Wilton Coronavirus Update- 8 New Cases, New Regional Travel Advisory, Election Reminders And More

Press release from the Town of Wilton:

October 29, 2020

October 29th–The following are highlights from today’s CT DPH report versus Monday’s October 26th report.

• Wilton: 8 new cases.
• Statewide: 2,347 new cases. 4.78% of tests reported since Monday were positive. 6.1% of tests reported today were positive.
• Fairfield County: 1,002 new cases.
• Hospitalized Patients: Statewide, 51-net patient increase. Fairfield County, 11-net patient increase.
• Deaths: Statewide, 20. Fairfield County, 4.

New Wilton cases included a range of ages and one or more residents of a senior facility.

As was predicted for the fall, Wilton, area towns and the State have moved to a new phase of the virus with cases growing at an increasingly higher rate. See chart below. Things can change very quickly. Just look at the stunning growth in Norwalk’s average daily cases.

Wearing a mask, even when with extended family members or close friends, is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself and others from the virus. Despite the number of hours students, school staff and town employees spend inside school and municipal buildings, we haven’t been experiencing problems with spread within these groups. Students, school staff and town employees all wear masks!

Cases

Average

Cases

Daily

Average

28 days in

Daily

Month of

Average

Daily

October

Cases

September

Cases

Change

Darien

39

1.39

18

0.60

132%

New Canaan

22

0.79

14

0.47

68%

Norwalk

687

24.54

84

2.80

776%

Ridgefield

44

1.57

24

0.80

96%

Stamford

510

18.21

167

5.57

227%

Weston

14

0.50

3

0.10

400%

Westport

58

2.07

28

0.93

122%

Wilton

38

1.36

16

0.53

154%

Danbury

591

21.11

369

12.30

72%

Fairfield County

3631

129.68

1361

45.37

186%

Statewide

12704

453.71

4736

157.87

187%

New Regional Travel Advisory-EO 9I:

On Tuesday, the Governor issued Executive Order 9I, which replaces Executive Order 9C. The order, among others, removed New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island as possible affected states regardless of their rate of cases and changed the testing alternative. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California were added to the affected list, which now includes 40 states and 2 territories. Rhode Island, if not exempted, would have qualified as an affected state. If you plan to travel, please read all the information available on the state website. If you are a parent, please make sure you understand the impact on your child’s ability to attend school in-person or participate in sports.

New Red Alert Communities:

Today, CT DPH updated their list of red, orange and yellow alert communities. The classification is based on cases from October 11th to October 24th and excludes cases at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and correctional institutions. All but 45 of the state’s 169 communities have been assigned an alert classification. Wilton remains at yellow.

Executive Order 9J:

Today, the Governor issued EO 9J, which among others, allows orange alert communities to roll back to Phase 2 and extends the deadline for municipalities to elect to pre-process absentee ballots.

Election Reminders:

Town Hall and Town Annex employees will be working remotely on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd, to allow for full building use by election workers. With absentee ballot counting expected to extend into Wednesday, Town Annex employees will also be working remotely on November 4th. Please plan accordingly.

The Town Clerk will be at the vestibule entrance to Town Hall this Saturday, October 31st, for any resident interested in obtaining a ballot. To facilitate receiving your ballot, please complete the application prior to arrival at Town Hall. Applications are available online on this link. You can fill out your ballot in the privacy of your car and then deposit it in the ballot box outside of Police Headquarters.

School COVID Dashboard:

Today, Governor Lamont announced the reporting of cases by school through a searchable on-line dashboard. Please note that reporting is suppressed if cases are 5 or less to ensure confidentiality.

Making Wilton Beautiful Fundraiser

The extraordinary hanging flower baskets in Wilton Center were a big hit. The baskets were made possible through a public partnership between the Wilton Garden Club and the Town and with the help of generous donors. The Wilton Garden Club worked with the nursery to design the baskets and fundraised the cost of the baskets through their Making Wilton Beautiful fundraiser The Town hung the baskets and hired the individual responsible for watering and maintenance. If you enjoyed the flowers this year, please consider donating towards next year’s baskets. More information is available here.

Detailed Case Data:

The CT Data Center reported the following for Wilton as of 8:30 p.m. October 28th and versus the dates prior to the start of Phase 1 and Phase 2:

• 302 cases, 95 additional since June 16th and 102 since May 19th.
• 5,317 residents tested, 4,167 since June 16th and 4,567 since May 19th.
• 8,197 tests performed, 6,745 since June 16th .
• 42 deaths, 1 since June 16th and 5 since May 19th.

CT DPH reported the following for Fairfield County and Statewide as of 8:30 p.m. October 28th:

• 23,895 cases, 7,514 additional since 6/16 70,446 cases, 25,017 additional since 6/16
• 1,435 deaths, 83 additional since 6/16 4,609 deaths, 390 additional since 6/16
• 77 hospitalized, 9 more than 6/16 321 hospitalized, 135 more than 6/16

Please follow the three W’s:

• Watch your distance
• Wear a mask/face covering when you can’t maintain 6 feet of distance whether indoors or outside
• Wash your hands

Lynne Vanderslice

First Selectwoman

This press release was produced by the Town of Wilton.The views expressed here are the author’s own.