Reflecting on 2 years of COVID in Connecticut
Connecticut’s first official positive case of COVID-19 was on March 8, 2020. Here's a timeline of what happened since then.
Two years ago to this day, the coronavirus pandemic officially reached Connecticut, as the first positive case was confirmed in the state.
Connecticut’s first official positive case of COVID-19 was on March 8, 2020.
In the two years since then, the state changed in many ways. We fought the virus as well as we could with the tools that we had, and learned to adapt to the new normal.
The joke nowadays is “It’s been two years? It’s felt like two decades!” so it can be a little hard to remember what exactly happened since the beginning of the pandemic.
2020: The Beginning
COVID-19 testing wasn’t widely available at the beginning of the pandemic, so it’s unclear precisely when the virus was present in the state. However, on March 8, it was announced that a New York man who worked as a Bridgeport physician was presumptively positive for the illness.
The next day, it was confirmed two Connecticut residents tested positive.
In the days that followed, Connecticut’s response to the virus quickened.
By March 10, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a civil preparedness and health emergency. The next day, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
The following day, Lamont issued his first COVID-19 related executive order. In that executive order, Lamont limited crowd sizes, put restrictions on nursing home visits and waived the 180 school day requirement for educators.
As the school day waiver was put in place, schools around the state began announcing their closure. Online classes, both from grade schools to colleges, took hold. Some schools announced the closure would be through March 27, however as the weeks went on, it was clear the pandemic wouldn’t let up, and children would have to continue learning from home.
Connecticut’s first official COVID-19 related death came on March 18. The man, only identified as an 88-year-old who was living in a Ridgefield nursing home, died at Danbury Hospital.
On March 20, Lamont issued the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” executive order. In it, it declared anyone who was not deemed “essential personnel” work from home.
It was then Connecticut residents were faced with the reality that this wasn’t just like an average case of a virulent flu strain, or like the original SARS scare back in 2003.
The initial March response to COVID-19 soon gave way to April. Despite the White House’s hopes at the time that the country would be “back up and running by Easter,” that was not the case.
By April 3, Lamont reported there were 4,914 confirmed residents with COVID-19, and 131 people died related to COVID-19. Also by then, about 909 patients were hospitalized for the virus.
On April 17, Lamont ordered a mask mandate for the entire state as more and more scientists agreed that covering one’s face helped ease the contagious virus’s spread. Connecticut, along with New York and New Jersey, was one of the first states to impose the mask mandate.
Connecticut would continue on to have a mask mandate in some form until Feb. 28, 2022, making it over 680 days with the mandate in place.
After just two months, the Lamont administration released plans to emerge from the height of the pandemic and start the process to reopen the state.
Phase 1 launched on May 20, allowing outdoor spaces and some indoor establishments to reopen.
But Connecticut, despite data showing that in May that cases were dropping off, would experience more peaks to come.
As spring gave way to summer, Connecticut entered phase 2 of reopening the state, with related hospitalizations dropping to 150 people.
Some parts of the state began opening up but still with crowd restrictions, limited capacity inside restaurants, and the mask mandate continued.
By the end of August, as school was just beginning once more, Lamont announced that for the first time since the pandemic began, there were no reported COVID-19 related deaths.
As the fall 2020 school semesters rolled in, so did the need for COVID-19 mitigation strategies to help keep children and educators from getting sick and spreading the illness.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) released its 2020 fall sports guidelines after meeting with the Lamont administration and taking guidance from federal health officials.
Most grade schools opted for a hybrid way of teaching. Classes were held in person and classes in schools were likely in ‘cohorts’, as in, kids stuck with the same group day to day to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Some schools would move to online courses over the course of the semester if cases rose, or if there were staffing shortages due to illnesses.
But by December, a game-changer dropped. The FDA approved the first emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine.
2021: Vaccines and Variants
On December 14, 2020, Connecticut received its first shipment of Pfizer vaccines
Due to the limited quantity of vaccines across the country, each state developed its own vaccine rollout plan.
Heading into 2021, Connecticut had its vaccination plan in place with a phase-tiered system.
The first people to receive the vaccine were healthcare workers, nursing home residents, and medical first responders. This was Phase 1a.
By mid-January to late May, phase 1b began. This group contained the critical workforce, those in other congregate settings, adults 65 years or older, and anyone deemed high risk under 65 years.
Phase 2 which at the time was estimated to begin in early June, was for residents under 18-years-old and the remaining people over 18-years-old.
But, Connecticut changed its plan by the time Phase 1b rolled out.
By March 16, spurred on by President Biden’s administration’s calls for vaccination expansion, Lamont announced that all residents who were eligible and over the age of 16 could get vaccinated by April 5.
Connecticut continued its vaccination efforts throughout the spring and summer, being one of the top states in the country for vaccination rates.
But COVID-19 wasn’t going away without a fight.
By mid-June, amid vaccination efforts, a COVID-19 variant was emerging across the country.
In the next month, the COVID positivity rate would drop below 2%.
However, while there were other variants of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, the delta variant was unrelenting in its push, sweeping across several countries. It was first discovered in India and soon became the dominant strain in the United Kingdom.
The United States would likely be next, health experts warned.
Delta soon gave way to delta plus, which then gave way to omicron by the fall of 2021. Omicron was first discovered in South Africa and soon was discovered in the U.S. as well.
The omicron variant prompted a run on COVID-19 tests which then led to a shortage nationwide. Health officials stressed getting vaccinated, saying even if the variants are somewhat vaccine resistant, some protection is better than no protection.
Calls for booster shots rose during the delta and delta plus waves and grew louder as omicron spread from coast to coast.
In Connecticut, the state was about to face its highest peak of cases it hadn’t seen since the early days of the pandemic.
By Dec. 30, the state's COVID positivity rate had increased to 20.33%. Omicron followed the world into the new year.
2022: Where are we now?
As we now pass the two-year mark since Connecticut began its battle with COVID-19, the state is still combating its spread, while also shifting its strategy.
At least 95% of Connecticut residents age 55 and up have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with over 90% of people ages 35 and up getting at least one dose, as of Thursday, March 3.
As of Monday, March 7, the state's COVID positivity rate is at 2.81%, with 145 total hospitalizations.
Sadly, as of March 3, over 10,500 people have died from COVID-19 associated complications.
Restaurants and bars are open with no capacity limits, concerts and plays are once again putting on a show, and Connecticut residents are embracing the new normal.
By Feb. 28, schools had the option of whether or not to enforce mandatory masking. Many schools announced they will shift to a voluntary masking policy.
While mandatory masks are no longer required in schools, the state commissioners of education and public health have the ability to reimpose the mandate to June 30 if they feel it is necessary, such as if COVID-19 cases see a drastic rise again.
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The state legislature also voted to extend 11 of Lamont’s executive orders and to continue the public health emergency declaration as we enter year three with the pandemic.
Some states like California are shifting to what they call an “endemic” strategy. A good way to understand what an “endemic” is would be to look at influenza. The flu has a season, vaccinations, treatments, and exists within the population without causing major disruptions.
The national conversation is turning toward when to label COVID-19 as endemic, meaning it’ll stick around and we’ll have to live with it.
As for Connecticut, Lamont has not indicated an “endemic” approach to the COVID-19 battle just yet. However, Rhode Island on Friday declared it was shifting toward an endemic strategy as well.
Time will tell when Connecticut will shift toward this strategy as well, but in the two years of battling the virus, Connecticut has faced every challenge head-on and with determination to stay safe and healthy.
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Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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