There is always a sense that even acknowledging good news like Newtown’s unchanged COVID-19 case and death tallies will jinx things. But local Health District Director Donna Culbert confirmed that news in a text message to The Newtown Bee, Wednesday, August 12, accompanied by a gif of fingers crossed, and the assertion that “It takes a village.”

At that point in time, and for at least the previous seven days, Newtown was static with 257 positive coronavirus cases, and 44 virus-related deaths. This as state death numbers have ticked up, and Fairfield County cases and positivity rates have increased — largely based on a small surge of new positive tests among a group of younger people coming out of the Bridgeport area.

As of August 11 at 8:30 pm, total cases reported among Connecticut residents was 50,706, including 48,705 laboratory-confirmed and 2,001 probable cases. Fifty-eight patients were hospitalized at that time with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, and there were 4,450 reported COVID-19-associated deaths.

Fairfield County had just crossed the 18,000 mark, logging 18,081 confirmed or probable cases and 1,409 deaths.

Since last week’s update, Governor Lamont has announced that the State of Connecticut will continue covering the costs of COVID-19 testing for staff in the state’s nursing home facilities, managed residential communities, and assisted living services agencies for at least an additional two months.

In June, the governor signed an executive order mandating that all staff at these facilities receive weekly testing until there are no new COVID-19 positive test results for 14 days. Upon signing the orders, the Lamont administration informed these facilities that the state will cover all of the costs of this testing for anyone who is not covered under Medicare Part B/Medicare Advantage through August 31.

The state also partnered with area testing partners and labs to set up the operations to conduct this testing for nursing homes. The announcement means that the state will continue this coverage through at least October 31. The governor intends to use funding from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) to cover these costs.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health will be extending its contracts with its testing partners for that time period, so the long-term care facilities will not have to contract with or pay for this critical testing. This is in addition to rate and reimbursement increases, CRF payments, the acceptance of hardship applications, and consideration of deferrals in the payment of the user fee when sought by the facilities.

The governor said the state is also extending its commitment to reimburse managed residential communities/assisted living services agencies up to $150 for any employee where coverage is not available under Medicare Part B/Medicare Advantage at no cost to their employees. This assistance was set to end on August 31 and is now extended through October 31.

The results of this program of mandatory testing have been encouraging. Mandatory testing of nursing home staff has led to the detection of 223 staff members with confirmed COVID-19 between June 17 and July 28. Testing of nursing home residents has allowed for appropriate cohorting of nursing home residents to limit the spread of COVID-19 within nursing homes.

Positivity among nursing home residents tested last week was 0.25 percent, even lower than in the general population.

“The mandatory testing program, together with the diligence and hard work of the members and staff of these facilities, is minimizing the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives,” Governor Lamont said.

Food Assistance Available

The Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) and partners are reminding the public about availability of food assistance and other benefits as many Connecticut residents cope with losing their federal $600 weekly unemployment checks and endure power outages from Tropical Storm Isaias.

For information about food pantries and distributions, visit 211ct.org/foodpantries for the statewide list. For links to various food resources, visit 211ct.org/categorysearch/food; call 2-1-1 and select Option 3 for referrals if the website is unavailable.

For DSS service and application information, visit ct.gov/dss, ct.gov/snap, and ct.gov/dss/apply. For benefits center information, call 855-626-6632.

Residents with limited phone or internet access due to the power outage can pick up applications for DSS benefits at any of 12 DSS field offices. While currently closed for public service due to the pandemic, applications and dropboxes are available at all offices. For office locations, go to ct.gov/dss/fieldoffices.

In addition, DSS is working with community partners to ensure that SNAP enrollees who have lost food purchased with SNAP benefits during the power outage have access points for requesting replacement benefit information and forms. These partners include End Hunger CT! (endhungerct.org), Connecticut Association for Community Action (cafca.org) and area community action agencies.

The Guard Will Remain

On August 7, Connecticut received approval for an extension through September 30 of full federal funding for its use of the National Guard in the state’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March, the state was approved by the president to receive full federal reimbursement for all costs associated with activating the Guard in support of the state’s emergency response operations; that agreement had been set to expire on August 21.

“The men and women of the Connecticut National Guard deserve applause for the work they’ve done in response to this pandemic, and I have to credit their efforts as one of the reasons why we’ve been able to significantly reduce the positivity rate here over the last several months,” Governor Lamont said.

“They’ve not only been providing state government with valuable resources, but their work also extends to the town level, as well as support for our hospitals and long-term care facilities. I thank the guard for their ongoing commitment to the people of Connecticut. And I also thank President Trump for extending the authority to deploy them at full federal cost share,” he added.

Lamont said that over the last several months the guard has been a valuable resource in mitigating the spread of the virus, and he is hopeful that the federal government will ultimately extend the full federal cost share not just for Connecticut, but for all states for as long as the men and women of the National Guard are deployed across the country for COVID-19 response and mitigation operations.

Fishbowl Survey And School Support

Every day, hundreds of teachers in Connecticut use Fishbowl, a workplace social network for verified employees, to connect with one another and get advice on how to best support the continuation of education and learning during the pandemic.

With the recent controversy surrounding a full reopening of schools, the app developers decided to ask teachers one simple question: “Do you think your state should reopen schools for in-person classes?”

A total of 213 Connecticut teachers answered the question, with more than three-quarters (76.53 percent) saying they do not think the state should reopen schools for in-person classes, whereas 23.47 percent said the state should reopen schools.

Lamont also announced additional coronavirus relief funding to assist school districts with reopening this fall. See related story on page A-12 of this issue.