Town-By-Town Coronavirus Updates: Red Zones, Schools, Vaccination Rates

CONNECTICUT — All the key coronavirus metrics continued to fall steadily over the past week, even as the number of new vaccinations has risen very slowly.

Schools throughout the state are awaiting new guidance from state and federal health officials on how best to navigate their post-mask mandate path, but many have announced masks will be optional for staff and students as early as Feb. 28.

The virus claimed 105 lives in Connecticut over the week — 31 fewer than logged the week before — according to the state Department of Public Health.

The Connecticut COVID-19 death toll was 10,324 as of Thursday. Cases of the omicron variant, dominant in the state since just before the start of the new year, are typically milder and have proven less fatal.

DPH reported the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Connecticut continued to drop, falling to 325, down 15 beds overnight.

Currently, the highest number of the hospitalized — 117 — are in Hartford County.

The daily coronavirus positivity rate in the state dropped slightly overnight to 4.71 percent.

The daily coronavirus positivity rate is a function of the number of tests compared to the number of cases confirmed positive each day. Overnight, 544 positive cases were logged, out of 11,542 tests taken. The numbers of tests and cases confirmed do not include those taken with at-home self-test kits.

The number of COVID-19 cases among Connecticut PK-12 staff and students continues to decline.

On Wednesday, the Department of Public Health reported 1,031 total infections for students, down from 2,006 last week, and over 16,200 in the middle of January. DPH logged 202 positive COVID-19 cases among school staff, down from 400 the previous week.

Cases among staff and students had remained relatively low until the first week of November, when they began their climb. Confirmed cases among both groups shot up dramatically after the first of the year.

Here is the school-by-school breakdown:

There were 18 COVID-19 related deaths among Connecticut nursing home residents between Feb. 2-15, according to the latest bi-weekly reckoning by DPH.

Six towns — Bethlehem, Essex, New Fairfield, Sharon, Washington and Woodbury — have dropped from high-alert to "orange," meaning they are reporting 10-14 cases per 100,000 over from Jan. 30-Feb. 12. Bridgewater, Canaan, Colebrook, Hartland, Morris, Roxbury, Scotland, Sherman, Union, and Warren have reported the lowest infection rates, less than five cases per 100,000 during the same timeframe. All other Connecticut municipalities were at the highest coronavirus alert level, according to DPH.

The color codes correspond to guidance from DPH. Populations in the red zone have reported 15 or more cases per 100,000 people over a two-week average.

Canaan, with its population of 1,053, is still the only town to be fully vaccinated, although neighboring Salisbury is close. There, one hundred percent of the people have received their first dose, and just over 95 percent have gotten both jabs.

Mansfield remains the vaccination outlier, still with just under 41 percent of its population fully vaccinated.

All Connecticut residents over the age of 5 are currently eligible to receive the vaccines. The state maintains an online database of vaccination clinic locations here.

The graph above illustrates the slow progress toward complete vaccination.

As of Thursday, those residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 include more than 95 percent of those over the age of 55, 90 percent of those between 45-54, 93 percent of those between 35-44, 88 percent of those between 25-34, 84 percent of those between 18-24 (up 1 percent from last week), 87 percent of those between 16-17 (up 1 percent), 80 percent of those between 12-15 (up 1 percent) and 46 percent of those aged 5-11 (up 1 percent).

Instructions on how to get COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters in Connecticut are available online, as is a list of walk-up clinics sponsored by DPH.

See also: N. Dakota Man Accused Of Driving To CT For Sex With Minor: Feds

• CT Weather: Thunderstorms, Heavy Rain, 60 MPH Wind Gusts Friday
  
• Breeze Airways To Make Bradley Airport Its Fifth Operations Hub

The table below shows new COVID-19 cases in the past 7 days by vaccination status. The percentage of cases among fully vaccinated residents is influenced by the increasing proportion of the population that is eligible for and has completed a vaccine series, and should be considered in light of the overall proportion of vaccinated individuals who have contracted the virus, according to DPH.

The table below shows cases and deaths among fully vaccinated persons, and among persons who have received an additional dose, by age group. As shown below, persons who have received an additional dose are a subset of those cases that are fully vaccinated.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 550,281 cases have been identified among individuals who are not fully vaccinated.

Six hundred sixty-eight COVID-19 related deaths have occurred among the 167,783 fully vaccinated persons confirmed with COVID-19.

The charts above and below show the "relative risk," or the difference in risk, when comparing rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.

The latest data show unvaccinated residents have a 32 times higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, compared to the vaccinated. Their risk of hospitalization is 10 times greater, and the risk of infection is 3 times as great.