COVID-19 School Cases Climb By Over 6,200 In One Week

Bethel CT

06 January, 2022

8:26 PM

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CONNECTICUT — The number of COVID-19 cases among Connecticut PK-12 students and staff has skyrocketed over the past week. On Thursday, the Department of Public Health reported 7,612 new infections for students, up from 1,363 for the week prior. DPH logged 2,338 positive COVID-19 cases among school staff, an increase from 477 recorded the previous week. Cases among staff and students had remained relatively low until the first week of November, when they began their climb. Confirmed cases among both groups shot up dramatically after the first of the year. Both stats are higher than the 2020-21 school year numbers, which saw student cases peak at 1,618 and staff at 519 cases around this same time of year. Here is the school-by-school breakdown. Canaan remained the only town to stay off the highest infection tier in the latest set of numbers released from the state Department of Public Health. It has reported less than five cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents from Dec. 5 through Dec. 18. The rest of the state is in the high-alert red zone, according to DPH. The color codes correspond to guidance from DPH. Populations in the red zone have reported 15 or more cases per 100,000 people over a two-week average. Canaan, with its population of 1,053, is also the only town to be fully vaccinated. Mansfield remains the vaccination outlier, still with just under 40 percent of its population fully vaccinated. The graph above illustrates the slow progress toward complete vaccination. As of Thursday, those residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 include more than 95 percent of those over the age of 55, 88 percent of those between 45-54, 90 percent of those between 35-44 (up 1 percent from last week), 84 percent of those between 25-34 (up 1 percent), 78 percent of those between 18-24 (up 1 percent), 83 percent of those between 16-17, 75 percent of those between 12-15 and 37 percent of those aged 5-11 (up 3 percent). The table below shows cases and deaths among fully vaccinated persons by age group. As of Wednesday, 83,147 cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated persons in Connecticut have been identified. Of the 2,526,891 persons who are fully vaccinated, 3.29 percent have contracted the virus. Three hundred eleven COVID-19 related deaths have occurred among the 83,147 fully vaccinatedpersons confirmed with COVID-19. These deaths represent 17.4 percent of all COVID-19 deaths since Feb. 9, 2021. Source: CT Department of Public Health The charts above and below show the "relative risk," or the difference in risk when comparing rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons. The latest data show unvaccinated residents have a 17 times higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, compared to the vaccinated. Their risk of hospitalization is 11 times greater, and the risk of infection is 3 times as great. Source: CT Department of Public Health Although coronavirus deaths in Connecticut have declined markedly since February, it is important to note that death — and hospitalization — rates have consistently been higher among unvaccinated persons compared to fully vaccinated persons.