COVID-19 LATEST: Hospitalizations slowing as state’s death toll nears 500

The state of Connecticut has recorded another 46 COVID-19-related deaths, bringing its total to 494. The state also tallied another 3,543 tests, bringing that total to 39,831, which yielded 972 positive results for a total of 11,510.

New hospitalizations, which Gov. Ned Lamont has said is the key indicator as to whether the state”™s coronavirus incidents have peaked, rose by just 31 to 1,593; Fairfield County saw a nine-person decrease, to 676.

The county now has a total of 5,407 confirmed cases and 220 deaths, still by far the most of any county in the state. New Haven and Hartford counties have each now topped 100 deaths, with 107 and 101, respectively.

A county-by-county breakdown includes:

As of Saturday morning, Stamford led the state with 1,245 positive cases, followed by Norwalk at 706. Bridgeport surpassed Danbury for the state”™s third-largest number, 680, followed by Danbury”™s 669. They were followed by New Haven (552), Waterbury (490), Hartford (357), Greenwich (307), Stratford (235), West Haven (232) and Shelton (217).

Lamont today signed an executive order implementing a medical surge plan for long-term care facilities, which will establish COVID-19 recovery centers in certain nursing homes throughout the state that will accept patients who can be discharged from acute care hospitals but are still impacted by COVID-19 infection.

The order establishes the first two COVID-19 recovery centers at Sharon Health Care Center in Sharon and Northbridge Healthcare Center in Bridgeport, and gives authority to Department of Public Health (DPH) Commissioner Renée Coleman-Mitchell to create additional centers at other locations throughout the state as needed.

Coleman-Mitchell said she intends to authorize the formation of an additional recovery center at Torrington Health and Rehabilitation Center in Torrington, and is in the process of finalizing details for more recovery centers in other locations to be announced in the coming days.

The Connecticut Department of Social Services and the Office of Policy and Management have determined a specific payment rate of $600 per day for the COVID-19 recovery centers, and additional payments of 10 percent across the board for all nursing homes in Connecticut during the course of the pandemic.

Updated list of nursing homes with laboratory confirmed positive cases of COVID-19

The following is a list of every nursing home in Connecticut that has reported a positive case of COVID-19 as of today:

State”™s third COVID-19 recovery center being deployed at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford

The state today began converting the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford into a recovery center with the assistance of the Connecticut National Guard. This facility will be licensed for operation and staffed by Hartford HealthCare. The recovery center will house up to 600 patients as they receive recovery care following COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment.

The Convention Center is the third recovery center to be stood up by the state during the pandemic, joining those at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury.

FASANO WONDERS IF LAMONT IS EXCEEDING HIS AUTHORITY
Lamont is now facing more pressure to get Connecticut”™s economy moving again from various constituencies. Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano (R-North Haven) sent the governor a letter on Friday warning him that his stream of executive orders has “now taken a tone of public policy initiatives that exceed your authority and reach beyond the powers of the executive branch and into the legislative branch.”

“When you first declared a public health emergency on March 10, 2020 and requested broad authority, you made affirmative representations to the legislature that you would take a stringent, narrow and collaborative approach to implementing the most necessary policies to protect public health,” Fasano wrote.

“Over time,” he continued, “your authority has become more broad and your strategy less collaborative. Your latest executive order does not reflect any collaboration with legislative leaders. This shift in the process cannot go unaddressed.”

“I know you are working hard to do everything you think is best for our state and its residents at this difficult time,” Fasano added. “But collaboration now more than ever is vital to ensure all perspectives, all ideas and all voices are heard.”

“The public health, safety and welfare of all of Connecticut residents has been and will continue be the governor”™s guiding principles, as laid out in state law,” Lamont spokesman Max Reiss said, adding that the governor will continue to collaborate with state lawmakers moving forward.

TRUMP PONDERING “BIGGEST DECISION EVER”
ON WHEN TO REOPEN ECONOMY
President Donald Trump is spending part of his Easter weekend pondering what he called “the biggest decision I have ever had to make,” in regard to when to reopen at least some of the country”™s businesses.

“I”™m going to have to make a decision and I only hope to God that it is the right decision, but I would say without question it is the biggest decision I have ever had to make,” Trump said during his Friday briefing.

“I”™ve got to make the biggest decision of my life,” he expanded. “I”™ve only started thinking about that. I mean I”™ve made a lot of big decisions over my life. You understand that. This is by far the biggest decision of my life because I have to say okay, let”™s go. This is what we”™re going to do.”

Asked for more details, Trump replied; “I”™m going to surround myself with the greatest minds, not only the greatest minds but the greatest minds in numerous different businesses, including the business of politics and reason, and we are going to make a decision and hopefully it is going to be the right decision.”

As for what metrics Trump will use to inform that decision, Trump pointed to his head.

“That is my metrics, that is all I can do,” he said. “I can listen to 35 people. At the end I”™ve got to make a decision and I didn”™t think of it until yesterday. I said you know this is a big decision. But I want to be guided, I”™m going to be guided by them, I am going to be guided by our vice president.”

The White House has been teasing the creation of a second coronavirus task force, which could include several governors, for the past few days; an announcement reportedly could come on Tuesday.

Trump has been pushing for the economy to restart for the past few weeks, originally targeting Easter Sunday as the start date by saying during a March 24 Fox News interview that he would “love to have the country opened up and raring to go by Easter.”

On that day, there were roughly 42,000 positive COVID-19 cases and nearly 600 deaths in the U.S. As of this writing, those numbers stand at roughly 522,000 positive cases and over 20,300 deaths.

Globally, there are now more than 1.76 million positive cases and nearly 108,000 deaths.

Also on Friday, Trump indicated his belief that most of the nation”™s hospitals are now well-equipped to deal with the still-growing pandemic.

“We”™re in great shape with ventilators, we”™re in great shape with protective clothing, we have additional planeloads coming in. But we”™re not getting any calls from governors at this moment,” he declared.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that the U.S. in general, and New York City in particular, seem to be flattening the curve of cases.

“But as encouraging as (those signs) are,” Birx said, “we have not reached the peak. And so every day we need to continue to do what we did yesterday, and the week before and the week before that because that”™s what in the end is going to take us across the peak and down the other side.”

During an appearance late Friday night on MSNBC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: “I would hope that by November we would have things under such control that we could have a real degree of normality.”