Coronavirus CT: 200 New Cases Reported, 12 Total Deaths

HARTFORD, CT — Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the state had more than 200 new confirmed coronavirus cases since Monday. The state’s total case count is 618 with 71 hospitalizations and 12 deaths.

Lamont said at a Tuesday press conference that sometimes the infection count rises due to increased testing, but that wasn’t the case today as more people in the state become infected.

The governor said that the federal government should stop sending mixed messages about the situation getting better when it’s about to get worse. He noted that Connecticut’s new case count doubled from the previous day.

President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview that he wants to get the country back to work by Easter and that keeping people out of work was akin to a cure being worse than the problem. He said people would still have to practice social distancing.

“You’re not going to get your economy back on its feet until we solve this public health crisis in a serious way,” Lamont said. “So I don’t want to mislead people that, ‘Hey it’s just going to be a couple weeks and then you can get back to business as usual.” That’s a mistake I think; the federal government has been sending the wrong message for too long.”

The U.S. had more than 52,000 coronavirus cases as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to John Hopkins University. There are nearly 15,000 cases in New York City alone. Overall 677 people have died.

Cases Rise In New Haven, Hartford County

Fairfield County has 62 percent of all Connecticut cases, but New Haven and Hartford counties are now seeing significant increases as well; New Haven County’s case count more than doubled from 41 cases to 89 within a day.

“That just gives the rest of the state a little more time to prepare for what will be coming,” Lamont said.

Fairfield County has 384 cases, New Haven County, 89, Hartford County, 88, Litchfield County, 22Tolland County 19, Middlesex County, 8, New London County, 6, and Windham County, 2. (See full town-by-town numbers below). (To sign up for free, local breaking news alerts from more than 100 Connecticut communities, click here.)

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Mobile Field Hospital Set Up

A mobile field hospital was set up at St. Francis Hospital by the state governor guard for intermediate care. Southern and Central Connecticut State University dormitories are being opened for additional capacity, including for nurses and doctors who aren’t comfortable going home out of fear of infecting their families.

Lamont announced that 900 nurses and doctors have come out of retirement to help in the coronavirus response; around 300 are already at work.

Lamont expressed concern about nursing homes potentially becoming bigger spots for coronavirus clusters. Testing will be a priority at facilities. Two residents at a Stafford Springs nursing home and two others died at a Ridgefield facility.

The state has also placed orders with vendors for personal protective equipment from across the globe. Mohegan Sun donated 40,000 nitrile gloves.

However, the state will still be dependent on the federal government to get more PPE.

Distance Learning Gets Boost From Donations

Lamont announced Tuesday that Indra and Raj Nooyi plan to make a donation that will allow the state to purchase take-home books from Scholastic that will provide reading and writing opportunities to more than 185,000 pre-K to 8th grade students who are learning form home.

“We strongly believe that our children are our future and nothing should interrupt their education,” Indra and Raj Nooyi said. “We are grateful to Scholastic for making these study materials available so quickly and hope our Connecticut schools can leverage these materials to provide uniformed and quality experiences to our students. Our daughters benefitted from a great Connecticut education. This is our way of paying it forward.”

Indra Nooyi is a business executive and former CEO of PepsiCo and Raj Nooyi has been the president of Amsoft Systems.

The Partnership for Connecticut announced that it would provide up to 60,000 laptops for high school students to help with distance learning. They will be provided to Alliance School districts, which are the schools where more than 40 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches. Laptops may be provided to non-Alliance districts if they are laptops available.

All major internet service providers have also signed a pledge to not terminate service to residential and small business customers who aren’t able to pay. They will also open WiFi hotspots to the general public. Altice and Spectrum will provide free plans for households with K-12 and college students and Comcast will provide its Internet Essentials package free to new low-income customers. Mobile service carriers have also announced various waivers.

Unemployment and Health Insurance

Lamont is urging health insurance companies to provide a grace period to people who have become unemployed due to the coronavirus situation. If they don’t he said he could order it done like other governors.

The state has a new enrollment period for its healthcare exchange for those who have become unemployed.

The self-employed are or will be covered by unemployment benefits, he said. Lamont hopes the federal government will provide relief, but if not Connecticut will figure out a way to do it.

Town-By-Town Confirmed Cases
Andover 0
Ansonia 1
Ashford 0
Avon 2
Barkhamsted 0
Beacon Falls 1
Berlin 2
Bethany 0
Bethel 6
Bethlehem 3
Bloomfield 1
Bolton 1
Bozrah 0
Branford 5
Bridgeport 16
Bridgewater 1
Bristol 1
Brookfield 13
Brooklyn 0
Burlington 1
Canaan 0
Canterbury 0
Canton 0
Chaplin 0
Cheshire 0
Chester 0
Clinton 1
Colchester 0
Colebrook 0
Columbia 1
Cornwall 0
Coventry 1
Cromwell 1
Danbury 29
Darien 13
Deep River 1
Derby 1
Durham 0
East Granby 0
East Haddam 0
East Hampton 1
East Hartford 2
East Haven 3
East Lyme 1
East Windsor 0
Eastford 0
Easton 2
Ellington 0
Enfield 1
Essex 0
Fairfield 9
Farmington 5
Franklin 0
Glastonbury 6
Goshen 0
Granby 0
Greenwich 41

Griswold 0
Groton 0
Guilford 2
Haddam 1
Hamden 4
Hampton 0
Hartford 14
Hartland 0
Harwinton 2
Hebron 0
Kent 1
Killingly 0
Killingworth 1
Lebanon 0
Ledyard 0
Lisbon 0
Litchfield 2
Lyme 0
Madison 3
Manchester 5
Mansfield 1
Marlborough 0
Meriden 3
Middlebury 0
Middlefield 0
Middletown 1
Milford 6
Monroe 2
Montville 1
Morris 1
Naugatuck 2
New Britain 5
New Canaan 11
New Fairfield 7
New Hartford 0
New Haven 22
New London 0
New Milford 2
Newington 8
Newtown 5
Norfolk 0
North Branford 0
North Canaan 0
North Haven 0
North Stonington 0
Norwalk 46
Norwich 2
Old Lyme 0
Old Saybrook 0
Orange 2
Oxford 2
Plainfield 0
Plainville 1
Plymouth 1
Pomfret 0
Portland 1
Preston 0
Prospect 1
Putnam 0
Redding 2
Ridgefield 34
Rocky Hill 8
Roxbury 0
Salem 0
Salisbury 2
Scotland 0
Seymour 2
Sharon 1
Shelton 5
Sherman 1
Simsbury 0
Somers 0
South Windsor 3
Southbury 4
Southington 6
Sprague 0
Stafford 8
Stamford 34
Sterling 0
Stonington 1
Stratford 7
Suffield 2
Thomaston 1
Thompson 0
Tolland 5
Torrington 2
Trumbull 3
Union 0
Vernon 3
Voluntown 0
Wallingford 0
Warren 0
Washington 1
Waterbury 10
Waterford 0
Watertown 1
West Hartford 6
West Haven 11
Westbrook 0
Weston 7
Westport 79
Wethersfield 2
Willington 0
Wilton 13
Winchester 0
Windham 0
Windsor Locks 2
Windsor 4
Wolcott 1
Woodbridge 3
Woodbury 1
Woodstock 2