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Latest COVID-19 Map From The State Shows Uptick In The Valley

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Posted to: Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, COVID-19 News & Announcements

The Nov. 19 COVID-19 map from the state.

Derby’s average daily rate of new COVID-19 cases during the past two weeks jumped from 34.2 to 57.6, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Health.

The data shows Derby had the highest per capita COVID-19 rate in the lower Valley between Nov. 1 and Nov. 14. Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Naugatuck and Seymour are all in the 50s, too.

The actual raw number of cases is a few paragraphs below. Click here for a story looking at data provided by the Naugatuck Valley Health District over the last month.

State and local officials, as they have since COVID-19 was first recognized in Connecticut in March, are urging people to keep their social circles small, especially with Thanksgiving approaching.

People should wear masks and wash hands. See the image below to arrange for a COVID-19 test without a doctor’s order.

State officials said hospital capacity statewide is about 50 percent, and is not a concern at this moment.

State data shows that Shady Knoll, a nursing home in Seymour, had eight confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death between Nov. 11 and Nov. 17. There were no such cases reported in similar facilities in Shelton.

In a Tweet, Hartford Courant Reporter Alex Putterman, citing new state data, pointed out Thursday Derby had the eighth highest per capita rate in the state during the first two weeks of November.

Back in October, the state created a tiered COVID-19 warning system and visualized it with a color-coded map. Towns and cities shown in red were COVID-19 high alert towns, where the daily per capita rates exceeded 15 cases.

First there were 11 towns, then 30, then 68, then 100 — and now 145, according to the latest interactive map.

According to Gov. Ned Lamont, 96 percent of the population lives in a COVID-19 ​“red zone” community.

Here is a look at the ​“red zone” communities in the Naugatuck Valley. The latest rate, in italics, covers Nov. 1 through Nov. 14.

Ansonia
52.3 per 100,000 population
137 cases
95 cases in period previously reported
Per capita rate was 36.2 on Nov. 12, 27.1 on Nov. 5 and 19.5 on Oct. 29

Beacon Falls
53.1
46 cases in latest report
Rate was 24.3 on Nov. 12, 8.1 on Nov. 5

Derby
57.6
101 cases reported
57 cases in previously period reported
Rate was 34.2 on Nov. 12, 17.1 on Nov. 5 and 12.6 on Oct. 29

Naugatuck
57.5
247 cases
150 cases in previously reported period
Rate was 34.2 on Nov. 12, 19.2 on Nov. 5

Oxford
29.2
54 cases
29 cases in previously reported period
Rate was 15.7 on Nov. 12, 10.3 on Nov. 5

Seymour
51.1
118 cases
74 cases in previously period reported
Rate was 32 on Nov. 12, 17.7 on Nov. 5 and 14.3 on Oct. 29

Shelton
41.7
240 cases
152 cases in previously period reported
Rate was 26.4 on Nov. 12, 15.5 on Nov. 5

The new COVID-19 map reinforces the fact Connecticut is in a second COVID-19 wave.

The statewide positivity rate Nov. 19 was 6.5 percent. The rolling one-week average is 5.8 percent. There were 21 COVID-19 associated deaths between Wednesday and Thursday, according to the state.

Gov. Lamont has repeatedly said schools should continue with in-person learning as long as students can be kept safe. He said schools, especially the lower grades, are not thought to be spreading the virus at the same rate as places such as restaurants or gyms.

However, state guidance also advises school districts to take a hard look at remote learning once the per capita transmission rate goes into the red zone.

Ansonia and Seymour schools are online until January. Derby Public Schools is in-person (with a remote option). Derby schools are planning to go online Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as a way to test out its online learning system, Superintendent Matthew Conway said.

It could prove to be a good idea. In March, COVID-19 entered Connecticut through New York and into Fairfield County, and then into New Haven County (which currently has the highest number of COVID-19 patients in the state).

Last week’s Bridgeport rate positivity rate per 100,000 was 52.3 (similar to what Ansonia, Derby and Seymour are, as of this writing). However, Bridgeport’s rate jumped to 77.7 in Thursday’s data.

How To Calculate Average Da… by The Valley Indy

In an interview Nov. 13 with The Valley Indy, Dr. Frederick Browne, the chief medical officer at Griffin Hospital, pointed out that Connecticut has greatly increased COVID-19 testing since the pandemic hit the state last spring. That partly explains the increase in positive cases. He said the people who are coming into the hospital now are less sick than the people who needed help last spring.

About 20 percent of admissions at Griffin Hospital are people coming in for COVID-19 (as of Nov. 20).

“In April, people were coming into the hospital and they were really sick — to the point where they were going into the intensive care unit, and a lot of people had to be put on ventilators,” he said. ​“People were dying. I can tell you that this second wave is not looking as bad, at least right now. We are having a lot of positivity, but we’re having a lot of people who are coming into the hospital and a lot of people who are being discharged within a few days.”

The number of positive cases in the lower Valley increased by 879 cases since Oct. 16, a 44.3 percent one-month increase.

The previous month — Sept. 16 to Oct. 16 — saw 173 new cases, a 9.5 percent monthly increase.

The number of people getting COVID-19 tests is on the increase, too, according to state data reviewed by The Valley Indy.

On Oct. 15, 28,772 had been tested in the NVHD jurisdiction. On Nov. 17, an additional 9,892 people had been tested, a 34.3 percent increase.

The complete Nov. 13 interview with Dr. Browne is embedded below.

Press the play button to listen.

From a Gov. Lamont press release:

The Connecticut Department of Public Health today released its weekly COVID-19 Alert Map, which indicates that 145 cities and towns in Connecticut are now in the red zone alert level, the highest of the state’s four alert levels. They are:

• Andover*

• Ansonia

• Ashford*

• Beacon Falls

• Berlin

• Bethany*

• Bethel

• Bethlehem

• Bloomfield

• Bozrah

• Branford

• Bridgeport

• Bristol

• Brookfield

• Brooklyn

• Burlington*

• Canterbury*

• Chaplin

• Cheshire

• Chester*

• Clinton

• Colchester*

• Coventry*

• Cromwell

• Danbury

• Darien*

• Deep River

• Derby

• Durham

• East Granby

• East Haddam*

• East Hampton

• East Hartford

• East Haven

• East Lyme*

• East Windsor

• Easton

• Enfield*

• Essex

• Fairfield

• Farmington*

• Franklin

• Glastonbury*

• Goshen

• Greenwich

• Griswold

• Groton

• Guilford*

• Haddam*

• Hamden

• Hampton

• Hartford

• Harwinton*

• Hebron*

• Kent*

• Killingly

• Killingworth

• Lebanon*

• Ledyard

• Lisbon*

• Litchfield*

• Madison*

• Manchester

• Mansfield*

• Marlborough*

• Meriden

• Middlebury

• Middlefield

• Middletown

• Milford

• Monroe

• Montville*

• Morris*

• Naugatuck

• New Britain

• New Canaan

• New Fairfield

• New Hartford*

• New Haven

• New London

• New Milford

• Newington

• Newtown

• North Branford

• North Canaan*

• North Haven

• North Stonington

• Norwalk

• Norwich

• Old Lyme*

• Old Saybrook*

• Orange

• Oxford

• Plainfield

• Plainville

• Plymouth

• Pomfret*

• Portland

• Preston

• Prospect

• Putnam*

• Redding

• Ridgefield*

• Rocky Hill

• Roxbury*

• Salem*

• Salisbury*

• Seymour

• Shelton

• Sherman

• Somers*

• South Windsor*

• Southbury

• Southington

• Sprague

• Stamford

• Sterling*

• Stonington*

• Stratford

• Suffield*

• Thomaston

• Tolland

• Torrington

• Trumbull

• Vernon*

• Wallingford

• Washington

• Waterbury

• Waterford

• Watertown

• West Hartford

• West Haven

• Westbrook

• Weston

• Westport

• Wethersfield

• Willington

• Wilton

• Windham

• Windsor

• Windsor Locks

• Wolcott

• Woodbridge*

• Woodbury

• Woodstock*

*Newly added to the red-level alert list this week

There are no municipalities in the state that were in the red zone last week and were downgraded to a lower alert level this week.

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