vaccines, it is a real possibility for you to be coming down with COVID, and you'd be doing much better if you had your vaccines."

Camillo said he plans on keeping the mask mandate at town facilities for the month of February before reassessing in March.

"It's better to be safe than sorry, and be a little cautious. We want to do what's right for everybody, and the right course of action right now is to stay the course for February, a very short month," Camillo said. "We're in the ninth inning and we want to make sure we get the final out in the bottom of the ninth before you start celebrating. I think we're almost there."

Camillo said he's looking forward to seeing town meetings move back to in-person in the coming weeks, while also keeping the Zoom option available.

He also expressed excitement about the St. Patrick's Day Parade coming back in March. It had been canceled the past two years because of the pandemic.

"It's always a great celebration. It's really the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It marks a lot of things," Camillo said. "It's going to be great to do it again. My dogs are looking forward to it. It's a fun, fun day."