Newtown, CT COVID Updates

02/04/2022

** NEWTOWN COVID UPDATE 2/4/2022 **

Well the big news this week is that testing is now WAY down. There were only 496 tests reported this week, down from almost 3,000 eight weeks ago. So the number of new cases is also way down, but it's hard to know how accurate that is with the prevalence of home-based testing these days.

We had 34 new cases reported on 39 positives, with a positivity rate of 7.86%. That positivity rate is the lowest we've seen since early December, so that is a big positive indicator.

Our 14-day average is now 14.36 cases per day with a positivity rate of 10.88%. Hospitalizations in Fairfield County are down to 186 from a high of 515 just a few weeks ago.

So mostly good news. Be safe out there!

02/02/2022

** NEWTOWN COVID UPDATE, WEEK ENDING 1/28/2022 **

Last week in Newtown our numbers were much improved. We had 105 new cases on 147 positives from 1,308 tests for a positivity rate of 11.24%. While these numbers are all still really high (105 cases would have been the third highest weekly total ever prior to the current surge) they are significantly better than where we were four weeks ago when our weekly case number peaked at 437. It is worth mentioning as well that testing is WAY down (about 1/3 of six weeks ago) as home-based tests have become far more widely used. These are overwhelmingly not reported to the state.

Hospitalizations in the county are also significantly improved at 216 patients as of 2/3. This number peaked at a little over 500 just a few weeks ago.

We unfortunately had two more Covid deaths in town, bringing the total for the month of January to seven and our all-time total to 62.

01/27/2022

Through the first three days of this week we've had 104 reported new cases on 149 positives from 1,189 tests for a positivity rate of 12.53%. All of these numbers are still pretty high, but about half of where we were a few weeks ago.

01/22/2022

** NEWTOWN COVID UPDATE 1/21/2022 **

Well the good news is that lab-confirmed Covid cases in Newtown were down 45% over last week for a total of 180. The less-good news is that the number of tests was down almost the exact same amount, so in reality cases held steady with the same positivity rate of 18.11% as last week. The widespread use of home tests has really made the pandemic more difficult to track, as almost none of those end up reported to the state.

In worse news, we had three more confirmed Covid deaths in town this week. It's been over a year since we've had that many in a single week and brings the total number of Covid deaths in Newtown to 5 this month. We had 15 deaths total in all of 2021, and 13 of those were in the first three months of the year.

On the brighter side, hospitalizations continue to decline in Fairfield county, though more slowly this week. As of today, there are 400 hospitalized Covid patients in the county (we peaked at 515 two weeks ago.)

01/18/2022

76 new cases reported in the past two days on 102 positives from 663 tests for a positivity rate of 15.38%. While still high, that's a marked improvement over the last few weeks. It's a small sample though, so we'll have to continue to monitor before calling it a trend.

Covid hospitalizations in Fairfield County are down about 16% over a week ago and now stand at 428. That number peaked at 516 on January 7th. I think things are looking up!

01/14/2022

** NEWTOWN COVID UPDATE 1/14/2022 **

Another rough week for cases in town, though improved from last week. This week we had 332 new confirmed cases on 408 positives from 2,253 tests for a positivity rate of 18.11%. This is down from last week's 437 cases and positivity rate of 23.11%, but it's still our second-worst week ever on both counts. We'll have to see if next week continues the downward trend.

Hospitalizations now exceed the number hospitalized at the peak of last winter's surge, though we must keep in mind that this number is "hospitalized patients who have COVID" and not "hospitalized patience BECAUSE of COVID." Since COVID is so widespread in the community, a large percentage of the population is testing positive at the hospital without even realizing they had it.

Here are the numbers:

7-Day Average Cases per Day: 47.43 (down from an all-time high of 62.43 a week ago)
14-Day Avg Cases: 54.93 (up from 49 a week ago)
30-Day Avg Cases: 39.27 (up from 33.13 a week ago)
14-Day Positivity Rate: 20.60%
14-Day Avg Cases per 100k Residents: 170.05 (10 is the CDC mask line...)
Hospitalizations in Fairfield County: 478 (down from 516 a week ago)

01/14/2022

78 new cases today and 24 yesterday for a total of 102 on 143 positives from 557 tests for a positivity rate of 25%.

01/11/2022

"Only" 36 new confirmed cases today, but that's on 40 positives from only 135 tests for an astronomical positivity rate of 29.63%!

Hospitalizations in the county stand at 497, down three from yesterday.

01/11/2022

156 new cases today on 171 positives from 1,017 tests for an improved (but still really bad) positivity rate of 16.8%.

There are currently 500 Covid hospitalizations in Fairfeld County, down 16 from Friday. Thirty days ago that number was 110.

01/09/2022

Some interesting data from The NY Times this morning. Hospitalizations in NYC are now well above the peak of last winter, though ICU and ventilator cases haven’t gotten there yet. You can also see the delta between vaccinated and unvaccinated hospitalizations in the charts attached…

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/01/09/us/omicron-cities-cases-hospitals.html?referringSource=articleShare

01/08/2022

** NEWTOWN COVID UPDATE 1/7/2022 **

Well folks, it's been quite a week. We almost DOUBLED the previous weekly high for cases (which was set last week) with 437 confirmed new cases. In a town of 27,891 people, that's 1.5% of town residents. With the widespread use of home tests that go unreported, it's likely MUCH higher. The positivity rate for the week was 23.11%.

We had TWO confirmed COVID deaths this week. That's more than we had in the past eight months combined. Hospitalizations in Fairfield County are now at about the same levels as the peak of last winter's surge.

Cases nationally are through the roof - the 7-day average now is DOUBLE the previous peak of last winter's surge.

01/06/2022

54 new cases reported today on 58 positives from 216 tests for a positivity rate of 26.85%. I don't know if it's a testing capacity issue or if not enough people are being tested, but the number of tests is low and the positivity rate is insanely high!

01/05/2022

77 new cases today on 92 positives from 368 tests for a new daily record positivity rate of 25%! In just three days of reporting we've already broken our all-time weekly record for new reported covid cases... which we set last week. Yesterday we also saw our first Covid death in town since August 20th.

Hospitalizations in Fairfield County have tripled in the past three weeks and as of today we now have 459 hospitalized patients in the county.

01/05/2022

80 new cases today on 114 positives from 507 tests for a positivity rate of 22.39%.

01/03/2022

The good news is that this site is right off the highway (exit 4) and the hours are expanded... The bad news is that COVID is so widespread and they're capping it at 700 tests per day, so it'll be pretty much impossible to get tested here without sitting in line for hours (today they closed the line at 2PM.)

Note also that the Rogers Park / Memorial Drive testing site is closed for the next two weeks.

⚠COVID-19 TESTING LOCATION IN DANBURY⚠
NEW LOCATION - 1/3/22 - 1/16/22 ONLY

ATTENTION: The COVID-19 Testing Site located at 118 Memorial Drive in Danbury will be closed between 1/3/22 and 1/16/22. Please see the information below regarding the new testing site.

🚗 Drive-thru testing
✔ First Come, First Served - Maximum of 700 Tests Daily
🧪 PCR COVID-19 Test Only
📆 No Appointment Needed

📍Where:
Western Connecticut State University
Westside Campus
43 Lake Avenue Ext.
Danbury, CT 06811

⏰ When:
Monday 1/3/22 - Friday 1/7/22
1:00 PM - 7:00 PM*

Saturday 1/8/22 & Sunday 1/9/22
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM*

Monday 1/10/22 - Friday 1/14/22
1:00 PM - 7:00 PM*

Saturday 1/15/22 & Sunday 1/16/22
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM*

*The COVID-19 testing hours listed above are based on the number of tests available and are subject to change.

Please contact SEMA4 at (800) 298-6470 if you need assistance accessing your COVID-19 test results.

01/03/2022

156 new cases reported today on 175 positives from 927 total tests for a positivity rate of 18.88%.

Almost 25% of Newtown's all-time COVID cases have come in the past 30 days, and half of those were in the past week alone.

12/30/2021

** NEWTOWN COVID ALERT 12/30/2021 **

Well we're certainly finishing 2021 with a bang... closing out a week with only four days of reporting, we have set a new all-time record for COVID cases in a single week in Newtown by a wide margin. The previous high was 141 cases in the week of January 12th, 2021. Over the past four days we've had 249 new cases reported in Newtown, with a positivity rate of 16.51% for the week. This same week last year we had 35 reported cases for the entire week. The 14-Day positivity rate now stands at an all-time high of 12.95%.

These numbers all reflect positive tests reported to the state, so there are likely hundreds more home tests not counted here.

Hospitalizations in Fairfield County have increased 500% over the past 30 days and now stand at 293 patients. That's the highest it's been since January 4th, though still well below the all-time high of 797 in April 2020. Statewide it's reported that 80% of hospitalized patients in the state are unvaccinated. This is down from 95% not too long ago.

Here are the numbers:

7-Day Avg: 35.57 cases/day
14-Day Avg: 27.86 cases/day
30-Day Avg: 20.70 cases/day
14-Day Positivity Rate: 12.95%

12/29/2021

Another crazy COVID day in Newtown... 57 new cases today on 65 positives from 304 tests for an astronomical positivity rate of 21.38%.

We've had 630 new cases in town in the past 30 days. That's 2.3% of the population confirmed to have caught COVID in the past month alone. Considering the widespread use of home tests that go unreported to the state, this number is probably much higher.

Be safe out there, people!