Connecticut on Thursday reported 34 deaths from COVID-19 over the past week, the most in a seven-day period since mid-May, as the state continues to see high levels of viral transmission.
Over the past week, Connecticut has recorded 4,849 cases of COVID-19 from 40,165 tests, with a positivity rate of 12.1 percent. Cases and the positivity rate have increased in recent weeks amid the spread of the BA.5 subvariant and are currently at or near their highest levels in months.
As of Thursday, Connecticut has 325 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 27 fewer than last week, but still more than at most previous points this summer.
Due to the arrival of increasingly contagious subvariants, what once looked like it might be a low-COVID-19 summer in Connecticut has seen tens of thousands of infections, hundreds of hospitalizations and dozens of deaths. The current wave of COVID-19 began in mid-June and has been growing gradually since then. In recent weeks, the number of cases and the state’s positivity rate appear to have stabilized, but have not yet begun to decline.
Deaths, which tend to lag other metrics by several weeks, have spiked recently, with the state reporting 28 last week and 34 more this week. While these totals are much lower than during the worst of the pandemic, they are higher than during relatively stable periods like last summer.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “community levels” map, Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex and Litchfield counties currently have “medium” levels of COVID-19, while the other four counties of Connecticut have “low” levels.
According to the CDC’s more stringent “community transmission” map, all eight Connecticut counties have high levels of transmission.
alex.putterman@hearstmediact.com