New Coronovirus News

ESSEX, CHESTER, DEEP RIVER, CT — The good news is that Essex, Chester and Deep River are in the "yellow zone" for infection rates right now for the coronavirus delta variant. The yellow zone towns have the lowest infection rates in the state. The bad news is there are seven Connecticut towns that are now in the high-alert rate "red zone" as the coronavirus delta variant leads a fourth wave of infections through the state. "Red" towns include; East Hampton, Easton, Hampton, Hartford, Hartland, North Stonington and Thomaston, which have reported 15 or more cases per 100,000 over a 2-week average.

"Orange" towns are Ansonia, Bloomfield, Bolton, Bozrah, Bristol, Brookfield, Cheshire, Derby, Durham, East Hartford, East Haven, Griswold, Ledyard, Manchester, New Britain, New Haven, New London, Newington, North Haven, Norwalk, Norwich, Old Lyme, Plymouth, Rocky Hill, Salem, Stamford, Stonington, Thompson, Trumbull, Waterbury, Waterford, West Hartford and Windsor. These municipalities have reported 10-14 cases per 100,000 over a 2-week average.

The coronavirus delta variant now accounts for all new COVID-19 variant cases in the state, according to an article written by Patch Staffer Rich Kirby.

More good news; according to Kirby's article, the COVID-19 vaccines, including the single-dose from Johnson & Johnson, are as effective against the delta variant as they are against all the other versions of the virus currently in Connecticut. Nationwide, more than 99 percent of those currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

Kirby wrote, "so at this point, COVID-19 is largely a 'pandemic of the unvaccinated,' as Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz recently described it. In Connecticut, only 63.6 percent of residents are fully vaccinated, per data made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday afternoon. Nationwide, the numbers are worse. The number of fully vaccinated Americans has held at around 49-50 percent for the past few weeks, according to the CDC."

With reporting from Rich Kirby.

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