Daily COVID-19 Positivity Rate Highest It Has Been In 2021

CONNECTICUT — The daily coronavirus positivity rate in Connecticut has climbed to the highest it's been in 2021.

According to the latest data released by the state Department of Public Health, the daily positivity now stands at 14.98 percent, up 4.27 percent from the weekend numbers. There were 5,753 new confirmed cases, from 38,395 tests, added in the past 24 hours.

The infection spike is not taking anyone in the public health community by surprise. As of the past weekend, the U.S. is averaging 198,404 new COVID-19 cases each day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — 47 percent higher than the previous week.

The coronavirus omicron variant has lived up to its high-transmissibility hype, more than doubling its share of overall cases nationwide during Christmas week, compared to the previous seven days, according to a tracker maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Three New England states hit their all-time peak hospitalization numbers in December, according to a CNN review of data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire joined Michigan as they filled beds at a scary pace. All four have seen hospitalizations decline in the last few days.

More and more of those beds are filling up with the youngest of patients. There has been a 35 percent increase nationwide in pediatric hospitalizations over the past week, according to new federal health data. The 199,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases reported nationwide for the week ending Dec. 23 represent a 50 percent increase in positive cases for that age group since the beginning of December.

Hospitalizations in Connecticut rose by 38 beds overnight. There are 963 patients currently hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19; of those 198, or over 20 percent, are fully vaccinated, according to DPH.

Most of those hospitalized (299) are in Hartford County.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a little over 75.6 percent all Intensive Care Unit beds in the country were in use and about 21 percent were occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Just about 83.6 percent of Connecticut's population has been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC Tuesday afternoon.

See Also: COVID Hospitalizations Among Children Up In CT As Omicron Spreads

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