COVID license plates are on the road in CT

There are at least four COVID-related license plates on cars currently driving around Connecticut.

A license plate emblazoned with the words “COVID19” was submitted to the state Department of Motor Vehicles on March 14, a week after the first confirmed case of the disease in the state.

“COV1D19” (with the number one substituted for the letter “i”) was submitted to the state on March 16. “NOCOVID” was submitted on March 25, and “C0VID19” (with a zero in place of the letter “o”) was submitted March 27.

All four license plates were approved by the state and are presumably now on the road.

“VIRUSES,” was also approved, though as it was submitted for approval in January, it is unlikely to be in reference to the coronavirus.

There were a total of 3,106 vanity plate requests approved by the DMV between Dec. 19, 2019, and Aug. 14, 2020, according to records obtained by CT Insider in response to a Freedom of Information

Act request.

Among those are “YNGLING,” “STOOP1D” and “UGLYDOG.”

There were also 57 vanity plate requests denied by the DMV during that time period.

Among the denials were several Star Wars-related license plates, including “L0RDV8R” and “DRTHVDR,” both of which were denied because the plate had previously been assigned. “BOBAFET” and “JEDIIAM,” however, were both approved this year.

Several of the denied plates had political connotations. “MURICA,” for example, was denied with “text not allowed” as the reason — though “MURIKA,” “MURRICA,” “MER1C4” and “MERICA1” were approved.

“C0VFEFE” was denied because the text had already been assigned, according to the DMV. A plate bearing the numbers “45” was denied. The DMV website says that, “the Department of Motor Vehicles is not issuing one, two or three digit plates.”

“THTSBUL” and “BADGUY” were also denied.

Among the approved plates were “GLOCK30,” “METLHED,” “PAY2PLY,” “PEWPEW” and “CAWFEEE.”