Data: Connecticut vaccinations at lowest level since early Jan.

The latest week of COVID-19 vaccination data in Connecticut shows the lowest number of shots administered since early January when few people were eligible.

For the week ending June 26, 43,591 doses were administered statewide, according to state data released Thursday. The number represents a decline of nearly 30 percent from the week before, and a massive drop since vaccinations peaked one week in early April at more than 315,000.

The lower demand for shots comes as more than 67 percent of all Connecticut residents have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data tracker. A little less than 61 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC metrics.

Statewide, COVID-19 numbers have remained low through the late spring and early summer. That trend continued Thursday with 35 new cases statewide out of 8,046 tests for a daily positivity rate of 0.43 percent. Hospitalizations for the illness rose by six, bringing the state total to 37. One more fatality brought the state’s death toll to 8,279.

Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday marked the first time since the pandemic began where the state had gone a full week without a new case in any Connecticut nursing homes.

“With our nursing home residents nearly entirely vaccinated, this is more proof that vaccines work,” the governor tweeted Thursday afternoon.

But some communities are still lagging well behind the state average when it comes to vaccination, now three months since Connecticut began offering vaccines to anyone eligible, and two months since the state rolled back its pandemicera restrictions.

State data show vaccinations are lagging particularly in rural communities and in some of the state’s largest cities.

In Mansfield, a town of about 25,000, less than 35 percent of residents have started vaccination while only around 32 percent are fully vaccinated. The percentage of residents with at least one dose increased by less than a quarter of a percentage point in the past week, the data shows.

In rural Sterling, Thompson and urban Hartford, less than 45 percent of residents have initiated vaccination, according to the data.

Communities with large underserved populations also tend to rank lower on the list compared with communities with high vaccination rates. The state has prioritized certain underserved communities for vaccination based on ZIP codes. As of Thursday, 51.3 percent of residents living in those ZIP codes have received at least one shot or more, compared with 63.8 percent in all other ZIP codes.

Meanwhile, some communities are close to having all of their residents at least partly vaccinated.

In Canaan, a town of a little more than 1,000 people, 98 percent have initiated vaccination, according to the state’s data. Salisbury, Lyme, Old Saybrook and Kent all report more than 80 percent of residents have received at least one dose.