HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The peak of the coronavirus outbreak is still a few weeks away for Fairfield County, more than a month away for New Haven County and may not hit the eastern part of the state until June, Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday.
He said that will give the state more time to prepare for the anticipated surge in cases, while also noting how hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19 are showing signs of being “linear” and “not going up exponentially.”
“What that means is it gives us capacity to plan,” Lamont said, referring to efforts to increase the number of hospital beds and medical staff, as well as dedicate certain nursing homes to caring for only COVID-19-positive residents. A list of those homes was expected to be released soon.
Meanwhile, the Democratic governor expressed frustration earlier in the day with not being able to get ventilators, personal protective equipment and other medical supplies from the federal government, noting “the next few weeks are going to be tough.” But Lamont said the state was prepared “as we can be with the things that we can control” and the state was doing its best to maximize its resources, including ventilators.
“Right now we have the beds. Right now we have the ventilators and right now we have the PPE to take care of things,” he said later in the day, referring to personal protective equipment for medical staff.
Lamont and other officials have estimated that Connecticut will need roughly 12,000 hospital beds and 4,000 ventilators at the peak of the outbreak. They recently said the state has about 7,000 beds and 1,000 ventilators. Lamont said the state has received 50 ventilators from the federal stockpile, far short of the 1,500 it has requested.
As of Monday, more than 6,900 state residents had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 206 deaths had been deemed as being associated with it. More than 1,200 people were being hospitalized with COVID-19.
In other developments around Connecticut:
CALLS FOR PRISONER RELEASES
Relatives and advocates on Monday called on Lamont to release some prison inmates who have health conditions or whose sentences are close to ending to prevent spreading the coronavirus.
Protesters lined dozens of cars in front of the governor’s Executive Residence in Hartford and honked their horns.
Stacey Rivera said her son, Alex Flemming, is incarcerated at Northern Correctional Institution in Somers. She said she is scared because her son has a heart condition that makes him more susceptible to a severe case of COVID-19. Flemming is serving a 2 1/2 year sentence for carrying a weapon in a motor vehicle and is due to be released in July 2022.
Tensions among staff and inmates worried about the coronavirus have been high. Since Friday, more than 100 inmates were transferred to other prisons after coronavirus-related unrest at the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution in Enfield.
Twenty-one inmates and 32 staff members at state prisons and jails have tested positive for COVID-19, officials say. Correction Department officials say staff have been working to keep themselves and inmates safe.
BANKING FEES
Connecticut legislators want the state’s banking industry to suspend minimum or low balance fees, as well as look into reducing other fees, to help residents who’ve been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
State Sen. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford, and Rep. Rick Lopes, D-New Britain, co-chairmen of the General Assembly’s Banking Committee, have asked Lamont’s administration to work with the banking industry on the issue. They said it’s understandable why some people might be draining their checking and savings accounts if they’ve lost their jobs.
“They really shouldn’t be hit with low balance fees because they’re in desperate straits,” said Slap, who was informed of the problem by a constituent who was charged a fee by a Connecticut-based bank after he wrote a check to a local charity and his account balance fell below $1,000.
BRIDGE LIGHTS
The lights on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven will be illuminated in red to honor the thousands of health care workers caring for COVID-19 patients across the state, Lamont announced Monday.
The bridge carries Interstate 95 over the Quinnipiac River and the special lighting will remain in effect while COVID-19 cases are still at significant levels, he said.
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Ehrmann is a corps member for Report for America, a nonprofit organization that supports local news coverage, in a partnership with The Associated Press for Connecticut. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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