By the time this report goes live online November 5, and hits homes and newsstands, Health District Director Donna Culbert believes Newtown’s COVID-19 alert status will be elevated to orange, the second-highest level, due to the mounting number of positive cases among residents.

She is hoping the surge does not push Newtown into a red level designation.

“I had a feeling based on the numbers earlier in the week that we’re going to go orange,” Culbert told The Newtown Bee Thursday morning. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if we went red, if not today, pretty soon, based on the increases in case loads we’re seeing.”

The red zone indicates a municipality has an average daily COVID-19 case rate over the last two weeks of greater than 15 per 100,000 population. The orange zone indicates those that have case rates between 10 to 14 cases per 100,000 population.

The yellow zone, where Newtown has been for at least two weeks, indicates municipalities that have case rates between 5 and 9 per 100,000 population, and those indicated in gray have case rates lower than five per 100,000 population.

Newtown has not been in the gray zone for weeks.

Culbert said her case count is now at 376, and the local number of virus-related deaths is continuing to hold at 45. That case count as of November 4 represents an increase of another 33 positives in just a week, and a jump of 57 over the last 14 days.

On October 29, Governor Ned Lamont signed his 78th executive order, No. 9J, providing municipal authority to revert to more restrictive pre-October 8 size and capacity limitations and rules for certain businesses and gatherings. The order makes several modifications to the previously enacted order that allows municipalities to revert to Phase 2.

Under Order 9J, municipalities that are in the orange level of the state’s weekly COVID-19 Alert Map will also have the option of reverting to Phase 2, in addition to the red level municipalities, as previously ordered. In addition, there is no longer a deadline for municipalities to decide whether they want to revert to Phase 2.

Effective immediately, a municipality may revert to Phase 2 any time that it is categorized within the red or orange levels.

As of November 3 at 8:30 pm, the total of COVID-19 cases reported among Connecticut residents is 75,373, including 71,238 laboratory-confirmed and 4,135 probable cases. At that time, 374 patients were hospitalized with laboratory confirmed COVID-19, and there were 4,645 COVID-19-associated deaths being reported.

On Thursday, Lamont headed to Middletown for a news conference announcing the launch of a free, rapid COVID-19 testing pilot program in Connecticut schools for students and school personnel. Get more details on that Friday at newtownbee.com.

Late Wednesday, Waterbury Hospital announced it would join a growing number of medical centers across the state in restricting visitors. The following guidelines became effective Thursday at 8 am:

*One visitor per patient, per day for hospital patients (all medical/surgical, ICU); one support person in Family Birthing Center; one support person allowed for outpatient surgery/outpatient procedures (only for patients who require assistance).

*No visitors are allowed in the Emergency Department (except parents accompanying a minor or support persons for patients who require assistance), in the Behavioral Health Unit, or under the age of 16.

For COVID-19-positive or PUI patients, all visitors must screen negative for COVID-19 (by answering a questionnaire and having a temperature check); all visitors must wear face masks at all times (masks are provided to those who do not have one); and all visitors must maintain physical distancing.

The hospital continues to test patients for the virus at its drive-up Coronavirus Sampling Station at 68 Robbins Street, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 8 am to noon.

“With Waterbury now considered a COVID-19 red zone and for the protection of all our patients, colleagues, and visitors, we are putting in place these restrictions,” said Chief Operating Officer Mark Holtz.

For more information about the coronavirus, hospital preparedness, and visitor restrictions, visit https://waterburyhospital.org/you.

Reactivating Renters’ Assistance

Lamont and Connecticut Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno have announced a second round of funding under the Temporary Rental Housing Assistance Program (TRHAP) to applicants seeking assistance with residential rent payments delayed by financial stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this round, the program will for the first time accept applications directly from small landlords.

TRHAP provides landlords with up to $4,000 in rental assistance on behalf of approved tenants. During the first round, more than $2.2 million in residential rent relief was distributed to landlords on behalf of 826 households. The program had been paused for intake late in the summer after receiving overwhelming interest and demand.

Governor Lamont has allocated $40 million of federal CARES Act money to the program, which is administered by the Connecticut Department of Housing in cooperation with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) and 11 housing counseling agencies across the state.

In addition to the $40 million TRHAP, the Lamont administration is supporting tenants, landlords, and homeowners by providing mortgage relief to homeowners ($10 million), supporting renters who were facing eviction before the pandemic ($5 million), rehousing people exiting homelessness or incarceration ($5.8 million), and supporting renters excluded from federal assistance because of their or their loved ones’ immigration status ($2.5 million). The administration also worked with municipalities to provide real property owners additional time to file their semiannual property taxes and with local financial institutions to provide mortgage forbearance.

“Ensuring access to safe and secure housing is a critical public health component of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, and the need for financial relief on behalf of both tenants and landlords is significant,” Lamont said. “This pandemic has caused widespread housing concerns in all corners of our country, which is why I have been stressing to federal officials that we need to expand this type of assistance even further. Stable housing is a vital component of getting our economy moving again, ensuring access to school, and protecting the health of our neighborhoods.”

In September, Lamont directed several administrative changes to be made to the program to expedite payments to those in need. The Department of Housing has worked with CHFA and the housing counseling agencies to streamline the application process, increase the number of staff processing applications, and create a web platform to accept applications from renters.

“The implementation of the programmatic redesign has allowed to increase our processing time and get assistance to individuals and families faster,” Mosquera-Bruno said. “We have reached out to stakeholders and municipalities with new information explaining the changes to the program and the intake reopening. We are asking landlords and tenants to continue to work collaboratively so that tenants can remain housed and landlords can stay above water financially.”

To apply for TRHAP, visit the Department of Housing’s website at ct.gov/doh. The website includes a status lookup tool providing accepted applicants with information on the status of their application. It is updated once per week.

Phase 2.1 Rollback Reminder

On Monday, after a weekend that saw more than 2,600 new COVID cases develop, Lamont directed the entire state to roll back to Phase 2.1 rules — a slightly modified version of the previously enacted Phase 2 rules — effective at 12:01 am on Friday, November 6. Phase 2.1 restrictions include:

*Restaurants will be limited to 50 percent capacity with a maximum of eight people to a table.

*Restaurants and entertainment venues, e.g., bowling alleys, movie theaters, arcades, etc, must close by 9:30 pm, with the exception of food takeout and delivery services, which will be allowed to continue after 9:30 pm.

*Personal services, such as hair salons and barber shops, remain limited to 75 percent capacity.

*Event venues will be limited to 25 people indoor, 50 people outdoor (except for events already scheduled and ticketed).

*Performing arts venues and movie theaters will have a capacity of 100 people.

*Religious gatherings will be limited to 50 percent capacity or 100 people maximum.

Employers are reminded to maximize telework to the extent possible, and those over 60 and with chronic conditions are urged to remain home as much as possible.

An executive order implementing Phase 2.1 is expected by week’s end, and the Department of Economic and Community Development will be providing businesses with further guidance on the changes.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the Connecticut State Department of Education, launched a dashboard for the public reporting of confirmed COVID-19 cases among PK-12 students and staff in all public and private schools. The data tables are searchable by school and will be maintained on the Connecticut Open Data Portal (data.ct.gov).

Reported data will be updated every Thursday and will reflect total student and staff cases as well as new cases reported from the previous week.

All Connecticut public and private PK-12 schools are required to report any new student or staff person in a school who is identified as having a confirmed positive test result for COVID-19. This includes any staff or students who are working or attending in a fully remote learning model. Districts have been instructed to submit their reports on the same day that their schools are notified or as soon as possible, e.g., if notified on a weekend.