Gov. Ned Lamont touted Connecticut’s continued downward trending COVID-19 case metrics on Thursday, May 6, noting that the state’s positivity rate was under 2% (1.92%) and one-day hospitalizations had fallen by nine patients (to 324 total). There were 711 new COVID-19 cases reported, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 342,282 cases statewide.

In one day there were only seven fatalities reported, a low data point that Lamont called “another example [that] vaccines work.”

“It’s worth remembering that in all of these fatalities, 99% are folks who have not been vaccinated, 99-plus, and it’s also worth noting that this was the first week in over a year where there was not one fatality in any of our nursing homes,” he said. “For that, we were really thankful.”

He also referred to the new map of Connecticut (main image, above) showing the two-week rolling average daily case rate in towns across the state, and described a much more positive story showing the efficacy of vaccinations.

He noted that the towns with the lowest average case rates were credited earlier this week as being the “most likely to be vaccinated, and those that had over 70, 75, 80% of their people vaccinated. “A lot of those towns [with] the highest vaccination rates, they have the lowest infection rates.”

Lamont also said that since last week there were fewer towns categorized as “red,” with an average of 15 or more cases per 100,000 people. “So you can see enormous progress there.”

The governor gave a special shout out to Danbury, which he said “has been red hot in terms of COVID infections now for some months,” but that was now categorized as orange. “That’s an example of a progress and showing that the vaccinations work.”

Like its neighbor to the north, Wilton too was recategoried from red to orange this week, with the CT Department of Public Health reporting a two-week rolling average of 12.8 cases per 100,000 people for the town as of May 1, 2021.

Yesterday’s one-day new case count for Wilton was four new cases, bringing the total since the pandemic’s start to 1,216.

[Editor’s note:  GOOD Morning Wilton has a more updated figure as of May 6, 2021. Wilton currently is still at a two-week average of 12.8 cases/100,000, although the town’s average very briefly dipped to 10.9 cases/100,000–much closer to the yellow and the lowest the case numbers have been since October 2020.]

The state is also remarkably close to an important vaccination rate goal, according to the governor. President Joe Biden has set July 4 as his goal date for administering at least one vaccine dose to 70% of the American public.

While Lamont said CT isn’t at that goal number yet, he expects to meet that goal very soon.

“I think tomorrow we’ll get there. We just have a few hundred more of you to go. So we’ll be able to say, ‘Mr. President, appreciate your July 4th goal. We’re already there and we’re going to keep going,’” he predicted.

Lamont expects the FDA will expand approval for younger people (age 12-15) to be vaccinated, something he believes will happen at a meeting of the FDA next Wednesday, May 12.

When that happens, Lamont said the state will keep mass vaccination centers open, especially on weekends, “because that’s easiest for mom or dad to get you there, help people get vaccinated, make a big push for 12 to 15 year olds.”

He added that the state will order extra vaccine doses in anticipation of the FDA change.