Covid Updates: 3 More Deaths; Mayor Sics Inspectors On Grocers Flouting Safety Order

New Haven’s Covid-19 death toll climbed from six to nine in one day, while the mayor demanded that grocery stores do better on separating customers to try to save lives.

Mayor Justin Elicker and Health Director Maritza Bond made that demand and reported that statistic Sunday afternoon during his latest Zoom press briefing on the pandemic.

Bond reported that the range of the latest New Haveners to die fro the disease ranged from 43 to 93.

Overall, New Haven now has 241 confirmed cases of Covid-19. The real number of people infected is believed to be far higher.

Bond said that the youngest case involved a 1 year-old: ​“This is affecting all communities regardless of race, gender, and economic status.”

That said, Bond reported that ​“some communities” are getting particularly hard hit by the virus in New Haven. She declined to specify which communities; she said that when her team analyzes the data more in coming days, she will provide details.

A new report by ProPublica reveals that in some U.S. cities, Covid-19 is hitting the African-American community particularly hard.

Also at the press briefing, Elicker announced that some grocers — larger stores and corner stores — continue to flout the governor’s order to keep customers six feet away from each other both inside and outside their establishments, to put up signage informing people of the rules, and to conspicuously mark one-way directional routes in aisles. The governor also asked storeowners, if possible, to install plexiglass shields to separate cashiers from customers.

Elicker said the city has received numerous complaints from customers who feel unsafe because of these violations. So health inspectors plan to begin visiting stores to enforce the rules.

“It’s obviously critical that stores are promoting social distancing,” Elicker said. These are vital assets for the community right now, because people need food. But we need to do so in a healthy way.”

On Monday the city plans to transfer another group of homeless individuals from shelters to hotel rooms, completing the plan to isolate individuals showing no signs of infection so they don’t catch Covid-19 from someone else.

An earlier version of this article follows:

City Death Toll Climbs To 6; Face Masks Recommended; UNH Pact Inked

New Haven’s Covid-19 death toll has risen to six, and the city is now recommending that all New Haveners wear cloth masks when out in public, following up on a new set of CDC voluntary public health guidelines about how best to reduce community spread.

Mayor Justin Elicker delivered those updates Saturday afternoon during his daily coronavirus-related press briefing held online via the Zoom teleconferencing app and on YouTube Live.

Showing off his own star-patterned, blue-and-white bandanna wrapped around his mouth at the start of the briefing, Elicker said that the city plans to send out a robocall Saturday afternoon announcing the new municipal public health recommendation.

“The purpose of the masks is not to prevent people from contracting Covid-19,” he said. The purpose is rather to help stop asymptomatic carriers who may not even know they have the novel coronavirus from inadvertently spreading the disease through coughing and sneezing when going outside to make essential trips to the pharmacy or grocery store.

Elicker and city Health Director Maritza Bond also said that a total of six New Haveners have now died from Covid-19, and the city has 181 confirmed positive cases, though the actual number is likely much higher considering the relative inaccessibility of tests.

Bond said that the locals who have died from the novel coronavirus range from 57 years old at the youngest to 93 at the oldest. Another victim was 65, for example, and still another was 70.

Elicker and Bond cautioned that these are the latest fatality numbers provided to the city by the state Department of Public Health. The city is still following up and checking death certificates for those cases before confirming that that is the definitive local fatality number at this moment.

Other updates included:

• The city has inked an agreement with the University of New Haven to house between 150 and 170 local police officers and firefighters at the private university’s West Haven campus. These spaces will be reserved for public safety officers who have not tested positive for Covid-19, but who may be asymptomatic or may have been exposed and need a place to stay during the crisis to protect their and their families’ health.

Elicker said the city has already moved four local police officers over to UNH, and that more will be moving in the coming days and weeks.

A total of seven city firefighters and three city police officers have tested positive for Covid-19 so far.

• Four residents of the Bella Vista senior apartment complex on the far east side of town have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Elicker said that three of those patients are currently at Yale New Haven Hospital, while one is back at Bella Vista and in self-isolation.

• The city has finalized an agreement with a second hotel to house homeless individuals who have nowhere else to stay now that the city has closed local homeless shelters to mitigate the spread of the virus. ​“On Monday we will be transporting a lot more people into that hotel to complete the transition to removing people from homeless shelters and into hotels,” he said. Elicker said on Friday that 139 homeless individuals have been moved into hotel rooms by the city and the state so far.

See below for an earlier version of this article.

Friday Afternoon’s Covid Update Article

An additional three New Haveners have likely died from Covid-19, bringing the city’s fatality total to four so far, according to information provided by the state Department of Public Health to the city.

Mayor Justin Elicker and top city officials said they are double checking death certificates before confirming that local fatality number, since one fatality reported by the state in late March subsequently proved to be premature.

Elicker gave that update Friday afternoon during his administration’s daily online coronavirus-related press briefing held on the Zoom tele-conferencing platform.

The mayor and city Health Director Maritza Bond said that, according to information provided to the city by the state health department, New Haven now has a total of four fatalities and 170 positive confirmed cases since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

“The state has told us there are four deaths,” Elicker said. ​“We’re confirming that now” by checking death certificates for each of the three most recent fatal cases.

The mayor noted that one death reported by the state to the city last week proved to be ​“erroneous.”

Bond (pictured) added that 42 percent of the city’s positive, confirmed coronavirus cases are people aged 25 to 49 years old.

“This is affecting everyone across the board,” she said, and not just the elderly. ​“It’s really important that when we are making recommendations,” around social distancing, refraining from leaving one’s house except for critical needs, washing one’s hands and wiping down frequently touched services frequently, ​“that people really adhere to them.”

Elicker noted that some major religious holidays are coming up, including Easter and Passover.

“It’s tempting to want to get together with family members and extended family members,” he said. ​“Unfortunately, this is not the time to do that.”

He said that people should not be interacting with people who are not in one’s ​“core family,” so as to protect the lives of others and limit the spread of the infectious respiratory disease.

Other updates:

• The city continues to receive complaints about grocery stores that are not following city, state, and federal social distancing recommendations that urge people to keep six feet from others at all times.

“We’ve been reaching out to grocery stores to make sure that they are limiting the number of people inside at each time,” he said. And to make sure that people waiting outside to get in are keeping six feet apart.

He declined to identify any particular grocery stores that have been the worst offenders as of late, but he and Bond said that they would be reaching out to and even sending city sanitarians out to grocery stores this weekend to ensure that they are following the social distancing guidelines.

And Elicker pointed out that the CDC has changed its recommendations as to who should consider themselves exposed to the coronavirus. Previously, that applied to anyone who had been in close contact with someone exhibiting Covid symptoms. Now, he said, that’s anyone who has been in close contact with someone 48 hours prior to the symptom onset.

• Elicker said that a total of seven city firefighters and one city police officer have tested positive for Covid-19.

Yale University has opened its doors to house one of those firefighters, Elicker said. ​“We are very grateful” for Yale allowing that city firefighter to stay on its campus, he said.

The mayor added that the city is close to signing an agreement with the University of New Haven that would allow the city to house city firefighters and police officers who have not tested positive for Covid-19 but need a place to stay so as to protect themselves and their families during the crisis. ​“We will be moving folks in quite quickly to UNH” now that the Board of Alders passed an order allowing the city to enter into indemnification agreements during the crisis.

• Elicker said that, by the end of the day, the city and state expect to have moved 139 homeless individuals into hotel rooms. Elicker said that the city worked with the New Haven Public Schools and First Transit, the public school bus operators, to relocate homeless individuals from Columbus House to the hotel rooms. ​“We moved a lot of folks today,” Elicker said.

In an email sent out by Columbus House Friday afternoon, Interim CEO Cindy Fox wrote:

As you know, over the last two-plus weeks, we have worked diligently with city and state officials along with numerous partner agencies to ensure that we move every person out of our shelters and into hotels so that we can maintain safe distancing to reduce the chance of those we serve contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to others in the shelter. I’m thrilled to report that today, the last of our New Haven shelter clients have been safely transported to a local hotel. 58 additional people are now safely situated in a hotel and will no longer have to worry about being crowded into the shelter where it was almost impossible, despite everyone’s best efforts, to practice effective social distancing.

Fox also said that no Columbus House clients have contracted the virus so far.

• Schools Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto (pictured) said that NHPS distributed 2,300 meals Friday. It distributed 16,452 meals this week, and a total of 72,088 meals in total since schools closed due to the pandemic in mid-March. He also praised First Student for helping the city transport homeless individuals to hotel rooms.

“They have stepped up as a terrific partner,” he said.

• The mayor said that the latest coronavirus-related relief package passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the president will result in the city receiving additional Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. He did not confirm how much or when that money will be available, but he did say that the money will be allocated for municipalities to use specifically for responding to Covid-19. ​“HUD has given an initial one-pager of what funds can be used for,” he said. ​“We will be assessing what may be appropriate based on our needs.” He added that the pandemic will certainly have a significant impact on this fiscal year’s city budget. He said the city has not been able to collect as much in delinquent taxes as it usually does because the city is only collecting that money online, right now. He said that building permits will also likely decrease, and that parking ticket and parking meter revenue have ​“bottomed out.” ​“There are a lot of impacts to our budget that we did not foresee,” he said.

And in other local Covid news, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven announced that it has given out $600,900 to 28 different organizations in the first round of grants from the Covid-19 support fund that it and the United Way have created. Click here for a complete list of organizations that received that money.