CT Coronavirus Updates: 48 More Deaths, 1,346 New Cases Reported

CONNECTICUT — Connecticut reported another 48 coronavirus-associated deaths and 1,346 positive cases Monday. There was an increase of 106 current hospitalizations.

To date there have been 13,381 confirmed coronavirus cases in Connecticut and 602 deaths. There are currently 1,760 people hospitalized for COVID-19. Over 44,000 patients have been tested in Connecticut.

At his daily news conference Monday afternoon, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that "social distancing is working." He said the main takeaway from the latest statistics is that the hospitalizations are not going up exponentially, an indicator that hospitals had a better chance of keeping the pandemic under control.

"We've got the ventilators, we're keeping up with the PPE (personal protection equipment), we've got the beds, we're able to manage this, thanks to our amazing hospitals working together as one big system," Lamont said.

The governor said that the "ventilator situation is opening up," and that he had a "high degree of confidence that if we keep to our social distancing, no one will be denied a ventilator who needs it."

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Lamont said that Connecticut will be one of the first states to deploy FDA-approved sanitizer recycling equipment.

"What that means is that we will be able to take up to 80,000 or 90,000 N95 and other face masks on a daily basis, get them sanitized, FDA-approved and back available to people," Lamont said.

Lamont shared an anecdote about how people in Hartford made the mistake of gathering together closely for a local appearance by Babe Ruth, after the first wave of Spanish Flu had hit the area in 1918.

"And they went from having 500 people who looked like they were afflicted to over 5,000 flu-related deaths in the Greater Hartford area, and 9,000 deaths in Connecticut," over the course of the following year.

"We're not going to let that happen," Lamont said, but warned residents against dropping their guard for "the next Babe Ruth."

Lamont has ordered schools and non-essential businesses closed until at least May 20.

The state adds the following disclaimer to death figures:

"For public health surveillance, COVID-19-associated deaths include persons who tested positive for COVID-19 around the time of death and persons who were not tested for COVID-19 whose death certificate lists COVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death."

Fairfield County saw a 22 net increase in hospitalizations between Sunday and Monday up to a total of 710 currently hospitalized. New Haven has 580 hospitalizations, which is an increase of 45 patients. Hartford has 361 hospitalizations, an increase of 28 patients. All other counties have less than 40 people hospitalized.

County breakdown:

• Fairfield County: 6,004 cases, 262 deaths
• Hartford County: 2,243 cases, 133 deaths
• Litchfield County: 446 cases, 24 deaths
• Middlesex County: 339 cases, 19 deaths
• New Haven County: 3,358 cases, 135 deaths
• New London County: 222 cases, 7 deaths
• Tolland County: 195 cases, 17 deaths
• Windham County: 83 cases, 1 death
• Pending address validation 491 cases, 4 deaths

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Nursing home figures:

Half of Connecticut's 215 nursing homes have at least one laboratory-confirmed case. A total of 1,522 nursing home residents have tested positive, 394 have been hospitalized and 212 have died.

Town-by-Town Cases: