coronavirus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now advises all people to wear a cloth face covering in public spaces to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, though in Connecticut, masks are not mandatory. With shortages of medical-grade masks on the front lines of the pandemic, such masks aren’t generally available to the public. Still, that hasn’t stopped people from getting creative with DIY versions. A walk around New Haven bears that out, as you’ll see many residents with a new look, doing their part to fight the coronavirus.    

An incarcerated person died from COVID-19 on Monday, the first Connecticut inmate to succumb to the virus as the numbers of positive cases behind bars continued to spike.

The COVID-19 pandemic will likely result in a “huge paradigm shift” toward in-home dialysis treatments in the future, experts predict.

The Democratic governors of a half dozen northeastern states outlined a regional approach Monday to devising a plan for the careful easing of COVID-19 restrictions, warning  that changes will come slowly and be guided by public health experts, not politicians or business interests.

Health experts have released multiple plans that all call for some version of the same thing. We need to conduct widespread testing, trace contacts of the infected, and quarantine those contacts BEFORE we can ease social distancing measures. 

Last week, cars lined up outside Saint Francis Hospital early in the morning for drive-thru coronavirus testing. Today, heavy winds forced many of these sites to close because they’re operating in tents. 

COVID-19 has dominated our lives, but how much do you actually know about the virus that causes this disease?

This hour, we talk with NY Times columnist and writer, Carl Zimmer about the science behind the coronavirus. We learn about how viruses work and how they’re different from other disease-causing germs like bacteria.

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states working on a regional compact to reduce vehicle emissions are still hoping to produce a final memorandum of understanding before summer, despite the pandemic shutdown. 

Meanwhile, plunging gas prices and the economic fallout from the coronavirus have put the partnership’s political odds and projected impact in flux.

The coronavirus pandemic colored everything about Easter on Sunday. Many Connecticut Christians took their worship services online, as COVID-19 continued its deadly course through the state. There were 60 new deaths recorded by state officials, bringing Connecticut’s cumulative loss of life to 554.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order on Saturday establishing COVID-19 recovery centers in some nursing homes, a move that creates places for patients who’ve been discharged from the hospital to continue to recover. 

Gov. Ned Lamont’s order extending the closure of schools, restaurants and many businesses until May 20 is generating the first significant political blowback to his handling of the COVID-19 crisis since declaring a public-health emergency a month ago.

We've entered a moment where the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is a celebrity. You can buy donuts with his face on them. A petition to make him People's Sexiest Man Alive has more than 13,000 signatures. And, yes, sales of Dr. Anthony Fauci bobblehead dolls have raised more than $100,000.

At the same time, how do we find community in this time of COVID and quarantine and social distance?

Nearly four hours before drive-thru coronavirus testing was scheduled to open at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford on Thursday, 40 cars were already lined up at 5:25 a.m.

It’s Holy Week for many Americans, a heightened time of prayer and meditation and looking inward. But it doesn’t matter what your religion is, or if you don’t feel compelled to engage with religion at all. It seems like every one of us has been looking inward in the past month or so.

This hour, Rev. Dr. Shelley Best on how she, as a faith leader, is making sense of all this. What does this pain and death mean - if anything at all? How is she reconnecting with her communities, and how is she finding comfort for herself?

While the latest statistics from around Connecticut offer “slight glimmers of hope” that the coronavirus pandemic may be easing, Gov. Ned Lamont warned Thursday that schools and most small businesses must remain closed for at least another month to prevent any resurgence of the deadly virus.

The state’s plan to make a rapid new COVID-19 test available to nursing homes and to provide four sites to isolate nursing home residents sick with the virus is a “game changer” that will save lives, a top health care official said Thursday.

Two years ago, The New York Times profiled a man who decided to unplug from the news. Erik Hagerman knew that Donald Trump was elected president, but not much else -- not the Mueller investigation, not the deadly white supremecist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He had strict guidelines for friends, family and acquaintances. “The Blockade” as he called it, was extreme. 

Mister Rogers said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

This hour, we’re going to do just that. We’re talking to volunteers, and those working to make our lives a little brighter during this difficult time.

In an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the state’s prisons and jails, the Department of Correction will house all infected inmates at four facilities: Manson Youth Institution or Northern, York or Garner Correctional Institutions.