COVID-19 positivity continues to decline, but expert warns variants will drive new surges – Hartford Courant

The number of new coronavirus cases in Connecticut continued to fall this week, along with hospitalizations, though Hartford Healthcares COVID-19 expert warned the virus is not going away anytime soon.

There were 3,583 positive cases recorded by the state in the past seven days, less than half of the 7,560 recorded the week before, according to state data, available at data.ct.gov. With 33,085 tests recorded, the states positivity rate is now 10.83%, down from 12.05% on May 26 and 14% on May 19, showing the decline of a wave that began in early April with a highly transmissible variant of omicron.

Hospitalizations also fell, from 379 a week ago to 311 Thursday. Officials note that many of those are incidental cases, in which people were admitted to a hospital for other reasons and then tested positive upon arrival.

Connecticut saw 39 COVID-related deaths in the past week, the data shows. There were 19 deaths recorded last week and an additional 39 the week of May 19. Research has shown that deaths from the virus tend to lag behind an increase in cases.

Omicron continues to be the dominant variant, the state said, with BA.2 accounting for 89% of cases diagnosed this week. Evolving subvariants will continue to drive transmission through the summer with a spike in the fall, Ulysses Wu, MD, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, said in a post Thursday on Hartford Healthcares News Hub.

Levels are not going to approach winter levels or last summers delta variant levels, but we also will not approach the lows that we would like to see, Wu said. We will continue to go through waves of swells throughout the early summer at the least, with a likely spike in late fall.

He predicted new surges could come from subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which were detected in the United States in late March, and seem to evade immunity created by vaccines and previous infection.

With transmission still high, experts recommend people vaccinated or not continue to wear masks indoors and in crowded spaces.

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COVID-19 positivity continues to decline, but expert warns variants will drive new surges - Hartford Courant