Lamont sees next few weeks as critical period as schools open

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By Paul Hughes, Republican-American

HARTFORD — With the positive test rate rising past 4%, Gov. Ned Lamont described the next three weeks as another critical period in the COVID-19 outbreak as public and private schools across the state reopen to students.

In the last school year, there were 23,656 cases of COVID-19 among students reported between Oct. 8, 2020 and June 23, and 7,288 among staff members, according to state figures.

Lamont said Tuesday one of his top priorities is keeping schools open and operating safely as the state continues to grapple with the coronavirus.

The governor is continuing to require that all students, staff and visitors wear masks inside school buildings regardless of vaccination status. Children younger than age 12 are ineligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Lamont also ordered that teachers and staff at pre-K to 12th-grade schools statewide must receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27. Others who opt out or qualify for medical or religious exemptions will be required to be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.

Lamont said the next two to three weeks will be a crucial time as students and staff start the 2021-22 school year.

“I’ve got a lot of folks going back to school. I’ve been pretty strict about wearing the masks, especially for that group that can’t get vaccinated. I want the teachers all vaccinated,” he said. “There is nothing more important than getting our kids back to school. I’m not going to have a lost year.”

Lamont told reporters during a mid-day news conference he was encouraged that the recent surge due to the delta variant of the coronavirus appeared to have leveled off in the last two weeks.

“We’ll see what that means,” he said. “I hope it means we’re back to a new normal, kids are back in school safely, businesses are open, people are being cautious, wearing the masks when they got to wear the masks. But we don’t have enough people vaccinated right now. We’re the best in the country, but we’ve got a ways to go.”

Nearly 85% of Connecticut’s population age 12 and older are partially vaccinated, and almost 76% are fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“If I get another 10% of you vaccinated, it is safe, it is appropriate, it keeps you out of trouble, it keeps your family out of trouble — do it,” Lamont said.

State health officials reported later Tuesday the state’s positive test rate was close to 4.7%. There were 1,003 new cases of COVID-19 out of 21,582 test results that were received.

There now have been 373,072 cases reported since March 2020, and more than 10.4 million molecular and antigen tests have been performed.

There was a net decline of 17 patients hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 to 363 statewide, including 120 patients in Hartford County, 107 patients in New Haven County and 84 patients in Fairfield County.

There were an additional 14 COVID-19 cases reported in Naugatuck and two each in Prospect and Beacon Falls from Monday. There have been 3,826 cases in Naugatuck, 1,031 in Prospect and 627 in Beacon Falls since last March, according to health officials.

There have been 95 coronavirus-associated deaths in Naugatuck, six in Beacon Falls and five in Prospect.

Elio Gugliotti contributed to this article.