Connecticut recently fell short of a key COVID-19 testing goal, state numbers show, as Gov. Ned Lamont attempted to clarify Monday who should and shouldn’t seek a test.
Despite once promising to conduct and process 50,000 tests a week by the end of May, state officials reported only 35,910 results over the final seven days of the month. Not only was that figure short of the state’s goal, it was also down from the previous week, when the state reported about 43,500 results.
Officials have said they will conduct 100,000 tests a week by June 20, to prepare for the next phase of the state’s reopening process.
After some mixed messages in recent days about who should be tested for COVID-19, Lamont on Monday laid out specific guidelines, recommending tests for:
Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms (cough, fever, shortness of breath)
Anyone who has had close contact with someone who has tested positive
Staff and residents of congregate settings such as nursing home, assisted living facilities, jails and prisons
First responders and “high-risk” health-care workers
People in “high-risk urban communities”
“We don’t have unlimited testing capacity,” said Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer. “We have a lot more capacity than we’re utilizing right now, and we continue to build that, but we do have to follow a focused strategy.”
Lamont signed an executive order Monday mandating weekly testing for all nursing home and assisted living staff throughout Connecticut’s ongoing state of emergency. Geballe said this effort will “consume a significant amount of our testing capacity.”
Still, mayors in some of Connecticut’s larger cities, including Hartford and New Haven, have urged all residents there to be tested regularly. COVID-19 has hit cities particularly hard throughout the outbreak, while disproportionately affecting black and Latino residents.
According to state numbers released Monday, Connecticut has 454 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, fewer than it had at the start of April and down more than 75% from the state’s peak.
Lamont announced Monday that Connecticut had seen 20 additional coronavirus-linked deaths, bringing the state’s total to 3,964 during the outbreak. According to the Department of Public Health, 3,110 of those victims had tested positive for COVID-19, while the remaining 854 were presumed to have the disease based on their symptoms.
A total of 42,740 residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19, including 539 more reported Monday, leaving Connecticut fifth nationally in infection rate (as well as fourth in deaths per capita).
Lamont on Monday encouraged residents to continue wearing masks, particularly indoors.
“If you can’t socially distance, if you’re close in with people, you should wear a mask,” he told WNPR’s “Where We Live” program. “It’s required indoors. That is very clear. Outdoors, if you’re standing watching a kid play softball and there’s no one around you, use your own judgement.”
Hair salons, barbershops, casinos reopen
Monday marked the reopening of Connecticut hair salons, barbershops and casinos.
Salons and barbershops had been scheduled to reopen May 20, before Lamont pushed the date back to June 1.
The casinos, meanwhile, had been locked in a public battle with Lamont, who wanted to push back the re-opening date as casinos in Rhode Island and Massachusetts also remain closed. Lamont noted several times that Connecticut is reopening earlier than Las Vegas, where casinos are scheduled to reopen on Thursday, June 4.
Instead, both Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods reopened Monday as the first casinos in the Northeast to do so.
“I wasn’t happy about it,” Lamont said on WNPR. “I thought we should have waited until late June like our neighbors. I thought that would have been safer for employees, safer for customers and safer for the region.”
During a tour with reporters last week, Foxwoods officials said only about one-third of the casino would be open, with about one-third of the employees. Only seven out of the 42 eating establishments will be open for takeout only, officials said. No sit-down dining is permitted.
To ensure social distancing, only every other slot machine will be available. About 1,000 total slot machines were available Monday.
Decisions on staffing and bringing back more employees will depend on the size of crowds and the amount of business, officials say.
“We’re preparing to be busy,” said Jason Guyot, the interim president and CEO at Foxwoods.
In other COVID-19 news:
Lamont’s executive order also allows the Department of Labor consider, when determining an applicant’s eligibility for unemployment, whether returning to work would “pose an unreasonable risk to the health of a member of that worker’s household.”
Sema4, a Stamford based company that has processed thousands of coronavirus tests in recent months, has reached an agreement with the state to continue its testing operation over the next year. The company says it will process 10,000 viral tests per day in early June and 5,000 antibody tests a day by the end of the month.
UConn Health announced Monday that it has begun testing health care workers for COVID-19 antibodies as part of a clinical trial. Yale New Haven Health System and Hartford HealthCare, among others, have also conducted research about the presence and significance of antibodies in health-care workers.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation will receive $216 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of the CARES Act, the agencies announced Monday. The money will be used for rail services and rural transit districts.
Courant staff writer Christopher Keating contributed to this report.
Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.
