The Hartford Courant reported yesterday Connecticut has one of the highest COVID death rates in the nation. The primary reasons for this are we are a small densely populated state with a high elderly population, many nursing homes and three of the poorest cities in the nation (where multiple people with underlying health conditions live cramped together with multiple generations of family in small poorly ventilated apartments), as well as our proximity to New York City.
Connecticut has one of the nation’s highest coronavirus death tolls. Here’s why.
Despite its small size, Connecticut has had more total fatalities than states such as California, Texas, Florida and Washington — as well as the nations of Mexico, Portugal, Turkey and Switzerland, among others. Per capita, Connecticut ranks third nationwide in deaths, behind only New York and New Jersey.
(The Courant, by the way, has been doing an awesome job covering the epidemic, and I am proud to be an on-line subscriber even though they are now providing their COVID coverage for free).
Hospitalizations continue to decrease - nine days in a row. I stopped in the office this morning and had only two new notifications to EMS of transported patients that were admitted here and tested positive. Discharged continue to outpace admissions.
That said, yesterday, which began as a muggy rainy day and turned into a spectacular afternoon that saw the streets and roads crowded with traffic. Everyone was out walking, many without masks, social distance be damned. It was like the first true day of spring. But if anyone thinks COVID has disappeared like the winter snow, they are in for disappointment.
