While Newtown Health District Director Donna Culbert knows that five of this week’s 13 new COVID-19 cases were registered within the Garner Correctional Facility, she remains frustrated over others ignoring quarantine restrictions after travel, or after being exposed to someone who is infected.

“We know five of the latest cases are from Garner, but some of the others are occurring among members of the same family,” Culbert told The Newtown Bee September 3, after the local case count jumped from 262 on August 27 to 275.

The local health official said the eight other new cases also represent a few that were added even though the residents tested positive more than a week ago. Nonetheless, Culbert is stepping up her advice to residents, especially as schools begin opening.

“The cases I know about are confined and contained,” but Culbert said she is “still chasing down” others who may have been exposed to those newcomers to Newtown’s expanding COVID-19 case roster.

“I think that we’re seeing some folks not complying with the quarantine order after they’ve come back from recent vacations,” the health director said. “And I’m afraid others are developing a false sense of security, and getting a little too close when visiting or socializing.”

Culbert is advising all Newtown residents to continue being vigilant, to step up their hand washing, proper social distancing, and use of face coverings.

“Keep your social circle tight, especially now as kids are going back to school,” she said. “This is not over — we have been working hard to try and create opportunities for people to have some type of social interaction, but I’ve talked to a lot of people who said they felt they did everything right and still ended up COVID positive.”

More concerning are the residents who said they knew they had been exposed to one or more positive cases and failed to follow quarantine guidelines.

“We all need to be more careful,” Culbert said. “If you don’t feel well, stay home, and if you’ve been exposed to someone you know has the virus, or you have traveled to a hot state, you must honor the 14 day quarantine rule. Even if you’ve been tested since traveling, a negative test does not release you from quarantine.”

While the coronavirus-related death count has held at 44 for more than a month, Newtown’s uptick in new cases is mirroring what is happening statewide. As numbers continued to increase, with nearly 900 new cases since August 27, increased testing is helping to keep Connecticut’s overall positivity rate at or below the one percent mark, according to Governor Ned Lamont.

As of September 1 at 8:30 pm, the total of COVID-19 cases reported among Connecticut residents is 53,108, including 50,978 laboratory-confirmed and 2,130 probable cases. Sixty-five patients were currently hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 at that time, and 4,467 COVID-19-associated deaths had been reported.

Fairfield County continues to outpace the rest of the state in case numbers, logging 18,965 as of September 1, resulting in 1,415 deaths county-wide.

Travel, Nursing Home Updates

On September 1, the regional travel advisory between Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York that directs incoming travelers from states with a significant community spread of COVID-19 to self-quarantine for a 14-day period was updated — and now includes Alaska and Montana.

The quarantine applies to any person traveling into Connecticut from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents, or higher than a 10 percent test positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average. For a list of all states involved, visit portal.ct.gov/coronavirus/travel.

Connecticut Department of Public Health Acting Commissioner Dr Deidre Gifford has issued an order expanding visitation in Connecticut nursing homes and clarifying for all long-term care facilities their obligations to facilitate visitations. For general visitation, the order:

*Clarifies that visits may occur more than once per week.

*Requires nursing homes to develop a facility-wide visitation policy.

*Requires facilities to assess the psychosocial needs of each resident and develop individualized visitation plans to meet those needs.

*Extends the minimum time for perimeter visits (e.g. window visits, socially distanced outdoor visits) from 20 minutes to 30 minutes.

*Requires facilities to designate no fewer than five days per week as visitation days, one of which shall be a Saturday or Sunday, from which a resident’s visitation schedule can be devised.

For compassionate care visits, the order:

*Confirms that compassionate care visits may take place indoors and do not require social distancing, as long as visitors and residents wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) as determined and supplied by the nursing home.

*Expands compassionate care visits beyond end-of-life visits to include visits for residents who undergo significant change in physical, mental, or psychosocial condition.

*Requires change of condition to be determined in consultation with resident’s physician, physician’s assistant, or advance practice registered nurse.

*Requires facilities to suspend expanded compassionate care visits for significant changes in physical, mental, or psychosocial conditions whenever the facility experiences an outbreak of COVID-19. This suspension must be maintained until the facility has complied with Executive Order No. 7AAA to test nursing home staff and residents weekly, with no positive COVID-19 cases among staff or residents for 14 days.

Weakening Guidelines

On August 27, Lamont joined Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey to release a joint statement regarding the federal government’s decision to weaken COVID-19 testing guidelines.

On that date, it was changed to say that someone who was in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes but didn’t have symptoms does not “necessarily need a test.”

Three days later, guidance released by CDC Director Robert Redfield said those who come in contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 patient can be tested, even if they don’t show symptoms.

“The CDC has been a consistent, credible, and reliable guide for our nation for decades, providing clear and science-based guidance on everything from infectious disease to vaccines,” the governors said.

“That role is vital to our collective public health and it must continue. This 180-degree reversal of COVID-19 testing guidelines is reckless, and not based on science, and has the potential to do long-term damage to the institution’s reputation.”