Connecticut’s coronavirus infection rate has climbed to its highest level since June, Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday, urging residents to be disciplined “a little bit longer.”
The Democrat said the percentage of people infected among those tested was 3%, up from 1.7% on Monday. Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 grew by 22 patients, for a total of 217.
“Connecticut is not an island unto itself,” said Lamont, noting that infection rates are increasing in surrounding states and across the U.S. “That tells you it’s going to take a little bit longer for us to get through this. A little bit longer (until) the therapies and vaccines are able to give us some security on the backside of COVID.”
Meanwhile, Lamont backed off from comments he made Monday about a plan to change the benchmarks for when state residents and out-of-state travelers coming from states and territories with high infection rates must quarantine for 14 days.
Lamont said he and the governors of New York and New Jersey have decided there will be no advisory for travel among the three states.
“Rather than change the metrics overall, it made a lot more sense to say, ‘Within our three states, let’s treat it as one region. We’ll be able to travel between each other,’” Lamont said during a news conference in Windsor about grants for small businesses.
Lamont said he planned to reach out to Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well, noting they are also part of a region where people frequently cross state borders.
“That said, (we) urge everybody to stay close at home as best you can. No need to do nonessential travel,” Lamont said. For the rest of the country, he said, the existing metric will be kept in place, which is 10 cases per 100,000 population, or 10% positivity rates.
Lamont had said Monday that the benchmark would be changed to 10 cases per 100,000 and 5% positivity rates, given the fact Connecticut had exceeded the 10 cases per 100,000 criterion.
As of Tuesday, there have been 4,559 COVID-associated deaths in Connecticut, an increase of five since Monday.
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