Amid rise in COVID infections, Bloomfield recommends indoor masking

BLOOMFIELD — Local public health officials are advising residents to once again mask-up indoors after a recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

Bloomfield recorded 94 new cases as of Wednesday over the prior seven days, officials said in a press release Friday. The average daily number of cases per 100,000 people stands at 61, meaning the town is considered red zone of transmission under the state’s metrics.

Meanwhile, cases have steadily increased throughout the state. All of Connecticut’s counties except Tolland and Fairfield counties are now considered areas of high transmission under the the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s metrics. That means for most areas in Connecticut, people are recommended masks in indoor public settings, according to the CDC.

The federal metrics to gauge those risk levels include hospital capacity and hospital admissions as well as new cases.

“The West Hartford Bloomfield Health District recommends wearing a mask in public indoor settings and in crowded outdoor settings when having close interactions with people outside of your household,” Bloomfield officials said Friday.

Amid rising cases nationally, federal regulators this week cleared the way for booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech to be administered to children as young as 5 years old. As of Thursday, just under 84 percent of the state’s population over age 5 is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. Figure’s from the state Department of Health report a little more than 43 percent of 5 to 11-year-olds are fully-vaccinated, while a total of 584 children in that age bracket have received an additional dose.

The West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District is holding weekly COVID-19 vaccination clinics on Wednesdays and Thursdays at its office on Cottage Grove Road. Appointments can be scheduled by calling 860-561-7900.

The health district is also offering free rapid tests to residents of West Hartford and Bloomfield, and free walk-in PCR testing in available in Hartford at the corner of Albany Avenue and Woodland Street on from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; and from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.