The Naugatuck Valley Health District reported 17 new COVID-19 cases between Thursday and Friday, according to a report issued Friday evening.
The majority of the new cases were in Shelton, where 10 new positive tests were reported.
Naugatuck picked up three cases, Ansonia and Seymour each picked up two new cases.
The 17 positive tests did not necessarily all happen between Thursday and Friday. There can be a lag in test reporting.
However, the NVHD’s Friday report shows 17 new cases compared to the NVHD report issued Thursday.
On Friday, Shelton Schools Superintendent Beth Smith announced the city’s high school and intermediate schools were switching to online learning because of single COVID-19 infections in each school, according to the Shelton Herald. A positive test was also reported at the Perry School.
Smith said that 19 staffers overall — six at Perry Hill School, eight at Shelton High and five at Shelton Intermediate — are under quarantine after the respective community members were announced to have tested positive.
The latest NVHD report, issued Friday at 7:50 p.m., shows the COVID-19 cases reported between Thursday and Friday are skewing younger when compared to local infections earlier this year.
Here is an age breakdown of the 17 new cases:
10 – 19: 5
20 – 29: 2
30 – 39: 3
40 – 49: 5
50 – 59: 2
In total, 31 new COVID-19 cases were reported between Tuesday and Friday within the NVHD’s jurisdiction. There have been 1,912 positive COVID-19 cases since March.
The NVHD has not reported a COVID-19 associated death within its jurisdiction since July 31. Overall, 244 people have died locally since the virus arrived in Connecticut in early March.
The number of positive cases within the NVHD’s jurisdiction has grown by 125 cases since Sept. 8.
By comparison, the state Department of Health issued a COVID-19 advisory for the City of New London this week saying that “between Sept. 20 and Oct. 3, New London recorded at least 115 new COVID-19 cases to raise the daily case rate to 30.5 per 100,000 population, one of the highest in the state.”
New London is home to about 27,000 people. The NVHD’s jurisdiction includes more than 120,000 people.
The NVHD’s jurisdiction includes Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Seymour, and Shelton. Oxford is within the Pomperaug Health District.
In the bigger picture, COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and the positivity rate have all increased over two weeks in Connecticut, according to The Hartford Courant.
While the positivity rate of 1.7 percent is much better than other parts of the U.S., the metric is creeping upward.
The rate was just under 1 percent over the summer.
The chart below is from a state database. The data was released Friday, Oct. 8. It covers Sept. 27, 2020 to Oct. 3, 2020, the latest available date range.
The chart shows, from left, to right:
A town or city
New cases over a 7‑day period
New COVID cases per 100k population in the last week
Number of COVID-19 tests in the last week
Percent test positivity
Reporting date
Update date (when the data was uploaded)
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator, appeared in Connecticut this week urging people to wear masks and to follow social distance guidelines. She noted the task force is keeping an eye on New England, where the COVID-19 metrics are creeping upward.
According to the COVID-19 online dashboard maintained by Johns Hopkins University, there have been 4,530 COVID-19 related deaths in Connecticut and 9,522 recoveries.
Misinformation about the virus continues to spread online, including on local Facebook pages, where “facts” about the virus often depend on the writer’s political view. This week a Derby resident posted the widely debunked claim that all U.S. deaths are now reported as associated to COVID-19. Not true.
The NVHD report issued 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9 is embedded below (please note the date listed on the top of the document is a mistake).
Oct 9 Nvhd Covid-19 Update by The Valley Indy on Scribd
