Reporting on the State of Connecticut’s Summary of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and tests.
The State of Connecticut’s COVID-19 metric report is now issued five times per week, every Monday through Friday. The report that is issued each Monday contains combined data that was collected on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This schedule will remain in effect until further notice. Therefore, there will not be updates over the weekend.
A complete listing of all COVID-19 cases and analyses by age, hospitalizations, deaths, towns and county is reported by the Connecticut State Department of Health. This information can be found by following the link below:
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Coronavirus/CTDPHCOVID19summary9112020.pdf
LOCAL RESULTS
Total Reported
To Date Change from Probable
Yesterday Cases
Westport Residents COVID-19 Positive Reported to the State 347 +6 14
Weston Residents COVID-19 Positive Reported to the State 86 +0 3
Town specific COVID-19 Tests, Cases, and Deaths can be found at the following link:
https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-Tests-Cases-and-Deaths-By-Town-/28fr-iqnx
Positive COVID-19 Cases and Contact Tracing:
As schools begin reopening, there have been many reported cases of positive COVID-19 cases in either students or staff; Westport is no exception. When a case comes to the attention of school and public health officials time was needed to assess the situation and evaluate risk to students and staff. In some case, a decision is made to close a school for the day as a precaution while this evaluation takes place.
It is against the law to provide any information that could possibly identify a positive case. But as in any such situation, school officials working with the school’s medical advisor, school nurse and public health officials undertake a careful review of what is known; the who, what, where, and when of everyone who may be have had contact with the case. The school’s mitigating strategies are assessed and discussed; was everyone 6 ft apart, was everyone wearing a mask, how long was someone in the same area, etc.
After the risk assessment is complete, a determination of who may be at an increased risk for transmission is made and who should be considered a case contact. All case contacts are then contacted directly by public health contact tracers who inform them of the increased risk, may be advised to get tested themselves and told to self isolate for up to 14 days.
Unless notified by a contact tracer and told to self isolate, there is no reason to exclude anyone from pre-schools, day care centers, schools or anywhere else. Of course it is imperative that parents who are told to self isolate a child, siblings, or the whole family, do so. Everyone of us has the responsibility to help reduce the risk of transmitting COVID19 where ever we go. One of the most important messages for everyone to remember is to stay home if you don’t feel well. Wouldn’t you want someone do the same to help protect your health?
The Westport Weston Health District works with Connecticut’s statewide confidential software system for monitoring the health and wellbeing of people affected by COVID-19. The information collected in contact tracing is used to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
All WWHD staff and volunteers have completed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention training prior to performing COVID-19 contact tracing. The majority of volunteers are a medical professional of some kind (Nurse Practitioner, Medical Doctor, Registered Nurse, or Medical Assistant) and/or is a member of our Medical Reserve Corp.
Each public health jurisdiction in Connecticut is informed by the State Department of Public Health of a suspected or active COVID-19 case in their jurisdiction. The WWHD is a Health District which serves both Westport and Weston, thus it is our responsibility to contact residents in both.
WWHD staff then contacts that person and asks multiple survey questions using the State provided assessment outline. The survey collects basic information on symptoms, the ability to self-isolate, and assesses unmet needs (such as access to food, housing, healthcare, etc.), to connect people who are being asked to isolate with the resources needed to be successful. All information collected will remain confidential, and contacts who are identified will not be given information on cases (such as the person who may have exposed them).
If a positive COVID-19 person informs the interviewing WWHD staff member of another person that may have been exposed to them and that places that person at risk, **per CDC recommendations, then the WWHD contacts that new person(s) at risk. If the person is not a Westport or Weston resident, we inform other local health departments via the CT DPH software and their own town of residence public health agency performs that contact tracing.
Learn more about contact tracing:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/contact-tracing.html
**For COVID-19, a close contact is defined as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to positive specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated. The public health evaluation of close contacts to patients with laboratory-confirmed or probable COVID-19 may vary depending on the exposure setting. Contacts in special populations and/or congregate settings require additional considerations and may need handoff to a senior health department investigator or special team.
We appreciate the public’s cooperation if contacted, as we must all work together to slow the spread.