HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut on Thursday reported 121 coronavirus-linked deaths over the past week, the most in a seven-day period in nearly a year.
COVID-19 deaths have not risen in Connecticut as quickly as cases and hospitalizations — a fact experts attribute to the success of vaccines in limiting severe illness — but have nonetheless increased during the state’s recent surge. Connecticut has now recorded 9,281 COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic, including 416 over the past six weeks.
The last time Connecticut reported more than 100 deaths in a single week was last February, at the tail end of last winter’s COVID-19 surge.
The recent increase in deaths comes as state’s coronavirus case counts and test positivity rate continue to hit all-time highs and hospitalizations approach record levels as well. On Thursday, the state reported a positivity rate above 20% for the fifth straight day, plus nearly 9,000 new cases and an increase of more than 100 hospitalizations.
Hospital officials say unvaccinated people, as well as vaccinated people who have not received booster shots, continue to account for the majority of COVID-19 patients, particularly in intensive care units.
“It still remains quite rare for a patient to be admitted to the hospital who is boosted against COVID,” Dr. Scott Roberts, associate medical director-infection prevention, Yale New Haven Health, said Thursday.
The United States has now recorded 833,146 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
Connecticut reported 8,823 new COVID-19 cases Thursday out of 38,674 tests, for a daily positivity rate of 22.8%. The state’s seven-day positivity rate now stands at 22.4%, the highest of any time since widespread testing began more than 18 months ago.
Gov. Ned Lamont noted Thursday that Connecticut’s positivity rate has remained between 20% and 25% in recent days, after increasing sharply last week.
“Still at 23% infection rate, a high infection rate, about the same as where we’ve been (this week),” Lamont said. “If that’s flattening out, that’s good news.”
Connecticut has now averaged 7,635 daily COVID-19 cases over the past week, up from an average of 341 just two months ago and far more than at any other time of the pandemic. Unvaccinated residents have been about three times as likely to test positive in recent weeks as vaccinated residents, according to state numbers.
All eight Connecticut counties — along with nearly the rest of the country — are currently recording “high” levels of COVID-19 transmission as defined by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With this level of transmission, the CDC advises people to wear a mask in public indoor settings.
As of Thursday, Connecticut had 1,784 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, up 108 from Wednesday and up more than 600 in the past week.
Connecticut is now fewer than 200 hospitalized patients shy of its record of 1,972, set on April 22, 2020.
According to the state, 68% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Hospital officials say the rate is significantly higher when considering only patients with severe symptoms.
As of Thursday, 89.5% of all Connecticut residents and 95% of those 12 and older had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 75% of all residents and 83.8% of those 12 and older were fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Additionally, about 44% of fully vaccinated Connecticut residents 18 or older have received a booster dose.
The CDC warns that booster shots are sometimes misclassified as first doses, likely inflating the reported number of first-dose coverage and understating the true number of people who have received boosters.
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