HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The number of coronavirus infections involving the omicron variant has nearly quadrupled to 40 in Connecticut over the past week and is projected to comprise half of all new cases within the next two weeks, state officials said Thursday.
The state also reported 56 more deaths from COVID-19 since last week, bringing Connecticut’s total to 9,002. Hospitalizations due to the coronavirus dropped by six since Wednesday to 710, which is more than 500 additional people in the hospital since Nov. 1. Of people in the hospital, 75% are not vaccinated, state data show.
Dr. Manisha Juthani, the state’s public health commissioner, said Thursday that data indicates omicron could comprise 50% of coronavirus cases in the state in one to two weeks, and become the dominant variant in about a month.
“This variant is highly infectious and it is moving rapidly throughout our state, throughout the country,” she said “We have yet to see how that is going to impact the severity of disease. We don’t know the answer to that yet. What I can tell you is that hospitalizations have been rising. They have been rising at a rate that is concerning to me.”
The seven-day rolling average of daily new virus cases in Connecticut has jumped from about 887 to more than 2,600 over the past two weeks.
Since Nov. 3, student infections in public and private schools, kindergarten through Grade 12, have increased from 489 to 2,483 as of Wednesday, out of a total student population of more than 500,000.
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