Name: Connecticut rolling back COVID-19 restrictions, allows greater capacity at weddings and other events beginning March 19; additional rollbacks could come later this week
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Connecticut rolling back COVID-19 restrictions, allows greater capacity at weddings and other events beginning March 19; additional rollbacks could come later this week

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantFeb 16, 2021 at 5:04 pmConnecticut will allow for weddings and other social events with up to 100 people indoors and up to 200 outdoors as of March 19, Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday.Lamont said he plans to announce Thursday a similar loosening of restrictions on attendance at sporting events and would continue to weigh further changes in the coming weeks. The measures announced Tuesday, as well as any to come, will depend on continued positive trends in Connecticut’s COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, the governor said.Advertisement“You look at where our infection rates are, you look at hospitalizations, you look over the last week, over the last month, over the last three or four months, you see a trendline that gives you some confidence,” Lamont said.“I’m feeling more and more confident — cautiously confident — that we can continue to cautiously reopen,” he said. “We’re going to keep the masks on and hopefully warmer weather, the end of the flu season and vaccinations are going to put us in a much better spot a month from now.”AdvertisementBut as Lamont and other governors have begun easing restrictions, some experts have warned against reopening too quickly, especially given the appearance of new COVID-19 variants.Keith Grant, Hartford HealthCare’s senior system director for infection prevention, said Tuesday that he thinks it’s too early to lift restrictions, despite statistical models predicting a continued decline in disease prevalence.“Predictive models rely on us keeping our mitigation strategies that are in place, keeping those going for a little while longer until we get to certain areas that we can potentially start recommending relaxing,” Grant said.Event venue owners and operators voiced excitement Tuesday for Lamont’s decision to allow large gatherings this spring. Currently, commercial event venues are capped at 25 people indoors and 50 people outdoors. Gatherings at private residences remain capped at 10 people both indoors and outdoors.“This is a game changer,” said Nina Musumeci, director of operations at the Bond Ballroom in Hartford, which hasn’t hosted a wedding since last February. “This could save our spring and summer.”Douglas Polistena, general manager at the Amber Room Colonnade in Danbury, called the announcement “wonderful news.”Pandemic-related restrictions, Polistena said, have crippled his 51-year-old business, which employs 35-45 people. He said the Amber Room has benefited from the federal paycheck protection program but that he was looking forward to something resembling business as usual as wedding season kicks off this spring.As it happensGet the latest updates on Coronavirus and other breaking news events happening across Connecticut &gt; “We’re so thankful,” he said of the governor’s announcement. “It makes such a difference.”AdvertisementIn a statement, the Connecticut Restaurant Association said the announcement Tuesday would “give confidence to our customers and guests who need to plan months in advance for their special events.”In speaking to the question of other rollbacks, Lamont said the state wouldn’t “rush into any changes,” particularly in light of new cases of two different COVID-19 variants in Connecticut. The state on Monday announced its first case of the B1351 variant, first detected in South Africa, and has recorded several dozen cases of the B117 variant, first discovered in the United Kingdom.“[The B1351 variant] is creating higher infection rates in certain parts of Europe, but I’ve also seen that in Miami it was detected three weeks ago, in San Diego it was detected three weeks ago, and it doesn’t seem to be ramping up as quite the accelerant that I worry about,” Lamont said. “So that gives me a little more confidence that we can vaccinate people fast enough to keep the variants at bay.”Last spring, Lamont convened a formal group of representatives from industries affected by COVID-19 shutdowns as well as public health professionals to design and implement a reopening plan. Now, the governor said he is taking a less formal approach to the process, relying on the chairs of his vaccine advisory group, as well as guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Courant staff writer Jesse Leavenworth contributed to this report.Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantFeb 16, 2021 at 5:04 pmConnecticut will allow for weddings and other social events with up to 100 people indoors and up to 200 outdoors as of March 19, Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday.Lamont said he plans to announce Thursday a similar loosening of restrictions on attendance at sporting events and would continue to weigh further changes in the coming weeks. The measures announced Tuesday, as well as any to come, will depend on continued positive trends in Connecticut’s COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, the governor said.Advertisement“You look at where...

Connecticut rolling back COVID-19 restrictions, allows greater capacity at weddings and other events beginning March 19; additional rollbacks could come later this week

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