It turns out that the resident of a downtown prison early-release halfway house does not have the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The state Department of Correction made that announcement Thursday in a press release.
It reported that a man removed from the Roger Sherman House at 48 Howe St. Wednesday and hospitalized with symptoms similar to those of the virus has in fact tested negative for it.
As a result, the staff and 59 residents of the facility are no longer on lockdown.
To date, the release stated, no inmates in the state correction system have tested positive for COVID-19
An earlier version of this story follows:
Howe Street Halfway House Locked Down After Tenant Hospitalized With Suspected COVID-19
Thomas Breen Photo
Health chief Bond: Halfway house residents, staff being “safeguarded.”
Close to 60 ex-offenders and staff at a downtown halfway house were ordered to stay inside Wednesday after a tenant with COVID-19-suspected symptoms was hospitalized.
Meanwhile, New Haven is preparing a 75-bed facility at Career High School to house homeless people with cases of the novel coronavirus who don’t require hospitalization.
Those were some of the highlights from the latest press briefing held by Mayor Justin Elicker and other top city officials on the pandemic.
The briefing occurred Wednesday afternoon on the front steps of City Hall, which remains closed to the public indefinitely following Elicker’s declaration of a state of emergency earlier this week.
Also Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Ned Lamont announced the first COVID-19-related death in the state, an 88-year-old resident from a Ridgefield assisted living facility who was being treated at Danbury Hospital.
At the City Hall briefing, New Haven officials vaguely discussed an incident that brought emergency crews to a downtown group residential facility Wednesday morning.
A person living there, based on symptoms, is presumed to have the coronavirus. That person is now in the hospital, according to city Health Director Maritza Bond.
Asked if employees and other residents have left the facility or are in danger, she said they’re being “safeguarded to make sure there is no exposure.”
The state Department of Correction provided a more complete story in a subsequent press release. Click here to read the press release in full.
TV news on the front steps of City Hall.
The facility, at 48 – 52 Howe St., is the Roger Sherman halfway house, which operates under contract with the state Department of Correction. Fifty-nine ex-offenders live in the 61-bed facility.
Because of the case discovered there Wednesday, health officials have ordered staff and all other residents to stay inside, and the state is sending no other ex-offenders to live there for now.
“We are working closely with all our contracted community providers to ensure that all CDC recommended protocols are being followed,” the release quoted state correction Commissioner Rollin Cook as saying. “We are doing everything possible to ensure that not only the offenders under our supervision, but staff and members of the public as well are safe.”
4th Confirmed Case; Career Facility
Other news from the press conference:
• A fourth city-dweller has been confirmed to have the novel coronavirus, according to Bond. The person contracted the virus while traveling out of state and is recovering at home, she said.
• The city is constructing a facility for homeless people who have the virus but do not need hospitalization, in order to avoid having them spreading COVID-19 on the streets.
The facility, at Career High School on Legion Avenue (pictured), should be physically ready with the first 40 beds within 24 hours, according to city emergency operations chief Rick Fontana.
But that doesn’t mean it’ll be ready to open that quickly. Elicker said the city needs to look at personnel issues such as including nursing and social work staff. The facility is eventually to have 75 beds. No one has yet been identified to be taken there.
• The city is also in the process of renting 24 hotel rooms for homeless people currently staying in shelters, in order to free up room at the shelters to ensure “distancing” in an effort to stem the coronavirus’s spread.
Thomas Breen Photo
School chief Tracey appeals for computer donations for online learning.
• Schools Superintendent Iline Tracey (pictured) appealed to philanthropists to bring computers and Chromebooks to the Board of Education on Meadow Street to donate for students to connect to online learning during the indefinite closure of the schools.
In response to a reporter’s question, she said she’s been in touch with the state education commissioner about relaxing some requirements to allow students to advance to the next grade at the end of the school year.
• Cleaning is finishing up at Nathan Hale School, which closed after a caregiver had been present after coming into contact with the coronavirus. The city plans to open the facility Wednesday as an added site for school families to pick up free breakfasts and lunches.
Schools Chief Operating Officer Michael Pinto told the Independent that the school system distributed bagged breakfasts and lunches to 2,200 individuals Wednesday, the third day since the schools began the food pick-up program.
• Yale New Haven Hospital conducted 50 COVID-19 tests Tuesday at its new drive-through facility on Long Wharf, according to Elicker. No results yet. It expects to conduct another 100 on Wednesday.
• Elicker said he is still considering issuing a shelter-in-place order, but is first waiting to see how well the public follows his initial half-occupancy emergency order and subsequent direct appeals to minimize non-essential travel and to avoid large gatherings.
Maya McFadden contributed to this report.
The use of Career makes it implicitly clear that schools Will not be open after the March 31 date Lamont has announced.
While Dr. TRACEY has done an amazing job so far with both staff and students, I wish that she would do more to inform us what's going on in the district. I have done a couple of live classes on Zoom, and my students had no idea that schools had to be closed until the 31st.
Also, the rumor mills are starting... maybe NHPS will open as soon as the governor says because COVID-19 doesn't affect kids so much, even when infected. I hope not, because the CDC just said people 20-54 (teacher-aged) are the demographic most likely to be hospitalized when infected.
Kids are scared, staff are unsure what's going on. Just a little information about what's known and unknown for now would quell those fears a little bit.
I do want to emphasize that I think Dr. Tracey is doing a great job under circumstances so outside what anyone has been prepared. I admire her even more now than when she was just doing her thing when everything was business as usual..