HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut has taken the first steps toward planning its reopening once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday.
Lamont joined the governors of New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Delaware in agreeing to a working group that will come up with a regional blueprint with input from health care and economic development experts.
The group of governors said the regional council will be charged with finding a way to ease social isolation without triggering another flareup for the virus through testing, contact tracing, treatment and social distancing.
“All of our pandemic here in Connecticut is all along that I-95, Metro-North corridor. We have hundreds of thousands of people going back and forth between New York and Connecticut,” Lamont said. “It’s the commuter corridor for us, but it’s also the COVID corridor, which is why it’s so important that we work together thoughtfully on this.”
In high-infection areas, such as Fairfield County near the New York border, preparations could include testing whether someone has developed antibodies for COVID-19 and might be able to go work sooner, Lamont said.
Lamont said he will take advice from the newly formed Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group, which will be composed of medical and business experts.
The panel will be co-chaired by Indra Nooyi, former chief executive officer of PepsiCo and co-chairman of the Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc. board of directors; and Dr. Albert Ko, chair and professor of epidemiology at Yale University. Nooyi, Ko and Paul Mounds, Lamont’s chief of staff, will also be Connecticut’s representatives on the multi-state council working on a regional framework for lifting stay-at-home orders.
The state has reported 602 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. As of Monday evening, over 13,300 people in the state had tested positive for the virus.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
In other developments related to the outbreak:
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PRISON DEATH
The Department of Correction has reported the first death of a prisoner who had contracted COVID-19.
The male inmate in his 60s died Monday, less than a week after being diagnosed with COVID-19, department officials said.
They said the man, who had other health problems, had been undergoing treatment at UConn Health since April 8 and tested positive on April 9.
The news came amid a major increase Monday in the number of reported cases inside the prison system. The department said 166 inmates and 104 staff have tested positive for the new coronavirus. That was up from 61 inmates and 71 prison staff members posted as of Monday morning.
The department has transferred 107 of those inmates into isolation at the Northern Correctional Institution, the state’s supermax prison in Somers.
“We’re not resting on the status quo,” Lamont said. “We’re continuing to move people where they can be most healthy and safest.”
Advocates for prisoners have been staging rallies, including one Monday outside the York Correctional Institution for women, demanding the state do more to protect inmates, including releasing them back into the community.
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DISINFECTING MASKS
Lamont said Connecticut will be among the first states in the nation to use a new disinfecting technology that would allow health care workers to reuse respirator masks.
An Ohio company, Battelle, has said its machine can clean 80,000 of the N95 masks per day and make them safe for re-use up to 20 times.
Lamont said the machine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and should be operating later this week.
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VENTS AND BEDS
The state has received additional ventilators, and if coronavirus trends in Connecticut continue, “nobody is going to be denied a ventilator who needs it,” Lamont said.
About a third of the state’s acute care hospital beds remain unoccupied, said Josh Geballe, Lamont’s chief administrative officer.
Connecticut also has more than 1,800 additional beds set up to be used if needed during an expected surge in cases, he said.
As part of that effort, the Connecticut National Guard on Monday set up 136 new beds for coronavirus patients at UConn Health in Farmington.
The beds will supplement 82 already in the health center’s hospital. The National Guard is also providing equipment for another 107 beds at UConn Health in case they are needed.
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COUGHING CHARGE
A 30-year-old New York man has been charged with breach of peace after police say claims he had COVID-19 and deliberately coughed on staff at St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury.
Police were called to the hospital Saturday night and took Robert Gordon into custody.
Gordon was arguing with staff when he took off a disposable face mask, and began to cough toward them, police said. It was not confirmed whether Gordon had really tested positive for the virus.
He was released on a written promise to appear in court. No court date has been set. It was not clear Monday if Gordon had hired an attorney.
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