Connecticut on Monday reported 560 new coronavirus cases over the weekend and again reported a positive coronavirus test rate of just over 1% — but the numbers remain low here in comparison with some other states, where spiking infections have led to concern from top White House infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“You don’t want to be in a position like that as the weather starts getting cold,” Fauci told “Good Morning America. ” “So we really need to intensify the public health measures that we talk about all the time.”
Fauci referenced rising case numbers in a number of states and said that he had hoped the country would be in a better position before cold weather pushes more gatherings and events into riskier indoor settings.
Fauci said in August that the country should aim to reduce new coronavirus cases to 10,000 per day by the fall. But by late September, the U.S. is still averaging more than 40,000 new cases per day, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
“We’re not in a good place with regards to what I had said back then,” Fauci said.
Fauci also noted, however, that some states are doing better than others.
And while Connecticut’s positivity rate has shifted up notably in the last few weeks — sitting above 1% for two weeks before briefly dropping below that threshold on Friday — the state’s numbers still pale in comparison to those seen in ongoing hot spot areas.
And while data from Johns Hopkins shows many states are seeing increasing case rates, on Monday Connecticut was not one of those states.
With the additional 560 cases reported over the weekend, Connecticut has now seen a total of 57,147 coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Connecticut on Monday also reported an additional two coronavirus-related deaths over the weekend, for a total of 4,503 since the pandemic began. Coronavirus hospitalizations dropped by one over the weekend, for a total of 75 patients currently hospitalized.
Across the country, nearly 205,000 people have died of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins data, and more than 7.1 million people have contracted the disease.
UConn reports one new case
UConn on Monday reported one new coronavirus case among its on-campus Storrs students, the university said. The student is a resident of Belden Hall, the release says, which is the dormitory that was quarantined on Friday after the university discovered a potential coronavirus outbreak.
In total, 186 on-campus Storrs students have now tested positive for COVID-19 this semester, according to the release. A total of 211 students have recovered after being treated for either COVID-19 or similar symptoms.
Currently, 55 students are in isolation beds on campus, according to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard.
1 million rapid tests headed to Connecticut
President Donald J. Trump said Monday that the federal government would ship more than 100 million rapid coronavirus tests to all 50 states over the next few weeks.
The first wave of tests is slated to ship this week, according to The Associated Press.
Gov. Ned Lamont tweeted about the expected shipments, and said that Connecticut is expected to receive about 1 million of those tests.
Although Trump was expected to push states to use the tests to safely reopen schools, Lamont’s office said that Connecticut has not decided how it will deploy the new testing supply.
Emily Brindley can be reached at ebrindley@courant.com.
