HARTFORD, Conn — During his Monday briefing, Governor Lamont announced there were zero COVID-19 related fatalities since Friday, August 21 with 492 positive cases and 57 patients currently hospitalized.
Gov. Lamont also noted about a 7% positivity rate in Danbury. COVID-19 first hit Connecticut in the city of Danbury, and after months of managing to 'flatten the curve' and bring the virus under control, the city is facing a significant spike in cases.
One of the methods will be messages in Portugese, the language of the large Brazilian community in the city.
The administration said the cases stemmed from people who had traveled internationally prior to coming to the city and then not practicing social distancing.
Danbury public schools will start the school year with distance learning it was announced on Monday.
The governor and Beth Bye, director of the State Office of Early Childhood announced they were working to make it easier for daycare workers to get tested for COVID-19.
The Connecticut Department of Health issued a COVID-19 alert for the city of Danbury on Friday night. The DPH said the city has had a significant increase in cases in the last two weeks, with much of the outbreak having to do with recent domestic and international travel.
Lamont also renewed his push for changing the way utility companies in the state receive rate increases. Lamont wants the state to move to a performance rate of return model that would set goals for the companies to meet in order to be awarded a rate increase.
Lamont said, "I'm happy to reward for good performance and happy to penalize for bad performance. I think that's how you get good performance. And I don't want to have happen next time what happened last time."
"The Hat City" saw an increase of 44 new cases Friday and no new COVID-19 related deaths. The DPH reports that between August 2-20, the city recorded 178 new COVID-19 cases. The previous two-week period only saw 40 new cases.
On Saturday, Mayor Mark Boughton said 7 new cases were reported.
Boughton told FOX61 that young people were a factor, with a spike in cases among people age 6-18. He also said travel, church groups, and athletic groups were some of the factors driving the outbreak.
Boughton said the city is canceling all athletic leagues that use city facilities as of 6 p.m. Monday and is encouraging churches to go online. The city will also close its public boat launch on Candlewood Lake on Monday.
"We also saw a significant amount of spread amongst very innocuous family barbecues," said the Mayor. "Maybe only 10 or 11 people with it but we've been able to trace some infections from the virus that way as well. So we're discouraging that kind of activity as well. We can't stop it, but we're asking people to think twice before they do it."
“This is a serious outbreak in Danbury and we really need an all hands on deck approach. We need everyone in Danbury to take extreme precautions,” said Acting DPH Commissioner Deidre S. Gifford, MD, MPH. “We are urging anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to get tested as soon as possible, stay home until your test results are known, and stay at home for 10 days if you test positive."
Danbury had planned to open schools in a hybrid in-person/online model on September 8th, but Boughton said the city is re-evaluating that now. "That decision still has more discussion to be had by our Board, but certainly this information will have an impact, I think, on that decision."
Most restrictions will start Monday and many residents were spotted outside on Saturday, enjoying a few more moments of summer.
Some people told FOX61's Brian Didlake that until the restrictions kick-in, they’ll continue to play -- the safest way possible.
Martin Blulanger is the assistant head coach for the Danbury Storm softball team said, “We just try to follow all the rules, we try to be as positive of influence, we try to be as healthy of an influence. It’s all about the kids.“
League officials are sanitizing being cautious, sanitizing benches, and other high-touch surfaces to protect players, especially those coming from outs of the state coming to compete.
Ishmael Lytle and his family came to compete against the Danbury Storms coming from Pittsfield Massachusetts.
Lytle said he didn’t hear initially about the spike but is always prepared to keep his family safe.
“Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize you have to sanitize everything, get the shower… You just have to be aware and be conscious of everything,” said Lytle.
The city’s health department is urging residents to limit large outdoor gatherings, stay clear of places of worship, and stay home as much as possible so numbers can dip back down.
“Listen, these things happen and you know it’s… You have to play by the rules and if you do all the right things then I think the numbers will go back where they need to be,” said Blulanger.
Even folks at Western Connecticut State University are affected by the recent spike.
In a letter sent to the WCSU community, effective Saturday, no students will be allowed on campus for two weeks except for those already on campus who the university urges to remain on-campus until students are let back on.
The letter also says classes will still start on August 26th, but only online.
The school going on to say, “We hope to return to the regular schedule as soon as it safe to do so.”
Residents say the sudden halt for many activities due to the COVID-spike is sad to hear but it’s not surprising.
“People have been cooped up in their houses for months and months and people going back to school… Another lotta people probably getting back together with friends before they go off to college and that’s probably one of the reasons why the spike is going on,” said Solomon James.
Health officials urge everyone to answer the calls from people doing contact tracing, and if you don’t feel well get tested as soon as possible.
Mayor Boughton said "I personally have just lost someone very close to me about three weeks ago to COVID-19. So it's real, and you have to take it seriously."
