HARTFORD, Conn. — Respiratory season is months away, but kids are back in school, and people are back indoors. Now, COVID-19 cases are up slightly from earlier in the summer and some workplaces are opting to go back to back to masking.
Two new variants, the EG.5 and Eris, waning immunity, and people back indoors are contributing to a slight uptick, Dr. Ulysses Wu, Chief Epidemiologist, Hartford Healthcare said.
“They may say that oh, it’s just a cold. It’s allergy season, things like that. I do believe our true number is much higher,” Wu said.
ICU stays, hospitalizations, and deaths are all ticking up slightly.
At least 100 deaths a week are associated with COVID-19 across the nation, Wu added. In Connecticut, that’s anywhere from 1 to 10 people a week.
“But not to the extent of what it was even last year or the year before or the year before that,” Wu said.
Based on the latest COVID-19 admission levels, Connecticut remains in the CDC's 'green' status. This week, 296 positive COVID tests were reported as compared to 217 the previous week. Last week there were 184 new hospital admissions for patients with COVID-19 as compared to 185 the previous week and a low of 66 in July.
Hartford Public Schools, one of the state’s largest school districts, is urging its 16.5 thousand students to isolate at home for 5 days if they test positive and mask for 5 more days upon return to school.
But few people see an uptick as clearly as Arrow Pharmacy Manager Dave Flaherty who went from zero COVID treatment prescriptions mid-summer to:
"Now, I’ve had a half dozen in the last two weeks. There’s the PAXLOVID treatment, which we’re getting more prescriptions for. The new vaccine is due to come out. We don’t have it yet. Hopefully in the next two to three weeks," Flaherty said.
Samaia Hernandez is a reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at shernandez@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X, and Instagram.
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