Connecticut on Wednesday reported a jump in its daily coronavirus positive test rate, but also reported a drop in hospitalizations after two days of rising numbers.

The state’s daily positivity rate jumped up to 8.55% on Wednesday, after the state identified 2,486 new cases out of a total of 29,080 tests. That’s an increase compared to the last few days — the state on Monday reported a low for the week of 5.3% — and a return to the high rates of last week, when positivity reached a single-day high of 9.1%.

The weekly average rate has also increased, but not as dramatically. That rate increased from 6.6% on Monday to 6.9% after Wednesday’s uptick.

And in a change from recent days’ data, the state on Wednesday reported that coronavirus hospitalizations dropped by 10, for a total of 1,139 patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19. The hospitalization number had increased on Monday and Tuesday.

In southeastern Connecticut on Wednesday, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London had 37 COVID-19 patients; Westerly Hospital had nine. A spokeswoman said L+M hospital reached its highest number of COVID-19 patients over the weekend — 48 — correcting earlier information.

Connecticut also saw 38 additional coronavirus-linked deaths on Wednesday. There have now been a total of 6,227 coronavirus-linked deaths in Connecticut since the pandemic began. In 2021 alone, there have been 232 deaths.

State officials have publicly worried that holiday travel and gatherings would lead to an uptick in coronavirus cases — but Yale New Haven Health chief clinical officer Dr. Tom Balcezak said Wednesday that the state’s numbers are not yet a reflection of any holiday behavior.

“I think it’s too early to tell what’s going to happen because of the holiday,” Balcezak said.

He noted that, while state officials have pointed to a Thanksgiving spike, it was not a particularly large spike. Balcezak added that he and his colleagues are monitoring the wastewater data — which has been shown to offer an early sign of COVID-19 outbreaks.

“We’ve seen a slight uptick in the wastewater concentration in some communities,” Balcezak said. “I think we’re going to need to wait another four or five days to see what happens with the cases.”

Nationwide, there have now been more than 21.2 million coronavirus cases and a total of 359,593 coronavirus deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Day Staff Writer Brian Hallenbeck and Courant Staff Writer Alex Putterman contributed to this report.