Middletown Sees Biggest Spike In Coronavirus-Related Deaths Yet

MIDDLETOWN, CT — As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths continue to build across Connecticut, Middletown experienced its largest spike in coronavirus-related deaths to date on Wednesday when Mayor Ben Florsheim announced that 11 local residents have now died. Four residents, all of whom were living in local nursing homes, have died since Tuesday while the number of confirmed cases jumped in Middletown to 163.

Florsheim wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday evening that in recent days, he has had “heartbreaking conversations” with residents whose loved ones live in nursing homes and congregate care facilities, which Florsheim wrote, have become hotspots for the viral spread of the virus across the country. On Wednesday. Gov. Ned Lamont announced than an additional 197 people across the state had been confirmed dead as those who track data for the Connecticut Department of Public Health are now catching up.

“Middletown,” the mayor wrote Wednesday, “sadly has not been an exception.”

He added: “We are not the only community dealing with this. It has been a major pain point for the entire state and based on what I have heard from my colleagues, I am incredibly grateful to the staff and residents at every nursing home in Middletown for everything you are doing to mitigate the spread compared to what’s going on elsewhere.There is work to be done but our nursing homes are doing things right.”

After speaking with state officials on Wednesday, Florsheim wrote that the state is taking a two-pronged approach to confirmed cases in nursing homes involving separate protocols for those cases that require hospitalization and those that do not. For those cases not requiring hospitalization, nursing homes are required to set up a separate area for residents who test positive for the virus from those who have not been infected by the virus.

Those who have been hospitalized are eligible to be relocated to one of the state’s coronavirus recovery centers, where they can receive treatment in isolation. Florsheim wrote that the lack of testing continues to be a major problem for nursing homes and other long-term facilities and that when residents of these communities are tested, results are often not available for up to five days and that the false-negative rate has been unacceptably high, the mayor wrote.

“This is not the fault of the nursing homes or (department of public health), “Florsheim wrote. “Our country has had the worst and most ineffective testing response of any country in the world by far, and the reasons for that are too complex (and infuriating) to get into here.”