Hospitalization Surge Has CT Nearing Pandemic High + Town-By-Town Case Updates

CONNECTICUT — The number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19 is nearing a pandemic high.

The number of hospital beds filled with coronavirus patients in Connecticut has climbed to 1,920, up an additional 31 overnight.

The surge has mirrored the trend nationwide: New data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show COVID-19 hospitalizations have already hit a new high.

Across the U.S., 145,982 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 — about double the number reported two weeks earlier. Hospitals in Connecticut hit their pandemic high of 1,972 on April 22, 2020. At its current pace, the state could break that record by the end of the week.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health does not distinguish among patients who were admitted to a hospital because of COVID-19 symptoms, and those asymptomatic residents admitted for non-COVID reasons who test positive while in the hospital.

COVID-19 hospitalizations reached their previous peak about a year ago, when more than 142,000 beds were filled with coronavirus patients nationwide. That time, the Connecticut peak hit about a month ahead of the rest of the country, posting its winter 2021 high of 1,269 on Dec. 14.

A new factor in this latest surge has been the number of pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations. The data from HHS indicate there are nearly 5,000 children currently hospitalized with the virus, double the previous surge in September brought on by the delta variant.

COVID-19 infections in the state has climbed very slightly overnight, from Monday's 23.68 percent to 23.85 percent, reported by DPH on Tuesday.

The daily coronavirus positivity rate is a function of the number of tests compared to the number of cases confirmed positive each day. Overnight, 6,751 positive cases were logged, out of 28,312 tests taken. The numbers of tests and cases confirmed do not include those taken with at-home self-test kits.

Of the 1,920 COVID-19 patients in Connecticut, 1,292 ( 67.3 %) are not fully vaccinated.

For the week beginning Dec. 26, the risk of unvaccinated persons testing positive for COVID-19 as compared to fully vaccinated persons is 3.3 times greater, according to DPH, and their risk of death is 17.2 times greater.

The highest number of the hospitalized —663 — are in New Haven County.

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• Insurance To Cover At-Home COVID Tests: How To Get Them In CT

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.