Case Prevalence Per 10,000, By Town
For the week ending August 5
Coronavirus clusters in two very different areas, prisons in northern Connecticut and teenage parties in rural eastern Connecticut, are helping drive recent increases in case numbers. Both of these clusters are plainly visible on this week’s case prevalence map, which measures case numbers per 10,000 people in each town.
The prison cluster is in Enfield and Somers, the location of the Robinson and Osborn Correctional Centers. These two prisons were the first sites of a mandatory testing program begun two weeks ago. Sixty-four inmates and three staff members tested positive. That works out to an 8% positive rate among prisoners, which is far higher than Connecticut’s overall case positivity of 0.7%.
Clearly community spread among prisoners continues to be a serious problem. As testing moves to other prison facilities around the state, we will unfortunately see the same sort of pattern repeat. Prisons in Montville and Brooklyn, among others, saw high numbers of cases during the last round of testing.
The other cluster of COVID-19 cases is visible in several towns in northeastern Connecticut, with Woodstock and Brooklyn being some of the hardest hit. Officials are tracing these cases back to young adults throwing parties and getting together.
The spread of the disease among a younger population may cause officials in that part of the state to think twice about fully reopening schools at the end of this month.
As for the rest of the state, case prevalence remains fairly low. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who joined Gov. Ned Lamont during a virtual press conference this week, has said Connecticut is in “a good place” when it comes to containing the virus. Fauci believes that Connecticut’s case prevalence is so low that reopening the schools for in-person learning is possible.
Connecticut’s overall case numbers are continuing to tick upwards from their June low point, but the progression remains slow. Rising case numbers in neighboring Rhode Island are a source of concern, however, as are devastating outbreaks across much of the rest of the country.
Rhode Island was recently added to Connecticut’s mandatory 14-day quarantine list for travelers. Their experience should provide a necessary lesson on just how quickly this disease can return if we let our guard down.
There was no map last week because of a large amount of case data from May that was only released in late July. That data would have made it very difficult to illustrate the current situation in the state. However, here is the July 22 map for comparison.
Case Prevalence Per 10,000, By Town
For the week ending July 22
Susan Bigelow is an award-winning columnist and the founder of CTLocalPolitics. She lives in Enfield with her wife and their cats.
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