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 contains combined data that was collected on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
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/CTDPHCOVID19summary9212020.pdf
LOCAL RESULTS
Total Reported
To Date Change from Probable
Yesterday Cases
Westport Residents COVID-19 Positive Reported to the State 357* +2 16
Weston Residents COVID-19 Positive Reported to the State 87* +1 4
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
School Age COVID19 Cases
Area schools have been in session for a couple of weeks and, as expected, there have been reports of COVID positive cases in some school communities. The WWHD has received a number of calls from residents concerned and not sure about what they should do if someone in their school tests positive. To clarify:
- When a suspect COVID19 positive case is reported to the Health District or school administration, contact with the suspect positive individual is made by a public health contact tracer or school’s nursing staff to verify information and start the process to identify any close contacts. Close contacts are individuals that have been within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes. Contact tracing is a process and does take time.
- Each situation must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. There are too many variables to make overly broad decisions.
- 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 school nurses or public health contact tracers who inform them of the increased risk, are advised to get tested themselves and told to self-isolate for up to 14 days.
- Unless directly notified by a contact tracer and told to self-isolate, there is no reason to exclude anyone else 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. Every one of us has the responsibility to help reduce the risk of transmitting COVID19 wherever 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?
- Please note that 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. The information collected in contact tracing is used to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
- 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. All cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients gets reported to Connecticut’s COVID19 data system. All cases confirmed by laboratory results will also get a call from a public health contact tracer to verify information and make sure instructions for reducing spread are clear.
- “Cohorts” are groups of students and staff within a school building who interact mostly only with each other. It is not unusual for a school to dismiss a class or ask an entire cohort of a positive case to quarantine and get tested. A school may even go to remote learning for a day or two while important information is obtained about the best course of action to keep students and staff safe.
- Contacts of contacts do not need to quarantine.
The mitigation strategies in the schools continue to be strong and the hybrid structure allows the schools to identify cohorts, isolate them through quarantine, and work to contain the spread of the virus in our schools and communities. Your cooperation and patience is appreciated as the schools and public health work through the process.