During a press briefing on the COVID-19 outbreak Monday, Governor Ned Lamont announced the members of an advisory board in Connecticut, which will work with several states in creating a plan to reopen the economy.
“This is made up of the best and the brightest around the state – business as well as science,” said Governor Lamont.
Governor Lamont said Indra Nooyi would be appointed to the committee to focus on the economic efforts. Nooyi is the co-chair of the nonprofit organization Advance CT and the former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.
“Her co-pilot will be Dr. Albert Ko. He’s our Dr. Fauci - so to speak. He is Yale’s leading epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist,” said Governor Lamont. “They are going to put together a collection of folks from business and science.”
Paul Mounds, who serves as the governor’s chief of staff, will also serve in the committee.
Earlier Monday, Governor Lamont announced Connecticut would join officials from New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Delaware to create guidelines that would help determine the best and safest way to reopen.
“Why do we need this partnership? Because we worked together when it came to how we were going to slowly close things down and do everything we could with social distancing to limit the spread of the virus,” Governor Lamont said. “So far it looks like that social distancing is working, and it also makes sense if [Governor] Cuomo is going to open his bars and restaurants at some point undetermined in the future, we should probably be on the same path as New York and vice versa.”
During Governor Lamont’s 4 p.m. press briefing, he announced Massachusetts would be the seventh state to join the effort.
“We share a big border with Massachusetts,” Governor Lamont said. “It’s important we collaborate.”
Members of the task force are expected to begin working on a plan as soon as Tuesday.
As of Monday, the state reported an additional 1,346 positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 13,381. The number of fatalities also increased to 48, bringing the total to 602 deaths from the virus. The number of patients currently hospitalized stood at 1,760 – an increase of 106. The total number of COVID-19 tests performed increased 3,089 from Sunday to 44,309.
During the press briefing, the governor also announced Connecticut would be one of the first states to get FDA approved sanitizing equipment for PPE. It’s expected to be installed this week.
“What that means is we’ll be able to take 80 or 90,000 N95 and other face masks on a daily basis, get them sanitized… and back available to people,” said Governor Lamont.