Young Adults Continue Coronavirus Trend In CT

CONNECTICUT — The rate of coronavirus infections among young adults continues to be a large driver of cases in the state.

There were 257 recorded cases among people between the ages of 20 and 29 years old between Sept. 6 and 12, according to the state Department of Public Health. That’s about a quarter of the 1,027 cases recorded between those dates.

The 20 to 29 age bracket has represented the largest number of cases per capita in Connecticut since at least the week of July 2, according to DPH data. The average daily rate per 100,000 population for the age bracket was slightly above 5 for the week of July 2. In recent weeks it has jumped above 7.5 per 100,000.

The rate jumped up in the week beginning Aug. 13, which coincides with the beginning return of many college students to campus. Colleges and universities implemented wide scale testing for students upon return to campus.

Related: CT Coronavirus Metrics Take Concerning Turn

"I think it's been well-documented at this point that there has been a number of cases at UConn there's been some at Central [Connecticut State University," said state COO Josh Geballe. "Those seem contained at this point... but those do drive case numbers."

There hasn't been a single driving factor for the state's recent uptick in cases, Geballe said, but there have been smaller events.

The state is keeping a close eye on Danbury, which saw a slight uptick in cases during the past week, said state COO Josh Geballe. There is also a close eye on New Britain because of CCSU and Mansfield due to UConn.

The University of Connecticut has performed more than 9,900 cumulative resident student tests at its Storrs campus and has identified 130 positive results. The residential student population is around 5,000 and some students have been tested multiple times. The school is reporting 33 active cases as of Sept. 18.

CCSU has had a total of 63 cases between Aug. 16 and Sept. 12. The largest subset came from students commuting from New Britain with 28 cases.

Sacred Heart University in Fairfield has reported 67 cumulative coronavirus cases since Aug. 27 and 34 in the past seven days. There were six new cases on Sept. 17. The school had students test prior to matriculation and reported 16 positive cases out of nearly 7,000 tests; those students weren’t allowed to come to campus. The school announced it would quarantine an entire residence hall after a mislabeled test.

Yale University has one of the most robust testing strategies out of any Connecticut higher education institution. The school tested nearly 6,200 school community members in the past seven days and found two positive cases.

People between 10 and 19 years old and 30 and 39 years old are the next highest brackets per capita with slightly above 5 cases per 100,000 during the week of Sept. 10.

There were 171 cases for people between the ages of 10 and 19 years old and 169 cases for people between 30 and 39 years old.

Most of Connecticut’s public schools have reopened in recent weeks. As of Thursday there were 48 cases among K-12 students and 27 among staff out of a total school population of around 600,000, Geballe said. Those figures include students and staff who haven't set foot in classrooms.

Generally schools don’t have to close after a single case, especially at the K-8 level where cohorting of classrooms is possible, Lamont said. In those instances only a single classroom may need to self-quarantine.

More than a dozen schools have closed after cases were identified. Recently Hillcrest Middle School in Trumbull had to close after around 70 students and staff had to quarantine after an identified case. Local health officials admitted that contact tracing within a school was difficult and therefore they erred on the side of caution, according to the Connecticut Post.