CONNECTICUT, USA — Six days before Connecticut starts a gradual and phased reopening of businesses, and data from the Department of Public Health is showing some positive signs.
Connecticut Coronavirus Hospitalizations
Gov. Ned Lamont and other state leaders have said that a continued downward trend of hospitalizations is key to reopening.
Connecticut has seen 20 days of hospitalization decline, with the exception one small uptick midway on May 4.
On May 14, DPH reported 1,103 people in Connecticut hospitals for COVID-19. That's down 869 from the 1,972 people in the hospital on April 22. The last time hospitalizations were this low was April 4.
The governor and his reopening committee have pointed to total hospitalizations as the key metric because it represents the number of people sick enough to need to be in the hospital.
For example, the administration has shied away from total number of new cases because Increased testing could lead to a higher number of positive cases, when those cases may be people who are asymptomatic and not needing treatment.
In total there have been 35,464 confirmed Coronavirus cases in Connecticut. The state added 609 cases Thursday and 522 cases on Wednesday.
Connecticut Coronavirus Deaths
The number of deaths reported each day had previously been in a state of general decline, but Connecticut has seen an uptick in the last two days.
DPH reported 84 new deaths on Wednesday and 94 new deaths on Thursday, which is the highest single-day death toll since May 3.
In the first 10 days of May, 751 deaths were reported by the Department of Public Health. Those deaths may have occurred before their day of reporting.
In total, 3,125 people in Connecticut have died COVID-related deaths.
The two big spikes in April include deaths that had gone previously unreported.
Testing
Gov. Ned Lamont announced a new initiative Tuesday, aimed at ramping up testing in Connecticut.
Testing appears to be increasing for the month of May. There were 6,619 new tests reported Thursday. A total of 149,562 tests have been completed in Connecticut, according to DPH.
The seven-week average for tests completed is at around 4,700 tests per day. In March that seven-week average was under 2,000 tests per day.
