CT Coronavirus: 75 More Deaths, Positivity Rate Over 9%

CONNECTICUT — The number of coronavirus-associated deaths in Connecticut has risen steadily since the start of December.

Seventy-five residents have died from COVID-19 over the past seven days, up from last week's report of 56 deaths from the state Department of Public Health. The coronavirus death toll in the state is currently 9,077.

DPH is also reporting the daily COVID-19 positivity rate has clawed its way above 9 percent. Another 37,853 tests were processed in the past 24 hours. Of those, 3,416 were positive, for a daily positivity rate of 9.02 percent going into the holiday weekend.

Although, it has been clear to health officials the omicron variant is more transmissible than delta, the jury has been out on how much the new version of the virus would be contributing to death tolls or hospitalizations. Now, less than three weeks after it was first detected in Connecticut and about a month since landing in the U.S., researchers have begun providing some answers.

On Wednesday, scientists at the University of Edinburgh released data suggesting that omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization when compared to delta. Researchers also concluded that, although a booster dose of vaccine provided the greatest protection against delta, it was no slouch in the fight against omicron, either.

"Whilst offering the greatest protection against delta, the third/booster dose of vaccination offers substantial additional protection against the risk of symptomatic COVID-19 for omicron when compared to ≥25 weeks post second vaccine dose," the study summarized.

The scientists culled the data from 23,840 omicron cases and 126,511 delta cases between Nov. 1 and Dec. 19.

A second study, released Tuesday, is especially good news in the context of the sharp rise in Connecticut hospitalizations since the beginning of November. The scientists, who posted their research on medRxiv, concluded that omicron infections are 80 percent less likely to land you in the hospital than delta. The only caveat is that, once you are laid up with omicron, your chance of the disease becoming even more severe is no different than that of someone hospitalized with delta.

The second study was funded by the South African Medical Research Council with funds received from the National Department of Health. Both studies have been released by their research teams as pre-prints, and have not been peer-reviewed.

Provided your delta or omicron symptoms aren't too severe, a new pill from Merck might just keep you out of the hospital entirely. On Thursday, the US Food and Drug Administration authorized Merck’s antiviral pill, molnupiravir, to treat Covid-19 "for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death, and for whom alternative COVID-19 treatment options authorized by the FDA are not accessible or clinically appropriate."

The tab from Merck joins Pfizer’s antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which got the green light from the FDA on Wednesday.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Connecticut regained ground on Thursday, claiming 16 more beds, bringing the total number to 837.

Most of those hospitalized (262) are in New Haven County.

Data posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show better than a half-percentage point jump in Connecticut vaccinations over the past day, with 83.6 percent of the state's population fully vaccinated as of Thursday afternoon.

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