Rilling announces phased-in Norwalk reopening as deaths near 100

NORWALK, Conn. — A four-stage countdown plan to gradually reopen Norwalk was announced by Mayor Harry Rilling in Thursday night’s Virtual Town Hall meeting.

“When we reach a certain plateau in the number of cases or the diminished number of hospitalizations, we will enter level 4.” Rilling said.  “The next level would be level 3, then level 2 and then level 1 where we’re back to as much normalcy as we possibly can be.  All the levels will have various easings of restrictions.”

“The state’s strategies and the governor’s executive orders take priority over Norwalk’s,” he explained further. “We’re going to be working very closely and making sure that we’re in sync with the governor’s plan, and therefore tweak our reopening plan almost on a daily basis.”

Vets Park, the boat ramps and Fodor Farm will be open this weekend.   Some playgrounds will be open, but the basketball courts and playground equipment remain closed.  Large gatherings for pickup soccer, lacrosse, basketball and such continue to be prohibited.

“We still need to maintain physical distancing because we’re not out of the woods yet,” Rilling said.   We’re still seeing new cases each day.”

“We’re hoping that we can open the beach to vehicle traffic on or before May 20,” he said. “When we do open the beach to vehicle traffic, we will have a limited number of parking places. We’re probably going to cut the parking spaces down to 50 percent of capacity.”

He said, “I choose to listen to the medical experts.  If you feel that you shouldn’t adhere to social distancing, or that you shouldn’t be wearing a face covering, think again, because it’s not about you.  It’s about who you might infect, and you might even cause somebody’s death if you’re not careful.”

Norwalk Director of Health Deanna D’Amore reported an updated Norwalk COVID-19 total of 1,745 cases and 101 deaths. This later turned out to be incorrect, due to data discrepancies. A person in their 60s who was reported three times in the system with variations in the spelling of their name, Norwalk Communications Manager Josh Morgan said Friday. The death total at the time of the town hall was 98.

D’Amore, during the town hall, spoke about contact tracing: “We need to do it in a more in-depth scale, and the cases need to continue to go down in order for us to handle the volume.  The State Health Department and all the local health departments are working very closely together, looking at volunteers who can do contact tracing.”

She continued, “Many of us have been blessed to already have volunteers supporting us.  We’ve had Norwalk Public School nurses supporting us, and we’ve had Emergency Response Team volunteers helping us.  We’re going to continue to grow our contact tracing capacity so that as the numbers decrease, we can do more and more in-depth follow-up with individuals.”

“We also are continuing to distribute personal protective equipment to different healthcare providers,” she said.  “If you are a healthcare provider in need of PPE please contact us and let us know.”

D’Amore’s answers to public questions:

Question: “Are we going to have mass testing here in Norwalk including antibody testing?”

D’Amore: “The state is working on increasing the testing capacity and they set a goal to be able to do 42,000 a week, almost doubling the current statewide capacity.  They’re working on it.  Hopefully within the next week or two we’ll get more information. The testing capacity absolutely needs to increase.”

Question: “Is antibody testing something that the public should seek out?”

D’Amore: “On an individual basis, there isn’t a clear recommendation at this point.  There’s still more to learn about them.”

Question: “Can you talk about new criteria for leaving isolation after testing positive?”

D’Amore: “The CDC just updated that recently to 10 days past the start of symptoms, improved symptoms, and 72 hours fever-free without medication.”

Question: “Are hospitalizations, intubations and infections increasing, decreasing, or holding steady?”

D’Amore: “Hospitalization has been on a decline over the past 2 weeks.  We’re seeing less people being hospitalized.”

Question: “Can people test positive more than once?  Or if you get it, do you become immune?”

D’Amore: “That’s an area that we’re still not clear on.  We don’t have a clear answer on that.”

Question: “What are the age ranges of people testing positive and people dying?”

D’Amore: “In Norwalk we’ve had deaths ranging from age 20 up to 80 and older.  It’s impacting all ages, but in Norwalk we’re seeing a lot of people in their 30s, 40s, 50s,and 60s testing positive.”

Rilling’s answers to public questions:

Question: “When you open the beaches will you consider having senior hours?   That would be appreciated.”

Rilling: “I’d love to be able to do that.  I don’t know if that’s something that we can do because of the difficulty of determining who’s a senior and who’s not.  We’d have to have somebody at the gate.”

Question: “Will non-Norwalk residents be able to go to the beach?”

Rilling: “We cannot keep non-residents from the beach, we cannot deny them access, but we’re working on a plan that when we first start opening the beach to limit as much as we can.  We’re seeking legal advice on that and how we can do that.  We’re trying to give Norwalk residents the first right to the beach.”

Question: “Is there any update on summer sports leagues?”

Rilling: “I’m not sure that you’ll see organized sports to any great degree this year.  I can’t answer that question right now.  I’m not optimistic that we’ll have any significant number of organized sports leagues this summer but let’s see what we can do.”

Question: “Any update on public golf courses and tennis courts?”

Rilling: “We’re working on getting those open.  We recognize that many other communities around Fairfield county have either not closed some of the tennis courts and golf courses or have reopened them, and we’re working to see how we can do that as safely as we possibly can.  I think you can probably expect an announcement within the next day or two.”

Question: “Do police officers have to wear masks in Norwalk?”

Rilling: “Sometimes when you see a police officer on an extra duty job, they’re not within six feet of anybody and they’re not wearing a mask, based on the governor’s regulations about wearing masks and face coverings in public.  We encourage police officers to take the same universal precautions as everybody else.  If they can’t maintain their physical distancing, then we ask them to wear masks.”

Question: “Have you come up with restaurant opening guidelines?”

Rilling: “We’re working with the state on that.  The governor is talking about outdoor dining.  If there’s outdoor dining and if restaurants are allowed to open, there will be social distancing requirements.  I’m sure the servers will have to wear proper face coverings.  The governor will be guiding us in that area.”

Question: “Is there any update on plans for a high school graduation?”

Rilling: “We’re trying to figure out how we could.  We’re going to try to do something.”

Recognizing front-line workers

The mayor concluded by paying tribute to the medical, retail and restaurant personnel who shoulder the burden of the crisis day in and day out:

• “I want to thank the grocery workers.  It’s so important to the stores and to the people who go into the stores to help keep them safe too.  They’re out there working every day, providing us with the essentials that we need.  I want to thank the people in the pharmacies, all the people who provide the essential services when we’re in need.”
• “We appreciate the restaurant workers doing the takeout curb service.”
• “Don’t forget to thank a nurse.  May 12 is International Nurse’s Day.  Nurses, doctors and medical professionals are out there saving lives, helping people.  They are putting their lives on the line. They’re away from their families.  Some are quarantining because they’re afraid of bringing it home to their families.”

The next Mayor’s Virtual Town Hall Meeting is planned for 7 p.m. Monday May 11 with guests Norwalk Chief of Police Thomas Kulhawik and State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff.

This story was corrected at 3:15 p.m. to show that Cranbury Park is not open this weekend. Details are in a story you can find here. The story was also corrected to show that it was written by Paul Lanning. The story was then updated to correct a misstatement, the death total was 98 at the time of the town hall.