Citing the state’s success in containing COVID-19, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday he’ll roll back capacity restrictions on restaurants and other businesses in a couple of weeks while keeping in place an 11 p.m. curfew and doubling down on such safety protocols as mask-wearing, social distancing and frequent cleaning.
“This is not Texas, this is not Mississippi,” Lamont said during a virtual news briefing. “This is Connecticut. We are maintaining the masks. . We have a much lower rate of infection than those maskless states, and we’re going to keep going with what works.”
As of March 19, restaurants will be allowed to operate at 100% capacity, though they still will have to limit seating to eight people per table and observe the curfew. Bars that only serve alcohol will be required to stay closed “a little bit longer,” the governor said.
Norwich Norwich Public Schools will return to five days of in-person learning starting Monday for all students in preschool through eighth grade for the first time since March 12, 2020, Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow announced to parents and staff Friday.
She said requests for fully remote learning still will be honored, but the model for remote learning will be drastically different.
“The greatest impact is the change in our remote learning pattern,” Stringfellow said during a teleconference with city department heads, state legislators and human services agencies. “We had remote learning that was state-of-the-art.”
Under the two-day hybrid model, only four to six students would be in a classroom at one time, allowing the teacher to offer live, on-screen lessons to students in remote learning. Stringfellow said she felt it was important to have students be able to see their classmates and their teachers during live classes.
Norwich Nearly 200 Norwich Free Academy teachers, administrators and support staff members made their way to the Norton Gymnasium in small groups Friday to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“It does feel like a milestone,” said NFA job coach Wes Murphy, who also coaches boys basketball and boys and girls volleyball. “I’m able to do what’s needed to get back to our regular schedule and activities.”
Daisy Torres, a member of the janitorial and cleaning staff, said she was ready to get her vaccine. As a cancer survivor, she said she was “so happy” to sign up for the NFA mass vaccination clinic.
He is scheduled to present that plan to the board on March 11. The community has spoken. They want to go back to school, board member Gordon Lord said. We as a board need to make that happen as safe and expeditiously as possible. If we don t try to do it now, when are we going do it? he added.
Riley said he can do this by having a plan in which students maintain 3 feet of distance, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guideline of 6 feet that has been in place since the beginning of the school year due to the coronavirus pandemic.