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Connecticut Has Lowest Rate Of COVID Transmission In The Country

Courtesy of The COVID Tracking Project

Data shows Connecticut is succeeding in slowing the spread of COVID-19, even as cases of the virus spike in other states.

Governor Ned Lamont tweeted data this week that shows the state with the lowest COVID-19 growth rate in the country by far.

Let's keep wearing masks. Let's keep getting tested. Let's look out for one another.

The way we're going to keep these numbers low is by working together.

Source: https://t.co/4paNMCiqpn#ConnecticutRespect pic.twitter.com/HgNpdgq2Dj— Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) July 7, 2020

Howard Forman, with the Yale School of Public Health, says Connecticut’s leaders get to take some credit for the state’s success.

“They have been very consistent in their messaging, so that masking is the rule of the state and there’s actually compliance with it in most areas. You know, most of the policies put in place have been very effective with compliance.”

But Norman says Connecticut residents also learned hard lessons from the state’s time near the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic this spring in New York.

“You know, Connecticut also had a very bad outbreak, and it was very obvious how bad it was. And that instills fear in people. So even without government edicts, people tend to be more afraid of doing risky things.”

Connecticut is one of seven states where spread has slowed, along with the District of Columbia. Most of the rest are also in New England, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project

Copyright 2020 WSHU

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He fell in love with sound-rich radio storytelling while working as an assistant reporter at KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri. Before coming back to radio, he worked in digital journalism as the editor of Newtown Patch. As a freelance reporter, his work for WSHU aired nationally on NPR. Davis is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; he started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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