OLD LYME — Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Old Lyme increased to 53 in data reported Nov. 9 for Nov. 8 by the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CT DPH) in COVID-19 Tests, Cases, and Deaths (By Town), which is part of their COVID-19 Data Resources website.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lyme for the same date and from the same source are 12 confirmed cases and 1 probable case.
The data presented by town is preceded with this statement:
All data in this report are preliminary; data for previous dates will be updated as new reports are received and data errors are corrected. Deaths reported to the either the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) or Department of Public Health (DPH) are included in the daily COVID-19 update.
The figure given Nov. 7 for the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Old Lyme was 46, whereas the numbers for Lyme were the same as those reported for Nov. 8.
Last Friday, Ledge Light Health District (LLHD) Director of Health Stephen Mansfield told LymeLine, “We are no longer tracking and reporting case numbers independent of the state report. We will only be publishing what DPH reports to us each Friday … Simply put, due to the workload associated with the increase in cases, we do not have the resources to duplicate the efforts of DPH, nor provide a more detailed analysis of the cases in our communities.”
We are therefore now trying to obtain more information from CT DPH on the age and gender of the confirmed cases.
These are very concerning numbers. I do hope that we can get ages and contact tracing information.
Are the cases random or the result of private gatherings? Are the schools involved?
Are there places to be avoided?
I agree, we must try to get info on such a large number of cases…To go from the 20s to the 50s is a shock, and we must try to find causes, unless we were dealing with wrong numbers all along.
The numbers of infections that we know about trails actual conditions by about two weeks. So the numbers we’re seeing now reflect the actual conditions two weeks ago, in late October.
Contact tracing is also lagging behind reality for three reasons: first, some people with symptoms aren’t getting tested (for reasons that vary from lack of health insurance to not wanting to get flagged in the health system); second, contact tracers are overwhelmed with the current spike; and third: because of the lag time between getting a positive test result and starting contact tracing, and the conservative way some folks choose to measure a “contact”. Contact tracing is an essential part of fighting the spread of the virus, but it’s not as precise now as it has been with other illnesses.
The role of the school is also difficult to know, primarily because Ian Neviaser is not providing accurate or reliable information. Anecdotally, I have heard of two cases in the school, but Neviaser isn’t providing adequate details to students, teachers, or their families for anyone to make an informed decision.
Given the increase in cases locally, and given the complete lack of clarity coming from the superintendent, we should assume that spread is happening that is related to schools. I only hope that the Board of Education starts doing their job before someone in the school gets sick or – God forbid – dies.
We are not taking this seriously enough.
The State “school dashboard” states <6 for the high school ending 11/5. So 5 cases?