Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett said that a case of the COVID-19 omicron variant has been detected in town.
Because of this and in consultation with the Quinnipiack Valley Health District, the town of Hamden is reinstating its mask mandate, effective Dec. 11.
The mayor said all people will be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status.
“We have a lot of public places where people need to go like grocery stores and I want everybody to feel safe going into grocery stores, restaurants, any indoor public places," Garrett told NBC Connecticut.
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"Vaccination is the primary preventative method to control the spread of COVID-19. Preventing the spread of COVID-19 is a multi-pronged approach which includes frequent hand washing, maintaining social distancing indoors, avoiding large social gatherings, vaccination, and wearing masks indoors," Garrett said in a statement.
COVID-19 Omicron Variant in Connecticut
Local
This marks three reported omicron cases in Connecticut. Two other omicron variant cases have been detected in the state since Saturday.
Go. Ned Lamont said that a fully vaccinated man marked the state's first case of the omicron COVID-19 variant.
State officials said the man, who is in his 60s, is from Hartford County. Sequencing performed at the Connecticut State Public Health Laboratory confirmed the presence of the variant.
The governor’s office said the second case of the COVID-19 omicron variant involves a fully vaccinated man in his 20s from Fairfield County.
The governor’s office said he did not report any links to the NYC Anime 2021 Convention but traveled to New York City in the week before his symptoms started.
The man developed mild symptoms on Dec. 2, then on Dec. 4, he tested positive on an at-home rapid antigen test and a molecular test. The sequencing on the case was performed by the Yale School of Public Health.
The COVID-19 positivity rate for Connecticut increased from 5.8% on Monday to 8.33% on Tuesday. It appears the last time Connecticut's positivity rate was over 8 percent was on Jan. 8, before vaccines were widely available. The rate on that date was 8.46%.
“It’s important that we keep everybody safe and stay ahead of the curve," Garrett said.
