State officials reported 16 more cases of COVID-19 virus for New Canaan over the weekend.
The cumulative total of 895 confirmed cases is up 50 from the prior week, according to Connecticut Department of Public Health data.
The figures come as New Canaan grapples with what municipal health officials anticipated as a rise in new cases following travel and small gatherings through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said during his most recent town-wide outcall, last Tuesday, that most new cases reflect high school teenagers, college-aged and middle-aged parents.
A total of 39 New Canaanites with COVID-19 have died, according to the DPH.
As of Monday, the district reported 25 total students in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, with 15 of them from New Canaan High School, as well as five staff members throughout the district. The total number of students in quarantine as a result of close contact with a positive case stood at 68 on Monday, with most of those at Saxe Middle School (24), according to the district’s “Charting Our Course” operations guide.
Citing the high number of cases among NCHS students, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi temporarily put off a plan to have 75% of the student body in the high school at one time, opting instead to continue with a 50% model for now.
Moynihan noted in his outcall that “decisions on who will be vaccinated after the first responders are still being made at the governor’s office and we will update the community as more information becomes available.”
Gov. Ned Lamont “has just decided that vaccination of seniors age 75-plus will be included” in the next phase, Moynihan said.
“How the seniors will be vaccinated will depend largely on the allocation of doses so we ask for patience as demand currently far exceeds supply,” he said.