HARTFORD, Conn. (WTIC Radio)—With the recent increase in COVID-19 cases across Connecticut, officials at Hartford HealthCare are urging residents to keep complying with health safety measures, such as wearing a face mask.
It's a reminder Hartford HealthCare Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Ajay Kumar said he knows the residents of Connecticut are already familiar with. The reminder: wear your face mask, social distance, wash your hands, and avoid unnecessary travel.
This follows a recent surge in cases in Connecticut that brought the state's positivity rate to over 4% for a couple of days this week.
On Friday afternoon, state officials reported over one thousand positive COVID-19 cases and an increase of 22 hospitalized patients since Thursday, bringing the total up to 402 hospitalized patients in Connecticut.
Kumar said he suspects it's due to general fatigue in safe health practices, leading to more social gatherings and less mask use in the community.
"Probably it is because of small congregated meetings that people are having right now," he said during a briefing Friday morning, "Family units getting together and connecting with friends and other members as well. Obviously, the holidays are coming up. It's a real challenge. There is definitely a fatigue about the pandemic in our community. There's a fatigue about the masks at this time."
With the holiday season right around the corner, Kumar acknowledges the difficulty in not being able to be with family during those times, but he urges families to consider alternative options for reunion, such as using online video conferencing platforms.
Kumar said he advises all families, including his own, to get through the upcoming holidays as safely as possible.
"We've got many more Christmases and Thanksgivings to look forward to," Kumar said.
With that said, an increase in cases is expected moving forward into December, Kumar said. However, he said he believes Hartford HealthCare is well-situated to manage it.
On Election Day, thousands of citizens gathered in socially-distant lines to vote in person which may raise a concern of whether or not it will lead to a surge of COVID-19 cases in the future. Kumar doesn't think that'll be the case.
"I'm not concerned about an election-related surge in in-person voting at this time. However, I can't comment on all the areas where voting took place but from my experience, what I've heard, what I've seen, it has been very safe," Kumar said.
State Public Health officials have put out an advisory for residents to stay home from 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in an attempt to reduce the spread of the virus.
