Covid-19 update: 100 towns in ‘red alert’; state launches exposure notification app
With 100 Connecticut municipalities now classified “red alert,” and the state”™s positivity rate standing at 4.8% as Covid-19”™s second wave continues to gain steam, Gov. Ned Lamont is introducing an exposure notification app.
COVID Alert CT, available for Apple and Android mobile devices, informs users if they may have been exposed to someone with Covid-19, without sharing any personal information.
Directions on installing the app can be found at ct.gov/covidalertct. Once installed, the app uses Bluetooth to sense whether a user”™s device has been within 6 feet of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more in one day. If a user has been near another person who has tested positive and is also using the app on their personal device, an alert will be triggered notifying the user that they may have been exposed to the virus.
A notification will not be triggered if two people with the app are just passing by for a short duration, or stay more than 6 feet away from each other.
If a user tests positive, a contact tracer from the Connecticut Department of Public Health, their local health department, or their higher education institution will ask them if they are willing to share the “close contact” codes their app has logged while they may have been contagious.
If the user agrees, a contract tracer will provide them with a verification code.Once that code is submitted through the user”™s app, those individuals who came within 6 feet of that user for more than 15 minutes — and who also are using the app –will receive a notification on their device that they were in close contact with someone with Covid-19.
“This app is another tool to make sure that every resident of our state has what they need to combat this pandemic from the ground up,” the governor said. “This app also complements ”“ but doesn”™t replace ”“ our broader contact tracing program, which is an invaluable resource in combating the pandemic and ensuring those who need it have the tools necessary to self-isolate or quarantine.”
“We hope everyone with a smartphone will participate in this new program,” Connecticut”™s Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said. “This is just one example of how we are leveraging modern technology to fight this pandemic and keep Connecticut safe.”
Meanwhile, some 80% of the state is now under the “red alert” designation, the highest of the state”™s four alert levels. They are:
- Ansonia
- Beacon Falls*
- Berlin
- Bethel
- Bethlehem
- Bloomfield*
- Bozrah
- Branford*
- Bridgeport
- Bristol
- Brookfield
- Brooklyn
- Chaplin
- Cheshire*
- Clinton
- Cromwell*
- Danbury
- Deep River*
- Derby
- Durham*
- East Granby
- East Hampton
- East Hartford
- East Haven
- East Windsor
- Easton
- Essex*
- Fairfield*
- Franklin
- Goshen*
- Greenwich*
- Griswold
- Groton
- Hamden
- Hampton
- Hartford
- Killingly
- Killingworth*
- Ledyard
- Manchester*
- Meriden
- Middlebury
- Middlefield
- Middletown
- Milford*
- Monroe
- Naugatuck
- New Britain
- New Canaan*
- New Fairfield*
- New Haven
- New London
- New Milford*
- Newington
- Newtown*
- North Branford
- North Haven
- North Stonington
- Norwalk
- Norwich
- Orange*
- Oxford*
- Plainfield
- Plainville
- Plymouth
- Portland*
- Preston*
- Prospect
- Redding*
- Rocky Hill*
- Seymour
- Shelton
- Sherman*
- Southbury*
- Southington
- Sprague
- Stamford
- Stratford
- Thomaston
- Tolland
- Torrington*
- Trumbull*
- Wallingford
- Washington*
- Waterbury
- Waterford
- Watertown
- West Hartford*
- West Haven
- Westbrook*
- Weston*
- Westport*
- Wethersfield
- Willington*
- Wilton*
- Windham
- Windsor
- Windsor Locks*
- Wolcott
- Woodbury
*Newly added to the red-level alert list this week
The red zone indicates municipalities that have an average daily Covid-19 case rate over the last two weeks of greater than 15 per 100,000 population.
“I”™m afraid that Bridgeport is probably the area that”™s being hardest hit right now in terms of the infection rate,” Lamont remarked at last night”™s press briefing. “This is why we”™re using our protocols on a statewide basis. It”™s a statewide issue, and we”™re working closely with our neighbors.”
In the meantime, Connecticut”™s seven-day average is 4.4%. Hospitalizations have increased to 617, and confirmed Covid-related deaths now stand at 4,726.
In Fairfield County, there now are 163 hospitalizations and a total of 1,134 confirmed deaths.
“We”™ve doubled the number of people in the hospital related to Covid over the last two weeks,” Lamont said last night. The governor said he could decide whether to ask the National Guard to again set up field hospitals if the number of hospitalizations continues to rise.