CT Coronavirus: Death Toll Soars, Hospitalizations & Cases Drop
CONNECTICUT — The coronavirus has claimed 241 lives in the past seven days — 80 more than logged the week before — according to the latest data released by the state Department of Public Health.
DPH Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani said the issue is a lack of residents getting a COVID-19 booster shot.
"Only eight of those people had been boosted," Juthani said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. "Our most vulnerable populations are at risk, particularly older adults once the virus reaches them."
The omicron variant had initially infected younger people "traveling, out socializing," according to Juthani. But it has now made it back into households and the spaces occupied by those most susceptible to COVID-19, which include the elderly and immunocompromised.
Juthani said the state "still had more work to do in terms of getting people that third shot."
The Connecticut coronavirus death toll is currently 9,683. Omicron cases are typically milder and have proven less fatal.
DPH reported the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Connecticut has dropped to 1,733, down a whopping 72 beds overnight.
According to data released Thursday, 41.3 percent of those hospitalized in Connecticut with COVID-19 are fully vaccinated. That percentage has been growing over the past several weeks.
"What we are seeing, particularly in our ICUs, is that many of the vaccinated people who are there have immunocompromised conditions, are older, and are more vulnerable to begin with," said Juthani. who said health officials have noted waning immunity over time.
"The best way to protect yourself is to get boosted," Juthani said.
Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration and a member of the board of directors of vaccine maker Pfizer, predicted the supply chain hiccups which have hampered the distribution of tests and medicine in the state would vanish before the end of the year.
"Come this fall diagnostic testing will be widely accessible" predicted Gottlieb. "And the therapeutics will be widely accessible, where people will be able to obtain them through a normal retail distribution system."
That's just as well, as we're going to need them, according to Gottlieb. On the back end of the pandemic, he said "we're going to have a very big flu season. Superimpose some level of COVID spread ... in the wintertime, on top of a bad flu season, and that can be an extreme burden on the health care system. This is going to a challenge going forward, from a public health standpoint."
Currently, the highest number of the hospitalized —545 — are in Hartford County.
COVID-19 infections in the state have dropped over three-and-a-quarter percentage points overnight, to 13.29 percent, according to the latest DPH data.
The daily coronavirus positivity rate is a function of the number of tests compared to the number of cases confirmed positive each day. Overnight, 4,805 positive cases were logged, out of 36,158 tests taken. The numbers of tests and cases confirmed do not include those taken with at-home self-test kits.
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Instructions on how to get COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters in Connecticut are available online, as is a list of walk-up clinics sponsored by DPH.
This article originally appeared on the Danbury Patch
