Hartford area had its first confirmed coronavirus case, as state’s total reached double digits

Hartford HealthCare officials announced the Hartford area’s first confirmed coronavirus case Friday night, bringing Connecticut’s total number of positive tests to 12.

The patient is a woman in her 80s who lives in Rocky Hill, officials said. She is being treated at Hartford Hospital.

“What we’re seeing right now in our community, we’re going to see more of that,” said Dr. Ajay Kumar, chief clinical officer for Hartford HealthCare. “This is spreading in our community at this time.”

Hartford mayor Luke Bronin said he assumes there are other cases of COVID-19 in the Hartford area that have not been confirmed due to lack of testing capacity.

“We as public officials will do everything we can to slow down transmission and flatten the curve, so to speak,” he said.

The announcement of the Hartford area’s first positive test came hours after state officials announced six other new cases, as hospitals worked to expand testing, businesses braced for losses and residents scrambled to prepare for the anticipated worsening of the COVID-19 crisis.

The cases announced Friday came on the heels of three announced Thursday. Of Connecticut’s 12 confirmed cases, three involve residents of Bethlehem, where state epidemiologist Matthew Cartter said there appears to be transmission within a family. Eight of the other nine cases involve residents of Fairfield County.

One of the new cases involves a Greenwich resident in his 20s who is currently in Utah, officials said. That description fits that of Utah Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who tested positive earlier this week.

Griffin Health in Derby announced Friday night that one of its doctors had tested positive for the virus, but it is not clear whether he is one of the previously announced cases or an additional one.

As of Friday afternoon, state and private labs had conducted 136 total tests, with 125 coming back negative.

A Rhode Island child who has tested positive had attended a daycare in Mystic, Cartter said. The daycare has now closed, and anyone who had contact with the infected child has been asked to stay home for 14 days.

After predicting Thursday that 10 to 20% of Connecticut residents could be infected with COVID-19 “in the next month or two,” Cartter spoke Friday about the uncertainty surrounding the disease. He said flu pandemics are the lone reference point.

“There’s never been a coronavirus pandemic before, so we don’t know for sure,” he said. “[During] influenza pandemics usually the majority of cases occur in a 6-8 week period, and there are three waves.”

Cartter said after this current wave, the coronavirus could return in the fall and even next spring.

Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency Tuesday and later issued an executive order banning gatherings of more than 250 people.

On Friday evening, he amended his standing executive order to prohibit any visitation at Connecticut nursing homes and long-term care facilities for the next 30 days, effectively immediately.

The only exceptions include emergency personnel, personnel authorized by law to oversee care, facility maintenance workers.

Family members, domestic partners and others may only be permitted to visit when health professionals determine a patient is at the “end stage of life with death being imminent,” according to the order.

In other developments Friday:

School districts across the state continued to announce closures.

State officials have suspended eviction and foreclosure hearings and utility shut-offs.

Bristol Hospital and Waterbury Hospital unveiled outdoor facilities for drive-up testing, joining Greenwich Hospital. Yale-New Haven Hospital began testing in its laboratory.

HUSKY, the state’s Medicaid program, will begin to cover telemedicine services, officials said.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker ordered establishments in his city including restaurants, bars, movie theaters and nightclubs to reduce their maximum occupancies by half, beginning Sunday.

The Department of Labor encouraged those out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak to apply for unemployment benefits and waived the requirement that they actively seek work.

State officials granted extensions on payments of economic development loans for 90 days.

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency.

The Archdiocese of Hartford suspended Catholics’ obligation to attend Sunday Mass and encouraged those who continue to go to take additional precautions.

Testing still slow, efforts to expand

Government and health officials see expanded testing as critical in efforts to get in front of the spread of the virus.

Bristol hospital hurried Friday to get its outdoor facility ready as part of the state’s push to complete more tests.

It will have a series of temporary shed-like buildings in the parking lot where patients with test orders from a physician can drive up to register. Security and a Bristol police officer will check their IDs, and all patients must bring an insurance card as well as a lab order from a physician. Nurses will conduct the tests while the patient sits in a chair near the car — all without the potentially infected person ever going into the main hospital.

Bristol Hospital is one of three hospitals currently operating this sort of drive-up testing, along with Greenwich Hospital and Waterbury Hospital.

“Testing this week is much more available than it was last week,” Cartter said. “We expect that to continue.”

At Yale-New Haven Hospital, Dr. Marie Landry and her virology team began testing samples from suspected COVID-19 patients Friday afternoon.

By the middle of next week, Yale doctors said they expect to be able to complete about 200 tests per day. Yale-New Haven is one several hospitals whose onsite labs can provide relief to the state Department of Public Health’s small lab.

Hartford Hospital will begin testing when chemical reagents and other equipment arrive.

At Greenwich Hospital’s outdoor sample collection station, 130 patients had mouth and nose swabs taken over the last four days, said officials from Yale-New Haven Health network, which includes Greenwich Hospital.

CEO Marna Borgstrom said another outdoor sample collection station will be opened soon in New Haven.

Dr. Rick Martinello, director of infection prevention, said Yale-Hew Haven is treating 12 patients in isolated, negative air pressure rooms and the anticipation is the number will grow rapidly as the coronavirus spreads.

Landry, director of the hospital’s clinical virology lab, said she and her team had to navigate stiff FDA regulations on testing to reach a point that the hospital’s lab was achieving valid test results. She said DPH scientists helped the team verify the results.

Martinello said only people with symptoms should be tested.

In the entire country, only about 11,000 people have been tested.

Connecticut currently has two testing kits, allowing for about 1,200 total tests.

Utility shut-offs, eviction hearings suspended

With many employees working at home, schools closed and some people in quarantine, regulators have granted a moratorium on utility shut-offs lasting at least through September and Lamont’s declaration of a COVID-19 emergency.

Attorney General William Tong asked for the order from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, and PURA immediately granted it.

The Metropolitan District Commission, which serves a dozen Hartford area cities and towns, and the South Central Regional Water Authority serving the New Haven area, followed suit and have suspended shut-offs. PURA does not regulate the MDC or Regional Water, but does oversee numerous private water companies.

Tong said that with home becoming the base of many people’s lives for the next several months at least, and people with suspected cases of the coronavirus managing their symptoms at home, any interruption of electricity, natural gas and water would become an even more serious threat to public safety and health than normal.

Additionally, the Judicial Branch has suspended all eviction and foreclosure hearings for two weeks, a spokesperson said.

Economic effects intensify

Connecticut’s Department of Labor on Friday encouraged all residents who lose their job due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak to file for unemployment benefits.

“We are processing claims as quickly as possible and appreciate your patience during this difficult time,” the Department of Labor website says, adding that eligibility will be determined on a case-by-cases basis.

As events have been canceled and buildings closed in recent days, hourly workers have become concerned about lost income.

Hotel operators, for example, have begun to reduce employee hours and furlough workers as business travel comes to a stop amid worries about the spread of the coronavirus.

“Occupancy has dropped significantly,” Ginny Kozlowski, executive director of the Connecticut Lodging Association, said. “There are very little near-term bookings.”

Kozlowski said some operators are just reducing hours, while others are turning to furloughs in the hopes that the slowdown will be short-lived.

The lodging association, Kozlowski said, is reaching out to assisted living communities, nursing homes and hospitals to see if hotel employees can secure temporary work.

“We want to keep as many people as possible working,” Kozlowski said.

The Waterford Hotel Group, which operates the 393-room Hilton Hartford and the 409-room Marriott Downtown Hartford in Hartford, said it is closely monitoring bookings.

“It is a fluid situation and we are currently assessing staffing levels and will need to adjust based on business demand,” Lisa Beers, a Waterford spokeswoman, said, in an email.

The MetroHartford Alliance, the region’s chamber of commerce, is gearing up to help area businesses navigate channels for relief even as they worry about how a slowdown in sales could affect the businesses.

David Griggs, the alliance’s president and chief executive, said immediate concerns, especially for companies that operate on a “cash basis” are whether they are going to be able to make payroll or be able to pay their suppliers if their customers are no longer there.

“Some companies are perhaps able to survive longer than others and that has nothing to do with the quality of the establishment but it is the nature of the business,” Griggs said. “So, our concern is that we identify the opportunities for assistance early before we have long-term business closure.”

The concern, he said, of course extends to the employees.

“You throw this into the middle of what might be a challenging home financial situation, this could be disastrous for people,” Griggs said.

Virus could impact April primary

Connecticut’s presidential primaries are not until April 28, but the state’s top election officials are already planning for possible disruptions caused by the virus.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill will ask Lamont to use his emergency powers to eliminate restrictive language in state law and allow more people to receive an absentee ballot.

The order would change the reason voters could seek an absentee ballot from “his or her illness” to simply “illness.”

In Merrill’s opinion, such a change would allow the current public health emergency to qualify as an “illness” justification to request an absentee ballot, and anyone who wanted to avoid the polling places on April 28 could request one.

Meanwhile, state Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano said the virus provides a reason for officials to cancel the Republican primary. He is asking candidates Bill Weld and Rocky De La Fuenta to withdraw from the race, noting their longshot campaigns have mathematically no chance of beating President Trump and the continuation of the Republican primary poses a needless risk to public health.

Murphy, Blumenthal slam federal response

At a press conference Friday morning at Charter Oak Health Center in Hartford, Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy criticized Trump’s response to COVID-19, hours before the president declared a national emergency.

Blumenthal said that he has been “appalled and astonished” by the federal government’s delay in confronting COVID-19 and the lack of a specific nationwide strategy for testing.

“There is still a severe shortage of tests all around the nation,” he said.

He added that the United States has “insufficient surge capacity,” including inadequate supplies of ventilators and ICU beds, which are needed to handle a “potential exponential explosion of cases that will happen unless we flatten the curve.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need to provide more stringent guidelines on social distancing for local governments and private industry, Murphy warned.

“The lack of specific guidance or recommendations is just stunning,” he said.

The House was expected to vote Friday on a bipartisan coronavirus aid package which would provide paid sick leave, unemployment compensation, nutrition assistance, tax credits and other measures to support Americans through the financial crisis and public health emergency.

But even if the House passes the legislation, the Senate would likely not vote on it until next week because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home for the weekend.

“We shouldn’t be here right now,” Murphy said, arguing that legislation should be passed in Congress immediately. “For many families here in Hartford and all across this state, if you miss one paycheck, you are on the brink of financial ruin. We can’t wait until next week to pass legislation to provide paid sick leave or increased unemployment benefits.”

Courant staff writers Daniela Altimari, Eliza Fawcett, Stephen Singer, Don Stacom and Zach Murdock contributed to this report.

Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.