HARTFORD, Conn — Gov. Lamont provided an update Wednesday afternoon on the status of coronavirus in Connecticut.
According the state’s latest released data, 89 new cases were reported since Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 53,871.
Additionally, hospitalizations have seen a slight uptick of 7 new patients since yesterday. Now, a total of 57 are being treated across the state.
The governor reported that there have been no COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours.
Overall, the state has lost a total of 4,474 people since the beginning of the pandemic.
Connecticut's positivity rate is 1.5%.
Wednesday's update comes as multiple school districts confirmed COVID-19 cases among their communities.
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Official state data reports that 1,290,692 tests have been administered overall, with 5,943 added since Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Connecticut officially hit the six month mark since the pandemic officially hit our state.
During his briefing yesterday, Gov. Lamont highlighted data from a state survey that captured COVID-19's impact among residents.
Connecticut had its first positive test of COVID-19 on March 8th. Two days later, Gov. Lamont had declared a public health emergency. A little over one week after that, on March 18th, Connecticut had its first official death linked to the virus.
The main focus currently is on schools as questions and concerns remain about returning to class, what reopening models to follow, or school sports.
Colleges and universities began returning to the fall semester before public schools got underway. At this time, UConn has reported just over 100 cases cumulatively as of September 8th. You can view their case numbers and positivity rate here. Several students have already been removed from campus following an "unapproved" gathering.
Public schools around the state had started their reopening plans last week and extending into this week, after Labor Day. Hartford Public Schools was slated to begin in-person classes and online classes today, but due to a different kind of virus, was forced to postpone.
Officials said a ransomware attack had affected some critical systems. Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez had said it took them seven hours to get the student database back online.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said the city became aware of the attack on Saturday. He said, because of security systems put in place over the last year, the city was able to contain the attack and apparently not lose any information. He said the attack started on September 3.
Bronin said this attack was the most extensive in the past five years.
The new security system cost $500,000 and limited the damage. Among the impacted systems was school bus routing information, and public safety report and scheduling systems.
While Hartford had to fight against a digital virus, some school districts across the state have seen COVID-19 cases pop up.
Two Windham Public School staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. School officials say they will not be allowed back into the school as they recover. Windham had started their hybrid model of classes today.
In Plainville, two school staff members and one student also tested positive for COVID-19. According to Superintendent Steven LePage, the staff members were self-quarantining before school started on September 3 and had no contact with the students.
The student's positive result recently was confirmed over the weekend. Due to contact tracing, everyone who was in contact with the student were told and will not report to school during the required quarantine period. It is unclear how many people were impacted.
On Friday, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) announced it would be stopping its football program for the season. Officials determined that full contact football is no longer a viable option this year.
This decision comes after DPH reported that 11 on 11 football was too high risk.
The CIAC says they will collaborate with athletic directors, coaches, and medical experts to provide football players with meaningful low to moderate risk fall activities.
Over the weekend there was a rally, calling for a reversal of the decision. Another rally is expected for Wednesday late-afternoon.
