On The 8th Day: Coronavirus Cases Up, Lights Still Out In Danbury

DANBURY, CT — Nearly three dozen homes were still without power in the city as darkness began to descend on the eighth day following a tropical storm that left the region, and the state's largest power company, reeling.

Embattled utility Eversource is now pointing at 11:59 p.m. Thursday as the time when the remaining homes in the region will see their lights return.

For Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, the expiration date on patience is long, long past.

"You cannot forget what this company has done to you, and will do to you," Boughton told residents during a livestreamed news conference. "They cannot be trusted. They are going to keep sending those outrageous bills out to you, and what's worse is now they are going to add to your electric bill the clean-up they're doing right now — something you already have paid for!"

Boughton says he is pushing the utility to reimburse residents for lost business and groceries.

"The least Eversource can do after making a $250 million profit last quarter is to spring for some gift cards and reimburse people for their perishables."

The mayor urged residents "not to sit still for this," and said he met Wednesday with "a team of lawyers" as a first step towards litigating against the utility for their "extreme malfeasance."

Boughton was also unhappy about a recent rise in the number of cases testing positive for the coronavirus in the city.

"Our numbers are going in the wrong direction," the mayor said, suggesting the uptick might be attributed to more interstate travel, as well as "a lot of international travel."

Last month, Lamont signed an executive order that will subject visitors who violate the state's coronavirus travel advisory to a fine. Earlier this week, he showed he meant business, when law enforcement officials fined two travelers $1,000 each after they refused to fill out the state's travel quarantine form.

There were nine new infections tracked in the past 24 hours, eight during the previous period.

Particularly troubling was a spike he says he saw in positive cases among children 6-18 "because younger people are not following the guidance."

A new report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association reveals that nearly 100,000 children across the United States tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July alone.

"Wear your masks, wash your hands, use your Purell," Boughton said. "This is not going away anytime soon."