Vanderslice: No Question–Wilton’s 4th of July Celebration is Canceled

During last night’s Board of Selectmen meeting, First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice acknowledged a tough consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic:  a gathering the size of Wilton’s July 4th celebration would be impossible to allow.

“Most towns have canceled it,” she said, adding that based on Gov. Ned Lamont’s plan to reopen the state in gradual phases, the town wouldn’t be able to hold its traditional Independence Day celebration.

“”We’re already quite a bit into phase one because a lot of things weren’t closed. You stay in phase one for a minimum of four weeks. Every phase is a minimum of four weeks, it could be longer. Certainly if we’re just moving to phase two, phase two will certainly not include something like this, so there’s no question that the fireworks and the celebration that goes on at the high school is canceled,” she said, to which no one objected.

Vanderslice also wrote about needing to cancel the official event in her nightly update to residents on the town’s response to the coronavirus health crisis.

In that update, as always, she included the current case data for the state and Wilton, noting that the virus continues to spread.

“In the last five days, Fairfield County cases have grown by 1,260. In the prior five days, case growth was 758. Case growth is trending in the wrong direction,” she said, encouraging residents to continue social distancing measures and “behav[ing] as if you have the virus and as if those around you do as well.”

She gave other statistics:  “Today, the CT Department of Public Health reported 29,973 laboratory-confirmed statewide cases. This included new cases for yesterday and today; 67% of new cases, as reported, were in Fairfield County, bringing the Fairfield County total to 12,245, with 162 in Wilton. The growth in Fairfield County cases was fueled by Stamford, which has 292 new cases, or 44% of today’s statewide case growth; 312 cases have not yet been assigned to a municipality. Statewide, deaths rose by 61 to 2,556 and to 910 in Fairfield County.” [Editor’s note:  emphasis as in the original]