Gov. discusses possibility of a statewide shutdown

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    HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) — Connecticut’s governor said he wants to consult with neighboring governors about a potential statewide shutdown as coronavirus cases surge.

The shutdown would potentially happen around the week of Christmas and the new year.

Rhode Island is on day two of its two-week shutdown.

During an interview with radio host and Channel 3 colleague Renee DiNino, who conveyed a listener question about whether or not the state might consider shutting down, Gov. Ned Lamont left open the possibility.

“Let’s see closer to Christmas what things look like,” Lamont said. “Let me talk to my fellow governors because it probably doesn’t work as well if just Connecticut did something like that. Look, that is a pretty slow time. Kids already are not in school [and] you’re probably not doing as much shopping and dining. So that is a possibility.”

A group of doctors asked Lamont to consider shutting down indoor dining and gyms for fear of hospitals reaching maximum capacity. He said he does plan to meet with those doctors to discuss that.

Tuesday night, Channel 3 spoke with Dr. Michael Urban with the University of New Haven about his thoughts on a possible shutdown and whether it would help prevent Connecticut hospitals from maxing out.

Urban said it is a tough call because it might cause some relief for hospitals, but it would be hard on businesses. If it’s done, it would need to be longer than a week.

“Overall, it may not do enough,” he said. “I would push more for a two-week period at least. A full 14 days if not even three weeks. But again I think at the time it would have value, but I don’t know that it would have strong enough value to where we are already.”

Urban said picking the Christmas week for a pause might cause the virus to spread in some cases.

“What people do for the holidays is gather with their families,” Urban said. “And the way the virus is spreading is these small family gatherings. So, if anything I would fear that we would actually encourage people to gather even more.”

Some experts feel that if there is a pause, it might need to push past the new year holiday into January to allow time for adequate quarantining if people become infected over the holidays. In doing that, it might reduce the number of people who end up in the hospital and prevent facilities from being overloaded.

The CT Restaurant Association recently launched a #SaveCTRestaurants campaign. It said more than 600 restaurants have closed since the start of the pandemic. The group wants indoor dining to continue and a new restaurant grant program.

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