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Back to School Fuels COVID-19 Cases

September 14, 2022

With kids back to school, COVID-19 cases are increasing among children and they are inevitably spreading the disease to adults.

Nationally, new cases among children were up 14% in the last week of August compared to the two weeks prior.

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Connecticut positivity rate

Here in Connecticut, the COVID-19 positivity rate over the past seven days for children and adults is up to 9.31%, compared to 8.97% the prior week. Anecdotally, many of the adults who are positive have children.

However, Hartford HealthCare Chief Epidemiologist Ulysses Wu, MD, said the positivity rate is actually down compared to earlier this summer when people were staying indoors and running air conditioners constantly to beat the heat.

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Weather helps

“I think they could have gone down even more if it wasn’t because of people returning to school and the office,” Dr. Wu said. “The weather is helping. People are spending less time indoors, windows are open and there is less air conditioning being used.”

Despite that, the cold weather is likely to cause a COVID-19 spike – which will also impact adults. The best advice is to get the vaccine now.

Hartford HealthCare has received new COVID-19 vaccines that target Omicron variants – a development that experts say could help limit surges this fall and winter.

> Related: New COVID Vaccines Arrive