This evening, New Canaan First Selectman Kevin Moynihan provided a coronavirus update reporting that the Town had a significant increase this week in positive COVID test results for New Canaan residents with a total of 53 cases since last Friday. This is the highest number of cases per week for New Canaan since the start of the pandemic last March.
Please read Moynihan's important update below.
Red Zone
New Canaan is now coded red on the State DPH alert map as is 80% of the State’s total population. Our Health Director notes that there have been 1115 additional negative tests reported for New Canaan residents over the last week for a positivity rate of rate of 4.75 %. For complete information about our COVID-19 cases since March see the COVID-19 page of our website at www.newcanaan.info.
We continue to see cases resulting from gatherings of all sizes occurring in homes and at commercial establishments, spread within families, various youth sports events, play dates and transmission from outside caregivers. Households should remember to isolate from positive family members to the extent possible, disinfect all contact surfaces within the home, wear masks in the home and adjust mechanical ventilation or open windows if you are not able to fully isolate from your positive family member. If families have caregivers, house cleaners, and others that regularly enter your homes from other areas it is advised you remind those workers to not come into your home if they are experiencing any type of COVID symptom. It is also advised to avoid carpooling and if you must drive a non-family member you should wear masks and keep windows down.
An important component to keeping our community and schools open and operating safely is testing. With that in mind, today the Town brought in PhysicianOne Urgent Care to conduct voluntary testing of over 400 residents, teachers, and first responders. The purpose of this testing is to identify asymptomatic positive cases in the community so as to isolate them and their close contacts so we can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our community.
Testing on November 20
We will again have community testing with PhysicianOne next Friday, November 20th, at Lapham Center from 8 am to 4 pm. To get tested you must register on the PhysicianOne website at https://physicianoneurgentcare.com/new-canaan-testing/.
With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching and the return of many college students to New Canaan we would like to remind parents of the State of CT travel guidelines requiring self-quarantine for 14 days or a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours. The CDC has guidance on its website for Thanksgiving recommendations. As a reminder, the Governor’s order remains in effect for a 10 person limit on private gatherings.
As a reminder, if you are symptomatic please do not attend work, school, or any public or private gathering. The symptoms for COVID-19 vary and some symptoms include: new loss of sense of smell or taste, sore throat, shortness of breath, dry cough, fever, body aches, chills, fatigue, and congestion. For a complete list of COVID 19 symptoms please visit www.cdc.gov. We want to stress to all residents how important it is to recognize symptoms of COVID-19 and get tested.
We encourage all residents to get tested and help us stop the spread of COVID-19 in our community. And please do your part in controlling the spread by wearing a mask, washing hands frequently and maintaining social distance.
Finally, we remind you that if you travel to any of the states or countries on the list (except for less than 24 hours), you must quarantine for 14 days upon your return home or fulfill the testing requirements outlined in Executive Order 9B and also complete the travel form found on the state’s coronavirus website (https://portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus/travel).
Stay safe, New Canaan.