The city’s ventilators are quickly being put to use, while school buses are shutting down for two weeks.
Those are the latest updates Friday from City Hall about the fast-paced resurgence of Covid-19 in New Haven.
A day earlier, the Elicker Administration announced an indefinite suspension of a plan to reopen public schools to most students for “hybrid” in-person learning, and it announced a return to Phase II public-health rules. (Click here to read about that.)
With cases reaching the “orange” phase of 10 – 14 per 100,000, and expected to climb higher, a mayoral release Friday announced that:
• Yale New Haven Hospital currently has 60 Covid-positive patients. Seventeen are in the intensive care unit. “This means that 40% of ventilators are already in use and this continues to increase,” the release stated.
• The city’s First Student school buses will not run for two weeks, after 11 of the company’s employees tested positive for the coronavirus. Come Nov. 16, the plan is start up the buses again for the up to 125 or so special-education students attending in-school classes and for students and local parochial and private schools that remain open, according to schools Chief Operating Office Michael Pinto.
City Health Director Maritza Bond said she expects more First Student employees to test positive.
“Once the Department of Public Health was notified of this outbreak, we immediately quarantined the individuals who tested positive, began a robust contact tracing investigation, and are now working diligently to ensure appropriate safety protocols are followed going forward,” she is quoted as saying in the release.
• The health department appealed to parochial and private schools to “evaluate their reopening plans and consider alternative learning methods until further notice. This is incredibly important, especially for our most vulnerable residents, who may be at greater risk of exposure and risk of severe illness and complications.”