Greenwich Joins CT’s Covid-19 Red Alert Zones

Connecticut’s COVID-19 Alert Map now indicates that there are 100 cities and towns in Connecticut that are in the Red Alert Level – the highest of the state’s four alert levels – including Greenwich. Code red indicates 15 or more cases per 100,000.

Average Daily Rate of COVID-19 Cases Among Persons Living in Community Settings per 100,000 Population By Town. Updated Nov 12, 2020

Thursday’s CT Covid-19 update:
• 24,001 tests were administered and 1,158 came back positive (4.82% positivity rate)
• 617 patients are currently hospitalized (increase of 33)
• 10 additional deaths

On Thursday First Selectman Fred Camillo said he’d heard from Diane Kelly at Greenwich Hospital earlier in the morning that the hospital was treating 18 in-patients for Covid-19, and was modifying their visitation policy. Prior to the change in policy, patients could have more than one visitor a day if they were not at the same time.

That was up from 5 in-patients earlier in the week.

(At a press conference on Wednesday, Yale New Haven Health System COO Marna Borgstrom said the 5 in-patients in Greenwich was about the same as two weeks earlier. She reported that Covid-19 hospitalizations had doubled across the Yale New Haven Health System in Connecticut compared to two weeks earlier. On Wednesday the 6 hospitals that comprise the System had a total of 210 in-patients.)

Camillo acknowledged the good news earlier in the week about Pfizer’s vaccine trials.

Pfizer, with labs in Groton, along with BioNTech, has developed a vaccine that is strongly effective. Early data from a trial of 43,538 people indicated the vaccine was 90+% effective. Preliminary FDA approval could come in the next month.

“We’re at the bottom of the 6th, or top of the 7th inning of a nine inning game, but the next few innings are going to be really tough. We’re almost there.”

Camillo urged residents not to let their guards down.

“We’re going to have some rough weeks ahead,” he said. “It’s all around us, and we are in the middle of that dreaded second surge.”

“Halloween seems to have been pulled off very well,” Camillo said. “I know most neighborhoods I saw were doing it differently, but they took it seriously. Our town keeps rising to the occasion. Hopefully with the holiday season around the corner, we’ll keep that in mind – how we did Halloween – for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s – we still have to be very careful. If gatherings include friends or family or both, we have to keep our eye on the ball to get us through the next few months.”

Meanwhile, over the state line in Port Chester, LoHud is reporting that within a week, the village went from being a state-declared COVID-19 “yellow precautionary zone” to an “orange warning zone,” making it the first in Westchester County to receive the designation.

High-risk businesses like barbershops, nail salons and fitness centers must close and restaurants can only offer outdoor dining with a maximum of four people per table. Houses of worship can only allow 33% capacity with a maximum of 25 people. Indoor and outdoor gatherings must be limited to 10 people. 

Schools in orange zones can only open for in-person instruction if all staff and students are tested for COVID-19. To remain open, they need to test 25% of staff and students randomly each week.  

See also:

UPDATED: Entire 7th Grade Cohort in Quarantine while Contact Tracing is Conducted

All Eyes on Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine Developed in CT