DANBURY, Conn. (WCBS 880) — Following an outbreak of COVID-19 in Fairfield County, Danbury has announced that all public school classes will be held remotely through at least Oct. 1.
The city had previously announced a hybrid plan calling for both remote and in-person learning.
Danbury joins New Haven as the second Connecticut district to begin the school year online.
An additional 83 cases were reported in Danbury over the weekend, bringing the city's case count to more than 200 over two weeks. The positivity rate in the testing jumped to 7% which means it's spreading.
Officials say much of the spread was among family members and officials believe the long blackout may have contributed to the sudden surge in infections.
Gov. Ned Lamont worries that since the outages were widespread across Connecticut, what's happening in Danbury could be an early warning for the rest of the state.
"We're going to follow that really closely," Lamont said. "A lot of the outage here was in neighborhoods that are congested, often multi-generational housing, people getting together to get that air conditioning. A lot of the outage around the state, with trees down, more wooded area, more single family, I think Danbury was maybe hit a little disproportianately in that front but we gotta track that in all of our cities right now. This may be a canary in a coal mine."
Mayor Mark Boughton believes the virus is being spread through family and social activities.
"I was at games on Tuesday night, parents didn't have a mask on, kids on the bench weren't wearing a mask, nobody was social distancing, that's a problem," Boughton said.
The city has also closed the athletic fields as well as the boat launch to stop partying there.
Lamont said there have been other outbreaks in a Norwich nursing home and in farm worker housing in East Windsor.
"These are folks they live in very, very tight quarters, they're working on farms here as well as I think Massachussetts. Thirty out of the 90 people there infected," Lamont said.
Asked whether he thinks it is advisable to have in-school learning in the rest of the state, Lamont said, "I think for, especially those younger grades, they cohort, they stay within a group under themselves, the teacher is back a good 8 to 10 feet, I think that's safer than them jumping around between daycare and a lot of other facilities. As long as you're in an area that has a very low infection rate like most of the state."