What makes Connecticut’s current COVID-19 uptick different? No new mandates – Hartford Courant

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are once again rising in Connecticut — a result of the BA.2 subvariant — causing a sense of deja vu for pandemic-weary residents.

This time, however, one key element of previous coronavirus waves is conspicuously absent: broad control measures designed to slow the spread of the virus.

Statewide mask mandate? Long gone. Statewide school mask mandate? Gone as well. Local masking rules? Gone from nearly every Connecticut municipality. Restrictions on large gatherings or indoor activities? None to speak of.

Last week the state announced it wouldn’t even mandate masks in hospital settings, though Connecticut’s major health systems have chosen to require them anyway.

[ To some extent, officials say, the lack of control measures at this stage of the pandemic reflects the changing reality of COVID-19. Recent variants, though highly infectious, have caused less severe illness than previous strains. Connecticut has a high rate of vaccination, plus high levels of natural immunity from last winter’s surge. Meanwhile, testing and treatment are more accessible than ever.

Officials also cite pandemic fatigue after more than two years of precautions. Michael Maniscalco, town manager in South Windsor, said the mask mandate there is likely gone for good as residents learn to live with COVID-19.

“I haven’t talked to a single person who doesn’t want to not do COVID anymore,” Maniscalco said. “I think everybody is over the whole pandemic at this point and really wishes we could get back to normal business as best we can.”

Whether or not Connecticut residents are done with COVID-19, it’s not clear that the disease is done with them. As of Wednesday, the state had recorded a 7.7% test positivity rate over the past week, the highest since early February, while cases and hospitalizations had increased as well, apparently due to the spread of BA.2.

Still, the mask mandates and other restrictions don’t seem likely to return soon.

“People know what they need to do to keep themselves and their loved ones safe,” Max Reiss, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont, said Friday. “We’re past the point of mandates not only being necessary but also being effective.”

Akash Kaza, a spokesperson for Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, said Wednesday that the city is not considering new restrictions because the community has “the tools to mitigate” COVID-19 without them.

New Haven, which has been Connecticut’s most aggressive city when it comes to pandemic restrictions, still requires masks in schools and public buildings but not for the broader population. Mayor Justin Elicker said Wednesday that he doesn’t anticipate a new mask mandate anytime soon.

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“It’s quite clear that overall, public willingness to continue to abide by mandates is waning,” he said. “We all have to balance the ability to minimize the spread of COVID with people’s willingness to comply with these mandates and requirements.”

Some medical experts, both in Connecticut and nationally, say this retreat from restrictions makes sense and that this stage of the pandemic is about personal — as opposed to collective — responsibility.

“As we move toward a more endemic stage, the responsibility will be individual,” said Dr. Syed Hussain, chief clinical officer at Trinity Health of New England. “If I have people that I live with that are immunocompromised or I have medical conditions, then it’s important that I take precautions.”

Others aren’t as convinced. Philadelphia announced this week that the city would restore its mask mandate in what its health commissioner called a “chance to get ahead of the pandemic.” Locally, the University of Connecticut announced it would again require masks in most settings through the end of the school year “to protect health on our campuses and to help ensure that the remaining weeks of the semester and UConn’s commencement ceremonies can be conducted in-person.”

When a federal judge this week overturned the national mask mandate for people traveling on airplanes and other public transport, some immunocompromised voiced fear that they would now face greater risk in those settings.

Dr. Naftali Kaminski, a pulmonologist at the Yale School of Medicine, has lobbied throughout the pandemic for more aggressive pandemic control measures. At this stage, he said, Connecticut may not need a broad mask mandate but could benefit from more robust public messaging about COVID-19 risk as numbers rise.

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As Kaminski sees it, the people who have been affected least by COVID-19 to this point are the ones most anxious to move past the pandemic.

“I think part of it is just privilege,” Kaminski said. “If you’re young, if you’re not immunosuppressed, if you have access to vaccines, if you’re not worried about missing a week of work. I think there’s an element of privilege.”

As a general rule, restrictions in Connecticut have decreased with each successive COVID-19 spike. The first surge in March 2020 brought widespread restrictions and shutdowns. The second surge the following winter brought lighter restrictions, including masking rules. By the delta variant spike last summer, most state restrictions were gone but municipalities were allowed to implement their own mask mandates. During the omicron wave this past winter, most towns declined to do so.

It’s maybe no surprise, therefore, that the latest COVID-19 bump — which is so far relatively mild compared to previous upticks — has been met with a collective shrug from decision-makers.

In South Windsor, Maniscalco said town officials had until recently held weekly pandemic meetings to discuss the latest data and what steps they might take. More recently, though, that has begun to change.

“We’ve actually started canceling those meetings as of recently,” Maniscalco said, “because there is no drastic change besides the numbers are where the numbers are.”

Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.