Nearly 300 Connecticut residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Public Health. That’s the highest number since around February 1.
The state averages about 55 new coronavirus patients per week. Just over a third of patients with COVID-19 are unvaccinated in Connecticut.
Much of the state — 158 of 169 municipalities — is in red zone alert level, meaning more than 15 people for every 100,000 have tested positive in the past week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state health department issued guidance last week to suggest indoor masking in New Haven, Hartford and Middlesex counties where infection rates are the highest.
As of April, negative rapid antigen and rapid PCR test results, including at-home tests, are no longer required to be reported to the state. Positive laboratory test results are still required to be reported.
“Test positivity currently is not the same thing as it once was. Everybody sees that. And the major thing that it's offering us right now is a trajectory,” said Dr. Manisha Juthani, the state’s public health commissioner.
“The main metric that we are following are the community levels,” she said. “So it's the CDCs COVID community levels. And what we look at is the number of new cases of COVID-19, along with its impact on the hospital system.”
Connecticut hospitals are at about 77.8% bed capacity with 4.3% of the beds occupied by coronavirus patients, according to hospital records reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Juthani also said there will not be a call for mask mandates despite a surge in cases.
“We have all the tools in place to be able to try to keep that hospitalization number down and keep it low enough so that our health care systems can manage the flow of patients that are coming in,” Juthani said.
