During his weekly Zoom press conference in conjunction with Greenwich Hospital leadership, First Selectman Fred Camillo shared up to date numbers for the town:
Total positive cases in Greenwich: 3,919 (up 118 from last week).
Total active cases in Greenwich: 140 (down 45 from last week).
Deaths rose to 81 from 79 last week (up 2 from last week).
Cases per 100,000 is 37.6, (down 11.4 from last week).
“We’re seeing better and better numbers as we go along,” Camillo said. “With more people being vaccinated and the weather showing signs of getting better, things are starting to look up.”
Dana Marnane, VP of Public Relations at Greenwich Hospital, said the numbers at the hospital were similar.
“We’re seeing similar to what you’re saying and echo your reminder to still wear your masks, still do hand washing and maintain social distancing,” she said, adding that the hospital had 28 positive patients in house, of which two were in the ICU on ventilators.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the hospital has discharged a total of 1,205 patients.
Across the five hospitals in the Yale New Haven Health System there were 215 Covid-positive patients last week and 213 positive patients as of Wednesday.
Marnane said waste water numbers were decreasing.
Wastewater is an accurate predict of the number of infected individuals in a community based on sewage testing.
The health system had vaccinated over 100,000 people as of Tuesday, and of that over 6,000 were at Brunswick.
Starting on Monday, as the Governor announced, they will begin to vaccinate people 55+ as well as teachers.
Asked about the Governor’s decision to continue to roll out the vaccinations based on age based brackets, with the exception of teachers, Mr. Camillo said he worried about people with underlying conditions, but didn’t want to second guess the governor.
“You feel for people who were told they’re next and all of a sudden the rules were changed in the middle of the game,” he said. “We’re hearing that a little about now, and some are saying, why are the teachers the one group while there are others with underlying conditions.”
Camillo, who is 58, said he planned to try to schedule a vaccination on March 1.
He said the Lamont administration must believe that adhering to age based rollout would move the process along faster and that he would give the Governor the benefit of the doubt.
“I wasn’t there for the deliberations,” he said.
With spring on the horizon, Camillo said he had no plans to restrict beach or park access like he did in spring 2020.
“We think things will get better as long as people keep adhering to the guidelines,” he said.
Camillo said that last summer, prior to the vaccine, when weather warmed up, the town was able to relax some restrictions.
He said the pandemic of 1918 might serve as a guide despite the recent variants of the virus.
“If this is weakening on its own, like the influenza pandemic of 1918 – which ultimately went away in 1919. We don’t know,” he said. “There’s a lot of positive indicators out there. Stay the course. Don’t let your guard down now, especially at this late state. Stay focused.”
See also:
Lamont Announces Vaccine Priority Will Remain Age-Based; Residents 55+ and Teachers Eligible March 1
Feb 22, 2021
Feb 18, 2021