Amid ‘onslaught,’ CT books 100K new appointments

Amid an “onslaught” of new people seeking COVID vaccines, Gov. Ned Lamont said the state saw 100,000 new appointments booked Thursday on the first day all Connecticut adults became eligible.

The frenzy was not a surprise to state officials, who spent much of the past week trying to temper expectations, as 1.3 million people ages 16 to 44 became eligible, but frustrations still ensued with technical hiccups and difficulty finding

new appointments.

“I know many of you were there at 12:01 in the morning hitting the refresh button. Be a little bit patient. But right now, the vaccine flow is still continuing,” Lamont said.

Josh Geballe, Lamont’s chief operating officer, said the 100,000 new appointments was “a good start and we will keep going through the next couple weeks.”

The day was not without a few problems. Yale New Haven Health officials said there was an issue early Thursday with its system to book appointments. The state Department of Public Health said callbacks were halted from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday on the vaccine appointment hotline. But by that time, schedules had already been filled.

The rush for vaccines comes as the state’s daily positivity rate remained elevated on Thursday at 4.45 percent with 1,580 new infections reported out of 35,538 tests. While 14 more deaths increased the state’s total to 7,900, a net drop of 21 patients brought COVID-19 hospitalizations back under 500 at 492.

As of Thursday, Connecticut had administered 1.25 million first doses of the vaccine with 733,931 people fully vaccinated. These numbers are expected to rise quickly as supply picks up and the newly eligible find appointments.

Social media was a mix of success and concern as some grabbed appointments through burdened systems, while others said appointments were not available within 100 miles of their homes.

State officials and some

providers said the day went smoothly, ironed out over a half-dozen expansions in the 36 weeks since the first health care workers received vaccines.

“Things are going well, we know that there are another million people now in the system. We are asking everyone to be patient,” said Leslie Gianelli, a spokeswoman for Community Health Center, one of several providers running mass vaccination clinics in Connecticut.

With vaccine supply still limited, providers and state officials knew there was no way demand for appointments would be met on Thursday with estimates of 600,000 people eager to get vaccinated out of the 1.3 million who became eligible.

“Now, of course, there are so many people in the system looking for appointments, it’s going to be challenging for some people to get in . ... We know that there is so much more capacity coming online so everyone will get it,” Gianelli said.

Dr. Ohm Deshpande, associate chief clinical officer for Yale New Haven Health, said “there was an onslaught” of people seeking appointments when the system opened early Thursday and 15,000 appointments were scheduled “in a few hours.”

At UConn Health, demand for the vaccine remains high and “appointments are booking very quickly,” said Kimberly Metcalf, associate vice president for pharmacy and ancillary services. However, she said, this was not much different than previous phases of the rollout when appointments quickly filled up on the first day.