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David Lehman, the commissioner for the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said this week that shutting down part of the state could be an option in the event of a sudden rise in cases, a notion that Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont later nixed.
Lehman has said that if areas in the state see a rise in COVID-19 cases they will be prepared to act swiftly, possibly with small lockdowns.
With the state continuing to ramp up COVID-19 testing, Lehamn has said that they’re equipped with more knowledge of the virus, and how it spreads, and will be better prepared to respond to specific areas if there are any potential flareups, unlike when the pandemic first hit the region in mid-March.
Lehman’s comments came early on Thursday, July 30, with Lamont responding later in the day during his afternoon COVID-19 briefing, though he said that schools are a different story and can be broken down on a county-by-county basis.
‘I’d put it a different way,” he said. “Generally, I’ve thought about the state as one. So when it came to bars and restaurants, I didn’t want people driving back and forth across the state to go around Westport to find a bar somewhere else. That didn’t seem to make good sense to me.”
There were 12,958 COVID-19 tests administered in Connecticut yesterday, with 130 (1 percent) coming back positive. Thirteen new patients were hospitalized with the virus, bringing the total to 66 statewide, and there were six new deaths.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 47,717 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 4,431 virus-related fatalities.
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