HARTFORD, Conn. — The phrase “flatten the curve” was preached countless times when COVID-19 was detected in the United States, but what does our curve look like, and did we flatten it?
Gov. Ned Lamont and other state leaders have said that a continued downward trend of hospitalizations is key to reopening.
Aside from a small increase Tuesday, the numbers have shown about a dozen days of decline. Wednesday there were 1,445 people in Connecticut hospitals for coronavirus, 55 fewer than Tuesday and 287 fewer than a week prior.
But many people have questions about the numbers.
Eric emailed FOX61 asking, “you report that the number of hospitalizations are down. Please be more specific as to whether the number is down because of: not as many newly admitted; cured and left; or died?”
Eric brings up a good point. Hospital numbers can only go down if people are discharged for recovering, fewer people are admitted, or the people in the hospital are dying.
Unfortunately, we don’t know that breakdown, at least not yet.
FOX61 asked the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s data team the number of hospital discharges related to recoveries. The data is on the way. A member of the data team said they were in the process of collecting the data from the Connecticut Hospital Association, and aggregate discharge data “will be reported beginning soon, probably this week.”
You can check back here for when that data is released.