COVID-19 positive case numbers continue to rise dramatically along with hospitalizations across Connecticut, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the Omicron variant is now the dominant strain in the United States.
In Wilton there were 37 new COVID cases reported for the four days from Friday, Dec. 17-Monday, Dec. 20 — the same total number of cases for the entire month of October. Of the 37 new cases, 24 were from the weekend and 13 were from Monday.
Public health officials use the two-week rolling average case count (per 100,000) as a metric to compare the infection rates between towns. Wilton’s two-week rolling average is now 34.74 cases — the highest it’s been since the first week of February 2021. (see main chart)
Looking at the weekly tallies in the Wilton Public Schools since the start of the school year (see chart below), it’s clear the number of cases in the district have noticeably jumped. The district’s COVID-19 page shows 20 new COVID cases this week so far, including 12 new cases on Tuesday, Dec. 21. As of Tuesday, at 4:05 p.m., there are 43 people with COVID in the district, and 97 students in quarantine after close contact with a positive individual.
The news is a marked change when compared to the first two weeks of November when there were no cases in the schools at all. Superintendent Kevin Smith called the trend “unsettling” in an email to parents Monday that urged them to keep children showing any symptoms at home and consider COVID testing.
Testing, Testing, Testing
Public demand for COVID testing is high throughout Connecticut. Appointments are difficult to come by and stores sell out of personal home testing kits as quickly as they stock them.
On Tuesday, data from the CT Department of Public Health showed 66,803 tests were performed the day before, and 6,000 new positive cases. That pushed the state’s one-day test positivity to 9%, a number Gov. Ned Lamont told reporters was “staggering.”
According to the Hartford Courant, the state has only reached 9% positivity three other times since the pandemic’s first wave in the spring of 2020.
“We have gone from one of the least infected [states] in the country to say about 13th nationwide,” Lamont lamented.
Wilton’s test positivity for Tuesday was 6.37%, much higher than the months of September through much of November, when the rate hovered below 1%.
“Fully Vaccinated”
Officials continue to stress the impact that vaccinations can have, both against the spread of the virus and how acute the illness can be for anyone who becomes infected.
According to state data, for the week beginning Dec. 5, 2021, people who are unvaccinated had a 5.5 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated individuals. Unvaccinated people also had a 20.1 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to fully vaccinated persons.
Lamont is stressing the importance of the booster, even advocating for a change in what people call it.
“Remember where we were 16 months ago when people were knocking on the door, desperate to get their first shot — feel the same way about the booster because they have almost as compelling an effect now in keeping you safe, especially for those folks over 65,” Lamont said, adding later, “And like I said, stop saying boosted. I call it getting fully vaccinated.”
Still, he told reporters Monday that he won’t sett any mandates requiring either vaccines, boosters or masks.
“I can pass a lot of laws and mandates and restrictions, but they’re only effective when people follow it. So that’s why I like to give that local discretion, they know their populations the best. And they’re the ones responsible for enforcing it,” Lamont said.
As a town, Wilton’s vaccination rates are very high — 88% of the total population has received at least one vaccine dose, and 78% has received two doses.
The impact on the healthcare system, as seen in the rise in hospitalizations, concerns public health officials. There are currently a total of 834 people hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Connecticut — 101 new patients were admitted over the weekend alone. According to the DPH, of those 834 patients, 627 (75.2%) are not fully vaccinated.
For Fairfield County, the number of hospitalized COVID patients stands at 176. The U.S. Health and Human Services Data Hub provides hospital utilization stats, including Fairfield County hospitals within a 20-mile range from Wilton:
- Norwalk Hospital: Inpatient beds — 80.8% full (32 beds available); ICU — 40% full (18 beds available)
- Stamford Hospital: Inpatient beds — 77% full (70 beds available); ICU — 66.7% full (16 beds available)
- St. Vincent’s Hospital (Bridgeport): Inpatient beds — 73.6% full (83 beds available); ICU — 16.7% full (55 beds available)
- Bridgeport Hospital: Inpatient beds — 78% full (103 beds available); ICU — 87.5% full (6 beds available)
- Danbury Hospital: Inpatient beds — 68.7% full (106 beds available); ICU — 41.1% full (33 beds available)
Dr. Cornelius Ferreira is the System Chief for Primary Care at Nuvance Health and the lead physician on the COVID-19 task force for all Nuvance hospitals, doctors’ offices and urgent care. He said that the Omicron surge will have an impact on the healthcare system beyond finding space for in-patient hospital care.
“Unless the variant really starts to overwhelm the systems, right now we’re able to maintain patient care. But we are seeing massive surges of symptomatic patients coming into our emergency rooms and urgent cares as well as our primary care practices. So there’s definitely an uptick in respiratory illnesses, both COVID-related, some influenza-related and other upper respiratory tract infections,” Ferreira told GOOD Morning Wilton.
Read our interview with Dr. Ferreira about how to stay safe during the holidays.
The problem of current staff shortages and overworked healthcare professionals could be compounded if medical personnel themselves become sick — a distinct possibility given the frequency of exposure and virulence of the Omicron variant.