A recent Hartford Courant review of death certificates from October shows a much broader population in Connecticut is dying from COVID-19.
The deaths were not confined to the elderly. While 115 deaths were among people 70 and older, there were 15 deaths of people between 60 and 69, eight of people in their 50s, and one each in their 40s and 30s, state records show.
Coronavirus claimed 35-year-old Pedro Alfaro Vargas, a stonemason from Norwalk, the youngest to die. A 66-year-old former tailor from West Hartford, a 60-year-old former emergency management director in Lisbon, and a 43-year-old mother of three from Hartford were among those who died as the state’s death toll from COVID-19 began to climb once more.
CTNewsJunkie reports that on Friday, there were 2,746 new cases, a record for one day. The 10,520 cases reported over the last seven days accounted for 12% of all COVID-19 cases in the state to date – more than the total number of cases in the state between June 1 through August 31.
As of Friday, there were 784 nursing home residents with confirmed cases of COVID-19. There were also 659 people across the state who have been hospitalized with the virus.
Hispanic – Latino residents have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, an analysis by the Connecticut Data Collaborative revealed how vast that disparity is. The number of Hispanic -Latino residents who died in April almost tripled. Meanwhile, white deaths nearly doubled.
“These differences are the result of centuries of structural racism, which has manifested in inadequate and unequal treatment of people of color, ultimately causing health disparities in our communities,” reads the 4-page analysis.
The range of deaths across the state displays how widespread the virus has become.
According to state data, there have been 23 deaths among the 30 to 39 age group, 64 among those 40 to 49, 199 cases among those 50 to 59, 592 among those 60 to 69, 1,034 among those 70 to 79, and 2,819 among those 80 and older.
More younger people are testing positive for the virus.
“Four to five weeks ago we started seeing changes in the community. The younger population was getting infected, by that I mean 20-29-year-olds and 30-39-year-olds that had very high positivity rate compared to 60-69 range,” said Dr. Ajay Kumar, Hartford HealthCare’s chief clinical officer in an interview with the Hartford Courant. “The younger population, who get infected because of social gatherings or mask fatigue or disregard for wearing a mask or social distancing, were able to congregate and are mobile, and it has led to more community spread, and now we are seeing more hospitalizations.”
As Thanksgiving and the holiday season begins, Kumar fears that multiple gatherings or get-together dinner parties when folks are likely to be indoors will exasperate the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
(Cover Photo Credit: Consumer Reports)
