Spread of COVID-19 cases continue to slow in state

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By Paul Hughes, Republican-American

HARTFORD — Public health officials on Wednesday reported only 14 more patients tested positive for coronavirus disease since Tuesday as the spread of COVID-19 continues to slow in Connecticut.

There now have been 43,954 laboratory-confirmed cases and another 1,959 probable cases involving untested patients showing symptoms of the disease since the first established case was reported on March 8.

Nearly 90% of all confirmed and probable cases occurred in Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven counties. The three counties accounted for 40,294 total cases.

There have been 16,327 total cases reported in Fairfield County, 12,227 in New Haven County and 11,540 in New Haven County.

In contrast, fourth-ranked Litchfield County had 1,273 confirmed and probable cases. The 588 cases reported in Windham County in eastern Connecticut was the lowest of the eight counties.

The hospitalization rate also continued to decline. There was a net drop of 14 patients between COVID-19 admissions and discharges to 124 statewide.

The Department of Public Health reported 10 more coronavirus-associated deaths since Tuesday.

There have been 3,423 confirmed deaths of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 before they died, and 842 probable deaths of untested people whose death certificates list COVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.

The three counties that led in infections also had the highest death tolls. There have been 1,370 fatalities in Fairfield County, 1,356 in Hartford County and 1,066 in New Haven County.

Public health officials reported receiving 1,175 test results since Tuesday. They also advised that 2,770 previously reported test results were removed due to correction of data errors.

Day-to-day changes in COVID-19 statistics reflect newly reported cases, deaths and tests that occurred over the last several days to week. All data in the daily reports are preliminary, and data for previous dates are updated as new reports are received and data errors are corrected.

The corrected report Wednesday said there now have been 400,391 tests reported. This total includes multiple tests of the same patient or specimen in accordance with guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY HEALTH DISTRICT reported Wednesday there have been 375 confirmed cases in Naugatuck — one higher than Tuesday — and 48 in Beacon Falls. The number of cases in Beacon Falls has stayed flat for more than two weeks.

As of Friday, the Chesprocott Health District reported there had been 67 cases in Prospect and no coronavirus-related deaths in town.

Elio Gugliotti contributed to this report.