NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Connecticut will be going into 2023 with a rise in COVID-19 cases.
"We’re seeing exactly what was to be expected. We knew that once that the weather started getting colder that we would start to see a rise in numbers," said Dr. Ulysses Wu, infectious disease specialist at Hartford HealthCare.
This week the state reported a test positivity rate at a rolling average of 15.56%, compared to about 13% the previous week, and about 11% the week before that.
The CDC also considers half of the state to be under what’s considered “high” community transmission; Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex and New Haven counties.
The four other counties are in the “medium” category.
"I do expect that to happen because I see a lot of people do take it lightly," said Josue Benoit of Ansonia.
New Haven is among the communities seeing a high level of community spread, so officials are taking action.
"To hopefully prevent the spread of any COVID for those individuals who are coming back to the workplace or even back to school," said Rick Fontana, director of emergency operations for the city of New Haven.
Testing is one of the recommendations given by the CDC for people in communities at a high level. As well as staying up to date on COVID vaccines and wearing a mask indoors.
"I think that I’ll be thinking about it a lot definitely because I’ve had COVID before, I had it a couple of months ago and it sucked so I definitely will probably going more towards masks," said Devyn Sargent of Hamden.
Experts say in addition to looking at the positivity rate they also look at the number of hospitalizations, and how many of the people hospitalized need ICU care or ventilators.
"All of those numbers are up but we should say that in comparison to previous years we’re not quite at what we were seeing in the other years," Wu said.
Still, officials urge people to take the necessary precautions, especially after the holidays.
"Hopefully everybody has a safe and healthy new year. That’s our goal," Fontana said.
The test distribution in New Haven is for residents of the city only. It will take place from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday at the New Haven Regional Fire Training Academy at 230 Ella T. Grasso Blvd. It is a drive-through distribution.
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