As the state sees a spike in coronavirus cases, Yale New Haven Health provide an update on the pandemic’s impact on its hospitals.
As we approach the holiday season more COVID-19 cases have begun to rise but how does Connecticut's standing compare to where we were at the start of the pandemic?
"We’re finding ourselves where we were right around in the middle of March in terms of total cases," said Dr. Thomas Balcezak EVP and Chief Clinical Officer at Yale New Haven Health. Balcezak is continuing to urge people to stay vigilant when it comes to the virus.
"Forecasting models show that if this trend doesn’t reverse itself we will be seeing a peak sometime in December or toward the beginning of the year," he said.
Although the cases show no signs of slowing down at this moment health professionals said they’ve seen a bit of improvement with patients who’ve tested positive today versus back in March.
"The percent of patients that are in our ICU on ventilators is less than a third than where we were at the same point so about 15% of patients were on ventilators this time only about 5% are on ventilators."
With Thanksgiving just weeks away there's a concern that there will be another major uptick in cases due to family gatherings.
"The safest thing to do is to do it on zoom let everyone stay at home in their own pod and connect on one of those platforms that lets you connect virtually," Balcezak said.
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Mayor Justin Elicker said he's been urging residents to revaluate their social lives over the next few weeks.
"I am asking people to do....what I’m doing in my own life which is actually sit down with my family and core group of friends and ask do we actually need to hang out that much in the next month? Are we wearing mask our mask properly, what’s our plan for Thanksgiving and really talk through the details of this to make sure we keep each other safe."
In terms of the holidays, health professionals said you can ask people coming to your home to quarantine for 14 days before they arrive or to take a test right before they come but the safest option is to go fully virtual.
