Thomas Breen photo
Mayor Elicker at Friday’s press briefing.
New Haven reported its eighth confirmed case Friday of the covid-19 coronavirus — and Mayor Justin Elicker warned that current projections suggest the infection and death toll here could end up worse than Italy’s if people don’t stay apart.
That was some of the information revealed at the most recent mayoral briefing on the crisis. Held Friday afternoon on the steps of the 200 Orange St. government office building.
Press listen in to the last in-person briefing before these updates go online.
It is the last scheduled in-person press briefing before the mayor’s office takes these daily updates online starting Saturday. Subsequent briefings will occur through an online video-sharing service, the mayor announced.
The briefing took place on the same day that Gov. Ned Lamont issued his latest coronavirus-related emergency order in which he mandates that all non-essential businesses shut their doors and have their employees work from home starting Monday, March 23 at 8 p.m.
Among the conference highlights:
• The newest New Havener to contract the illness, the eighth confirmed so far, is at home resting, reported city Health Director Maritza Bond (pictured). This latest individual to test positive contracted the novel coronavirus through “community spread,” not through traveling outside of the city or country.
• Elicker said that the city does not have an official estimate for how many New Haveners might be infected or die over the course of the pandemic, but that he has been thinking about what that number might be. He said it’s likely a scary number — worse (on a proportional population basis), based on current trends, than in Italy, where more than 4,000 people have died, 627 in the last 24 hours alone. The trajectory of the disease in New Haven is about 10 days behind Italy’s, he said.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that number in the context of our need to prepare,” he said. “Frankly, I think we should be alarmed. … Our numbers appear to be going above Italy’s. While it’s important for the public not to panic, it’s important for the public to understand just how bad the situation is, so they follow our directions and so they comply with what we’re asking them to do.”
The mayor pleaded with people to follow orders to stay home (unless seeking food or medical care; taking a walk or jog is OK too) and to always remain six feet away from others.
• Toward that end, police have begun showing up at businesses defying orders either to close or (in the case of food outlets) limit the number of people present to under 10 at a time and to keep them at least six feet apart. The police visited Nica’s Market on Orange Street, for instance. Cashier Jerusalem Guevara said the grocery got the message. “We are ten right now,” she told the Independent, with everyone maintaining at least a six-foot distance.
“We’re not fining anyone. We’re not arresting anyone. We’re sending an officer” to tell people to disperse, Elicker said about how the city is enforcing the reduced occupancy emergency order he issued yesterday.
He urged people to call police “if they see stores that have large groups of people inside, if they see large groups of people who are not practicing social distancing.”
He said his administration is still considering issuing a shelter-in-place order, and is still waiting to see how the public complies with the emergency reduced occupancy orders already issued before making a decision about any subsequent orders.
• Elicker said he’s still not sure when the city will open the 75-bed shelter planned at Career High School on Legion Avenue planned to house homeless people who have contracted the virus but don’t need to be in the hospital. He said the beds are in place; the city’s in the process of staffing the facility. He said police officers, not school security officers, will be stationed there to prevent people from leaving.
• Elicker administration officials held an online video-conference via the Zoom app Friday afternoon with over 130 local clergy, urging congregations not to hold in-person services this weekend, discussing the health risks presented by large crowds, and providing advice on how to use online video sharing tools.
• The school system distributed 2,350 “grab and go” meals Thursday to needy families.
“I’ve gotten a lot of people saying you look really tired,” Elicker said. “I’m not tired. I’m raring to go. We have a lot more work to do.
“This is a marathon, and I’m a runner. I’ve done one marathon. I’m not going to do another. Except for this one right now.”
Once again, I would ask the NHI, which is an important source of community information, to allocate some space at the top of its webpage to a list of places (e.g. food pantries) that could use donations, places where people can bring medical supplies, unused beds... whatever. A lot of us have more time on our hands than we would like, and some of us can afford to give. Anything we can do to help out, we will do.
I would also like to know whether Yale will consider allowing the city to use its thousands of empty dorm units for medical or ICU purposes, should the need arise.