Governor Ned Lamont reported more than 100 new COVID-related deaths Friday, he also announced the biggest decrease in COVID hospitalizations, down 70 patients in just 24 hours.
Governor Ned Lamont pointed out a continued decrease in confirmed COVID-19 cases throughout Fairfield, New Haven, and now Hartford county.
“In fact, Fairfield County is down about 13% since it's peak, so that's extraordinarily good news in terms of what that means for our future,” Lamont said.
During the briefings, Stamford Hospital announced the successful use of plasma therapy-blood plasma is donated by patients that have recovered from COVID-19 then administered to critically ill patients and officials said they’re getting off the ventilators and out of the hospital a lot quicker.
“We were the first hospital in the state to actually receive a research grant to begin to use plasma therapy and we’ve had miraculous results with our patients,” Stamford Health President and CEO Kathleen Silard said.
The Connecticut National Guard shared they are successfully getting field hospitals up and running around the state and on Friday they took part in mobile COVID-19 testing at Charter Oak Health Center in Hartford for the first time.
“I think there were over 25 tests conducted. We’ve been deeply involved in public health, on the medical planning side we have talented guardsmen with a wealth of both military and civilian experience working for organizations like Red Cross and Pfizer,” Major General Francis J. Evon, Jr. | CT National Guard
Thursday evening Lamont issued an executive order fining nursing homes up to $5,000 for not reporting infections and said so far, two-thirds of nursing homes in the state have been physically inspected.
For now, the Department of Public Health is handling the investigations but we asked the Governor if he would follow suit with New York in having the Attorney General’s office investigate violations.
“My hunch right now is where not there, we’re finding no major violations, we’re very strict in terms of what the protocols are going to be, we’re very strict in terms of what you got to do in terms of infection, we’re very strict in terms of hygiene, we’re very strict in terms of reporting, and if they don’t get it right then we'll come back and take another look,” Lamont said.
Governor Lamont also announced federal approval for more than $70 million dollars in new SNAP food benefits for children who receive free and reduced-price school lunch.
