Governor Ned Lamont announced Monday that the state of Connecticut will pause Phase 3 reopening amid a jump in COVID-19 cases in different areas across the United States.
Lamont emphasized that Connecticut never opened restaurants to more than 50% capacity. The state will "take a pause" on phase 3 reopening, allowing 25-person gatherings inside and 100 people outside.
"If we learned one thing, it's how much safer it is outdoors than indoors," Lamont said.
There is no clear answer on when bars might reopen.
Lamont said state campgrounds will still reopen on July 8.
"We have a lot of work to do and thankfully Connecticut is doing it right in a very thoughtful way," Lamont said.
The governor said he is keeping an eye on what's happening in other states.
COVID-19 Numbers Since Friday
Since Friday, hospitalizations have declined by 26, bringing the state total to 69. Hospitalizations are at the lowest they've been since March 23, according to Lamont.
There has been a total of three new deaths, bringing the death toll to 4,338.
An additional 24,692 tests have been performed since Friday with about 8,000 per day, Lamont said.
In the past seven days, an average 0.7% of coronavirus tests performed came back positive. Since Friday, 259 of 24,692 tests performed came back positive, which is about a 1% positivity rate.
Connecticut coronavirus hospitalizations dropped Friday after days of increasing and the positive rest rate continues to stay below 1%.
Contact Tracing
Lamont said that the state has been able to really stay on top of contact tracing with COVID-19 numbers continuing to trend in the right direction.
Lamont said 96 percent of cases are followed up on within 48 hours through contact tracing.
47% of cases have been successfully contacted, according to Lamont.
Lamont urges anyone who gets a text message from CT COVID TRACE to respond.
