Dec. 20 COVID-19 Update: Nine New Cases in Old Lyme Take Cumulative Total to 556, Four New Cases Raise Lyme’s Total to 148

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Olwen Logan

Photo by CDC on Unsplash.

LYME-OLD LYME — The Daily Data Report issued Monday, Dec. 20, at 4 p.m. by the Connecticut Department of Health (CT DPH) shows nine new, confirmed COVID-19 case in Old Lyme taking the town’s total of cumulative cases to 556.

Four new cases were reported in Lyme, taking that town’s cumulative total to 148.

The state does not issue reports over the weekend nor on public holidays. The next report from CT DPH will be issued Tuesday, Dec. 21, at around 4 p.m.

On Monday, Dec. 20, Lyme-Old Lyme (LOL) Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) had been reported. Contact tracing was completed and those individuals who needed to quarantine were notified. They will be able to return to school following their quarantine period. All other students and staff will continue to attend school as scheduled. See below for a full listig of all cases at Lyme-Old Lyme Schools.

This past week, between the state’s reporting days of Friday, Dec. 10, and Friday, Dec. 17, a total of 21 new cases were reported in Old Lyme. During the same period, Lyme reported five new cases.

The Monday, Dec. 6 case total of 18 was the highest single-day increase in Old Lyme since the first case was recorded in town on March 31, 2020.

The previous highest number was 17, which was recorded Nov. 6, 2020.

As we reported in our Thursday, Dec. 16 weekly COVID-19 Update, Lyme and Old Lyme both remain in the Red Zone in the weekly COVID-19 Average Daily Case Rate Report issued by the state on that day. The CT DPH will issue an updated map of the zones Thursday, Dec. 23 — the map is updated weekly on Thursdays.

The number of towns statewide in the Red Zone has increased in the past two weeks with 162 towns in it last week and 164 this week. To give a further indication of the significance of the increase, the number of towns in the Red Zone on Oct. 7, 2021 was down to 37.

All the towns in the Ledge Light Health District (LLHD) are in the Red Zone.

The cumulative total of confirmed cases for Old Lyme has now increased by 113 since Wednesday, Nov. 10, when the total stood at 443 — that number had stood unchanged for a week since the previous Thursday, Nov. 4.

On Aug. 26 — which was the day Lyme-Old Lyme Schools started the new academic year — Old Lyme’s cumulative case total stood at 372, meaning there have now been 184 new cases there since that date. Meanwhile, Lyme’s cumulative total on Aug. 26 was 114 indicating 34 new cases have also been confirmed there during the same period.

In an email sent Thursday, Dec. 16, regarding the latest COVID-19 data, Ledge Light Health District (LLHD) Director of Health Stephen Mansfield stated, “We continue to see a high number of new COVID cases within our jurisdiction, which is consistent with an increase in COVID cases statewide. Unfortunately, we expect this trend to continue as we move into the holiday season.”

He added, “LLHD continues to focus our vaccination efforts on homebound populations and providing initial vaccinations and boosters to individuals who were vaccinated previously. Information about vaccination opportunities can be found at https://llhd.org/coronavirus-covid-19-situation/covid-19-vaccine/

COVID-19 Cases in Lyme-Old Lyme Schools

This is the latest information that we have with the most recent case first — there may have been further updates, however, which we have not yet received.

On Monday, Dec. 13, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Mile Creek School had been reported.

On Thursday, Dec. 9, Neviaser informed the school community that a total of three positive cases of COVID-19 impacting Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School (LOLMS), Center School, and Lyme School respectively had been reported.

On Monday, Dec. 6, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLMS had been reported.

On Friday, Dec. 3, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Center School had been reported.

On Monday, Nov. 30, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Monday, Nov. 29, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Mile Creek School had been reported.

On Tuesday, Nov. 23, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Monday, Nov. 22, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Mile Creek School had been reported.

On Thursday, Nov. 18, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Wednesday, Nov. 17, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Sunday, Nov. 14, Neviaser informed the school community that over the weekend a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Wednesday, Oct. 20, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Wednesday, Oct. 5, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported the previous evening.

On Thursday, Oct. 23, Neviaser informed the school community of two intrafamilial positive cases of COVID-19 impacting LOLMS. He stated, “We were able to complete our contact tracing and the one individual who must quarantine has been notified.”

On Thursday, Sept. 23, Neviaser informed the school community of two intrafamilial positive cases of COVID-19 impacting LOLMS. He noted, “We were able to complete our contact tracing and the one individual who must quarantine has been notified.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 22, Neviaser informed the school community of a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS.

On Thursday, Sept. 16, Neviaser informed the school community that a previously reported positive case of COVID-19 is now impacting Mile Creek School and Center School.

On Monday, Sept. 13, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19, which had been reported the previous day, was impacting LOLMS.

On Wednesday, Sept. 1, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 was impacting Mile Creek School.

On Tuesday, Aug. 31, Neviaser informed the school community that late on Monday, Aug. 30, a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLHS had been reported.

On Saturday, Aug. 28, Neviaser informed the school community that late on Friday, Aug. 27, a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Lyme School had been reported.

In all cases, contact tracing was completed and those individuals who needed to quarantine were notified. They will be able to return to school following their quarantine period. All other students and staff will continue to attend school as scheduled.

Fatalities Due to COVID-19 in Lyme, Old Lyme

There has been one COVID-related fatality of a Lyme resident: a 57-year-old male passed away Nov. 16, 2021. On Nov. 30, the state finally included this fatality in its data

Three COVID-related fatalities have been reported in Old Lyme. The first two fatalities from Old Lyme, which were reported in 2020, were a 61-year-old female and an 82-year-old male.

Details of the third, which was reported in 2021, have not been made available.

Death Announced of Jean Murphy Howard of Old Lyme, Mother of Lee Howard of ‘The Day’

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Admin

Jean Murphy Howard 1932-2021

OLD LYME — Jean Murphy Howard, one of the great local volunteers and a brilliant teacher, gardener, hostess, cook and conversationalist, died Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, at age 89, at Massachusetts General Hospital after a short illness. She had recently moved to Plymouth, Mass., to be near her daughter after spending more than two decades as a full-time resident of Old Lyme.

Born Doris Jean Murphy on Oct. 16, 1932, to James Russell Murphy and Doris Haines Murphy, Jean (she hated “Doris”) lived for many years at the Hawks Nest Beach cottage she transformed into a beautiful home. She was best known locally for volunteer work at the Nearly New consignment shop in Old Lyme, associated with St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, where she did much of the data entry and tagging up until the last few months. The shop brought in tens of thousands of dollars each year to help support the church.She also spent many hours heading up efforts to beautify the church as one of the most active members of the garden committee, and during her time here, she became a master gardener by taking a series of courses through the UConn Extension Service.

She also spent thousands of hours as part of the church’s sewing group making dresses for girls in Haiti and, during the pandemic, churning out dozens of colorful masks for the community on her old Singer sewing machine. Many of her dresses are still hanging at St. Ann’s, awaiting the time when overseas travel is not so difficult.

In addition, she worked tirelessly for a nonprofit called Days for Girls that brought sanitary female supplies to remote places around the world, and she was a big supporter of the Chelly Foundation that did charitable work in Cambodia, named after a lifelong friend who taught her to sew many years ago. She gave an inspiring speech about their friendship at a Chelly Foundation fundraiser just a few years ago in New York City.

Jean was always the first to dive into a challenge, and nothing ever stopped her. She was one of the most determined people you will ever meet, and was quite opinionated, but she was never pushy or arrogant. She was always supportive of her children’s and grandchildren’s interests, and would inevitably attend the events that were important to them.

In addition, she was widely read and could converse on a wide range of topics, from popular music to sports to politics. Jean was very disappointed in the direction of the country in recent years as she could never excuse belligerence or lying by anyone, including politicians.

Jean lived a fascinating and wide-ranging life, right from her early childhood as the daughter of an accomplished Washington, D.C., tax attorney who would go on to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jean was an excellent student, winning a national high school journalism contest. She spent World War II on her grandfather’s farm in Arlington, Va., as her father spent long stretches in England, where he led the X-2 counterintelligence agency for the Office of Strategic Services, the United States’ first spy agency.

“We always had spies over for dinner on Sunday nights,” she said.

During and after the war, Jean, always reliable, helped several top spies, including the famed Jim Angleton, as a babysitter. She would later chuckle about chatting on the phone and hearing a series of clicks, indicating the device was tapped by the FBI. “Those poor guys having to listen in on all my teenage crushes,” she’d laugh.

Jean graduated from Wellesley College in 1954 with a major in French. At Wellesley, she was well known for winning the lead role in most of the drama productions. In 2019, Jean attended her 65th Wellesley reunion, rubbing elbows with younger fellow graduates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Madeleine Albright.

After graduation from Wellesley, she worked a year at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, where her typing and language skills came in handy. She spent a year at Yale University doing postgraduate work before marrying Kingston Lee Howard, a Harvard Business School graduate, in February 1956. They had met at a Wellesley-Harvard mixer a few years before. King and Jean’s marriage was announced on national television by the famed broadcaster Arthur Godrey, who was Jean’s godfather, family friend and baby-sitting client.

King and Jean settled at first in the Boston area before buying a house in Lexington, Mass., where they raised two children. When the children got older, Jean began teaching French at the elementary and high school level in both Lexington and, later, in Atlanta, Ga. She was a natural, using her creativity and dramatic flair to engage students of all ages.

King was president of the Brigham’s restaurant chain and later became vice president of Star Market, head of Howard Johnson’s international hotel division and president of Days Inn. Jean threw herself into supporting her husband’s business career, hosting and hobnobbing with many of the leading businessmen in Boston during the 1960s to 1990s, translating business letters and mastering Lotus 1-2-3, one of the early accounting programs.

Jean handled all the French translations as King established his Euro Disney office south of Paris to help attract American hotel executives to the massive project. She regularly traveled to help King host parties and events there.

She was the mainstay of her husband’s consultancy, International Management Services, and assisted him in preparing reports, market analyses and business correspondence. She was among the first people in the country to become a Certified Hotel Manager. Later, she assisted her daughter Debbie for several years at Benchmark Senior Living by creating model rooms that gave a homey look to the company’s assisted living facilities.

Jean enthusiastically embraced domestic life with the same energy she had invested in her studies and work life. She studied French cooking thanks to Julia Child, and also took a strong interest in oriental cuisine. But the bulk of her cooking approach was inherited from her Southern relatives, one of whom owned a restaurant in Washington, D.C.

Everyone loved and appreciated the warm kindness of Jean’s hospitality, whether at the condominium she later acquired on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston or at her Old Lyme beach house that she came to alternately call the “Howard Hotel” or “Camp Howard.” Jean moved to the Old Lyme house permanently a few years after the death of her husband in 1993, and she regularly entertained family and friends there, engaging all in convivial conversation.

The family is currently compiling a cookbook based on many of Jean’s recipes, which included the best Christmas cookies and applesauce in the world. Her apricot pie recipe was recently featured in a column by Lee White in the local Times papers.

Jean leaves many bereaved friends and relatives, including son Lee Howard and partner Libby Friedman of Waterford; daughter Debbie Howard of Plymouth, Mass.; a brother, James R. “Chip” Murphy II of Cedar Springs, Mich.; a niece, Heather Murphy, also of Michigan; and grandsons, Evan and Nathan Howard of East Lyme; and James (wife Becca) and Scott Baldassari of Massachusetts.

Cartmell-Davis Funeral Home of Plymouth, Mass., is in charge of arrangements.

A memorial service and Celebration of Life for Jean Howard is scheduled at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 29, at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church, 82 Shore Road, Old Lyme. A reception at the church will follow. Donations can be sent in Jean’s memory to Days for Girls (daysforgirls.org) or the Chelly Foundation (thechellyfoundation.org), or can be mailed c/o Lee Howard, 21 Lloyd Road, Waterford, CT 06385.

Jean will be buried next to her husband King at Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme.

Essex Winter Series Celebrates 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s Birth with ‘BeethovenFest,’ This Afternoon

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Admin

Pictured from left to right: Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, Peter Wiley, Timothy Cobb, David Shifrin, Frank Morelli, and William Purvis.

ESSEX, CT – Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Essex Winter Series (EWS) hosts the rescheduled presentation of BeethovenFest on Sunday, Dec. 19, at 3 p.m. at Valley Regional High School, Deep River. The program was originally part of the organization’s 43rd season in 2020, but was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns.

BeethovenFest, a special tribute to the master composer, brings together seven world-renowned artists – David Shifrin, clarinet; William Purvis, horn; Frank Morelli, bassoon; Ida Kavafian, violin; Steven Tenenbom, viola; Peter Wiley, cello; and Timothy Cobb, double bass – for a memorable performance of Serenade for Violin, Viola and Cello, Op. 8, and Septet in E-flat, Op. 20.

In 2022, EWS will again offer a season of in-person concerts:

Jan. 9 – Brentano String Quartet with Mihae Lee, piano;
Jan. 30 – Patricia Schuman, soprano, with Bradley Moore, piano;
Feb. 20 – Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks;
March 20 – Resurgam (saxophone) Quartet.

Concerts begin at 3 p.m. and are general admission.

For tickets visit www.essexwinterseries.com or call 860-272-4572. As a precaution for our audience, artists and staff, health guidelines will be followed and may include, among other safety measures, the presentation of vaccination proof and mask wearing.

BeethovenFest and the 2022 season are generously sponsored by Masonicare at Chester Village, The Clark Group, Essex Meadows, Essex Savings Bank, Jeffrey N. Mehler CFP LLC, Tower Laboratories, BrandTech Scientific, Guilford Savings, WSHU Radio, The Connecticut Office of the Arts and the Community Foundation of Middlesex County.

Dec. 16 & 17 COVID-19 Update: 97% of CT Towns Now in Red Zone, COVID-Related Deaths Statewide Break 9,000; Six New Cases in Old Lyme, Two in Lyme Take Cumulative Totals to 547, 144

Posted on December 18, 2021 by Olwen Logan

This map, updated Dec. 16, 2021 shows the average daily rate of new cases of COVID-19 by town during the past two weeks. Both Lyme and Old Lyme remain in the Red (highest) Zone. Only cases among persons living in community settings are included in this map; the map does not include cases among people who reside in nursing home, assisted living, or correctional facilities.) Map: Ver 12.1.2020 Source: CT Department of Public Health Get the data Created with Datawrapper. Details in italics are the same for each of the maps included in this article.

LYME-OLD LYME — The Daily Data Report issued Thursday, Dec. 16, at 4 p.m. by the Connecticut Department of Health (CT DPH) shows one new, confirmed COVID-19 cases in Old Lyme taking that town’s total of cumulative cases to 542.

On Friday, Dec. 17, five new cases were reported in Old Lyme increasing the total from Thursday’s number to 547.

On Thursday, Dec. 16, one new case was reported in Lyme taking its cumulative case total to 143 and another new case was reported on Friday, Dec. 17, increasing the cumulative case total further to 144

On Thursday, Dec. 16, Lyme-Old Lyme (LOL) Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser informed the school community that two separate positive cases of COVID-19 impacting Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) and Lyme School respectively had been reported. In all cases, contact tracing was completed and those individuals, who needed to quarantine, were notified. They will be able to return to school following their quarantine period. All other students and staff continue to attend school as scheduled. (See below for a full listing of all LOL Schools-related cases.)

The news statewide is bleak.

According to the weekly COVID-19 Average Daily Case Rate Report issued by the state on Dec. 16, the total number of COVID-19-associated deaths in the state rose to 9,002. This, in turn, means the state has now recorded roughly the same number of deaths during the current pandemic that were experienced during the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic when, according to the Connecticut Historical Society records, around the same number of residents died.

The same report showed that the number of towns in the Red (highest) Zone for case rates has increased from last week’s total of 162 to 164, leaving only five towns in the state not in the Red Zone. This number of 164 is equivalent to 97.0 percent of towns in the state (see map above.)

To demonstrate the speed of this current surge, the total number of towns in the Red Zone on Nov. 24 was 110. As further comparative points of reference, the week prior to Thanksgiving (Nov. 18, 2021), there were 67 towns in the Red Zone, on Oct. 7, 2021 the number was down to 37, and on July 8, 2021, there was not a single one.

Old Lyme is in the Red (highest) Zone for the fourth consecutive week: prior to these four weeks, the previous time Old Lyme was in the Red Zone was Sept. 30, 2021.

Lyme is in the Red Zone for the second week in succession.

The Dec. 16 report shows that the five towns in the Gray (lowest) Zone are all in the northwest part of the state. They are Warren, Sharon, Canaan, Colebrook, and Norfolk.

Details of the Zones are as follows:

The Gray category is defined as when the Average Daily Rate of COVID-19 Cases Among Persons Living in Community Settings per 100,000 Population By Town is less than five or less than five reported cases.
The Yellow category is defined as when the Average Daily Rate of COVID-19 Cases Among Persons Living in Community Settings per 100,000 Population By Town is between five and nine reported cases.
The Orange category is defined as when the Average Daily Rate of COVID-19 Cases Among Persons Living in Community Settings per 100,000 Population By Town is between 10 and 14.
The Red category is defined as when the Average Daily Rate of COVID-19 Cases Among Persons Living in Community Settings per 100,000 Population By Town exceeds 15.

In all cases, this rate does not include cases or tests among residents of nursing home, assisted living, or correctional facilities.

The CT DPH will issue an updated map of the zones Dec. 23 — the map is updated weekly on Thursdays.

All the towns in the Ledge Light Health District (LLHD) remain in the Red Zone.

The cumulative total of confirmed cases for Old Lyme has now increased by 104 since Wednesday, Nov. 10, when the total stood at 443 — that number had stood unchanged for a week since the previous Thursday, Nov. 4.

On Aug. 26 — which was the day Lyme-Old Lyme Schools started the new academic year — Old Lyme’s cumulative case total stood at 372, meaning there have now been 175 new cases there since that date. Meanwhile, Lyme’s cumulative total on Aug. 26 was 114 indicating 30 new cases have also been confirmed there during the same period.

It is imperative that we remain diligent in our mitigation strategies. We strongly advise everyone to continue to wear masks indoors in public settings, regardless of vaccination status.”

The state does not issue reports over the weekend nor on public holidays. The next report from CT DPH will be issued Monday, Dec. 20, at around 4 p.m.

COVID-19 Cases in Lyme-Old Lyme Schools

This is the latest information that we have with the most recent cases first — there may have been further updates, however, which we have not yet received.

On Monday, Dec. 13, Neviaser informed the school community that one positive case of COVID-19 impacting Mile Creek School had been reported.

On Thursday, Dec. 9, Neviaser informed the school community that a total of three positive cases of COVID-19 impacting Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School (LOLMS), Center School, and Lyme School had been reported.

On Monday, Dec. 6, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting LOLMS had been reported.

On Friday, Dec. 3, Neviaser informed the school community that a positive case of COVID-19 impacting Center School had been reported.

On Thursday, Dec. 2, Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser informed the school community that two separate positive cases of COVID-19 impacting Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) had been reported.