Lamont Addresses Coronavirus School Closure Policies

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont said people should take Connecticut’s uptick in the positive coronavirus test rate into context, as the state continues to have one of the lowest rates in the country.

Last week, the state’s positive test rate was more than 1 percent three days in a row. Lamont commented on the increase and what schools should do in the event of a positive case in an interview on WNPR’s Where We Live program.

“They’ve probably peaked up one-half of one percentage point to you know 1.2 [percent],” he said. “Compare that to North Dakota which is at 20 [percent positivity rate].”

Connecticut’s pandemic metrics still fall well into the state’s “low-risk” category, which helps dictate school reopenings. The low-risk category favors more in-person learning.

Many Connecticut schools reopened to students last week and there were a handful of schools that shut down temporarily due to positive tests among community members. Other schools remained open amid a positive test result.

There have been around 32 positive coronavirus cases found in school communities out of around 600,000 or 700,000 teachers, staff and students, Lamont said during a news conference.

"It’s a much lower positivity rate than we are used to seeing in the general population right now,” he said.

Generally, schools won’t need to close down if there is a single case, especially at the K-8 level, where students are mainly cohorting into a single class the whole day, Lamont said.

“If there happens to be an infection in that one class it’s just those you know 20 students and that teacher who would have to quarantine, not the entire middle school or not the entire school,” he said during the WNPR interview.

In some small schools, contact tracing has shown that one infected person had contact with people in two or three different grades, which necessitated a temporary closure, Lamont said.

For now, the state won't issue specific guidance on when a school should close, as it's mainly up to local officials to decide, Lamont said.

"There have been very very few infections much lower than the general population I think right now it’s working ok,” he said.

Only Danbury and New Haven public schools are fully remote as of Monday. New Haven plans to be fully remote for at least the first 10 weeks of the school year. Danbury intended to open on a hybrid basis, but that was pushed back due to a spike in cases in the city. Danbury eventually plans to go hybrid.

“Come on New Haven I think you ought to take a look, you have a very low infection rate and these kids … ought to have the option to go to school, obviously nothing is mandatory," Lamont said.

Connecticut will aim to get at least 75 percent of school students vaccinated for the flu.

There have been a several instances of larger schools shutting down after a positive coronavirus case. Naugatuck High School students were dismissed early Wednesday and did remote learning the rest of last week after a senior tested positive for the virus. In-person classes resumed Monday. In Wallingford, Dag Hammarskjold Middle School will be closed through Wednesday this week due to a positive test result that was announced Sunday.

Overall, school districts have been handling the pandemic very well, Lamont said.

“Let’s give these kids a little bit of face-to-face education as much as we can,” he said. “I can’t tell you … what the world’s going to look like during flu season in November, but I do believe that if we can safety get our kids back to school even for these next couple of months that’s a big plus.”

As for high school football, Lamont said he’d rather wait until the spring.

“The public health peoples’ recommendations is it’s still a high risk sport, better to do it in the spring than in the fall … really that’s a decision that’s up to each and every community and up to the local superintendents,” he said.

Lamont again recommended that high school football be pushed back to the spring during his news conference. By that point flu season will mostly be over, there will be new coronavirus therapies coming to the market and Abbott Labs will release their anticipated rapid and low-cost coronavirus test, he said.