Report: CT has highest coronavirus hospitalization rate

Paramedic David Brody prepares to load a patient with confirmed COVID-19 into an ambulance for transport to Stamford Hospital on April 02, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Paramedic David Brody prepares to load a patient with confirmed COVID-19 into an ambulance for transport to Stamford Hospital on April 02, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Image 1 of / 60 Caption Close Report: CT has highest coronavirus hospitalization rate 1 / 60 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON — A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracking study of coronavirus released Wednesday shows Connecticut had the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rate among 14 states monitored, surpassing New York and California.

The report said in the month of March, Connecticut had about 15 COVID-19-related hospitalizations for 100,000 residents, while New York state had fewer than eight and Ohio had about one.

But the CDC is only tracking cases reported in certain counties in each state. In Connecticut, those are Middlesex and New Haven counties.

And Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday announced that the crucial metric of coronavirus hospitalizations seems to indicate that the statewide effort for social distancing is helping to slow the spread of the pandemic.

He said the net increase of 46 hospitalized patients, more than half of the 110-patient increase on Wednesday, is a good sign.

“The really key parameter that we’re looking at is hospitalizations. Hospitalizations give us a much better sense of where we are in terms of our capacity, and I think you’re heard over the last few days the good news is the curve is beginning to bend a little bit and that buys our hospitals time,” Lamont said on a conference call with small business owners.

“So we think that curve is bending and we hope that if we continue to social distancing that we will have the capacity we need in our hospital system,” Lamont said. “That’s one fewer person hospitalized in Fairfield County today than yesterday. In a very slightly way we’re gaining a little capacity now.”

Hospitalization rates in Fairfield County, the hottest “hot spot” in Connecticut, were not included in the CDC study, nor was data from New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the nation right now.

Instead, the CDC focused on 99 counties that formed the basis for the Influenza Hospitalization Surveillance Network, launched in 2003 to monitor the severity of influenza seasons and provided information to help combat the flu.

The new surveillance network is called the COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, or COVID-NET.

“This is a labor intensive project that is done in collaboration with our colleagues at the Yale School of Public Health emerging infections disease program,” said state epidemiologist Matthew Cartter. “That’s why we do this in New Haven and Middlesex counties. We are part of the greater NYC COVID-19 outbreak and the rates here are higher than in the other COVID-Net sites.”

Using COVID-NET data, the CDC said the average hospitalization rate was 4.6 per 100,000 residents. The agency’s report also said COVID-19-associated hospitalizations increased with age, with the highest rates among adults aged 65 or older.

And most of those hospitalized patients identified in the CDC’s study — 90 percent — had one or more underlying conditions, the most common being obesity, hypertension, chronic lung disease, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Obesity increases risk of hospitalization

Among patients aged 18-49 years, obesity was the most prevalent underlying condition, followed by chronic lung disease (primarily asthma) and diabetes.

Among patients aged 50-64 years, obesity was most prevalent, followed by hypertension and diabetes; and among those aged 65 and older hypertension was most prevalent, followed by cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The CDC also said the average period of time from the onset of symptoms - most frequently cough, fever or chills and shortness of breath - to hospitalization was seven days.

In Connecticut, as of Tuesday, there were 7,781 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 277 deaths. That means the COVID-19 death rate is about 3.5 percent in the state. In New York it is 3.9 percent and in New Jersey it is 2.8 percent.

But those numbers may be misleading because they are based on the numbers of people tested for coronavirus in a state and there’s large discrepancy in the amount of testing done in individual states.

Many people have been infected and were never tested, especially if are asymptomatic, meaning they are infected but don’t show signs of illness. As many as 25 percent of people infected with the new coronavirus may not show symptoms, the CDC has said.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health has warned there is much more disease activity going on in the state that has not been recorded.

Cartter has said that for every laboratory confirmed COVID-19 case in Connecticut, there are likely 100 other cases. Cartter said he based that premise on more than 30 years of infectious disease investigations in the state.

Men vs. women

Another statistic being reported by the state health department may be very accurate.

Connecticut is following a trend noted overseas, likely to hold across the nation, too, in which women are more likely to be infected by COVID-19 but men are more likely to die from it.

As of Tuesday, the rate of confirmed coronavirus cases among females in Connecticut was 217 per 100,000 and for males 209 per 100,000. But, as of Tuesday, 167 males and 109 females died of COVID-19.

Researchers believe women’s bodies are better at fighting off infection, thanks to the hormones in their systems and the genes on their two X chromosomes. But that is just a theory.

Robert McLean, a rheumatologist who practices in New Haven and the head of the American College of Physicians, said men and women may have different receptors for the coronavirus.

“Maybe the way it gets into men and women is different,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post analysis of early data from jurisdictions across the country shows there’s a stark racial disparity when it comes to the disease, with greater proportions of African Americans becoming ill and dying of COVID-19.

McLean also wonders why health care workers are getting more serious cases of COVID-19 than other people.

“It may be the viral load, the intensity of the exposure,” he said. “There are multiple factors that we don’t know.”

Ken Dixon contributed to this report.