(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that he has signed a declaration extending Connecticut’s state of emergency in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to April 20, 2021. The extension applies to both the civil preparedness emergency and the public health emergency.
The governor originally declared the emergencies on March 10, 2020, explaining that they were needed in order to enable the state to provide its residents with an adequate response to the pandemic. Initially, they were scheduled to expire on September 9, 2020, however due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic they were renewed late in the summer and given a new expiration date of February 9, 2021.
Governor Lamont said that while the recent development of several vaccines provide great hope that the pandemic will soon be under control, the virus continues to rapidly spread and emergency measures are still needed to help mitigate its impact. Ending them now, he said, would pull a safety net from under the citizens of Connecticut.
“The people of Connecticut are to be commended for their actions to prevent the further spread of this virus, and I truly believe that the steps they’ve taken have made an impact,” Governor Lamont said. “That said, the virus is not going to suddenly end on February 9, and to eliminate all of these preventative measures on that day would be irresponsible and in many cases life threatening. Our administration remains committed to working in collaboration with the legislature on these emergency orders as we’ve done throughout this pandemic so that we can provide the best protocols needed to protect the residents of our state.”