Stamford turns to walk-up and door-to-door vaccinations

STAMFORD — As immediate demand for COVID-19 vaccines drops off, Stamford officials on Tuesday highlighted the city’s next phase of vaccination efforts— in which vaccine providers plan to meet people where they are.

“The model has changed from ‘you come to us;’ now to we come to you,” Stamford Health Director Dr. Jennifer Calder said Tuesday, during Mayor David Martin’s COVID-19 press conference.

Those efforts will include everything from walk-up vaccine sites in city parks to clinics aimed at certain groups, including restaurant workers, and health care workers going door-to-door to offer the vaccine to those who haven’t gotten one yet.

That comes as Martin noted the

city’s COVID-19 numbers are down significantly from where they were a year ago, a difference he attributed to the vaccines. “I’m very very pleased about that, even though cases are still high,” he said.

That optimism came with a note of caution, as Martin warned against complacency, and urged those who haven’t received a vaccine to do so. “We’re getting to the end of this if everybody gets a shot,” he said.

But he also advised residents who are comfortable doing so to continue wearing masks outdoors, even though the state’s mask mandate has gone away. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also has said people who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear a mask outdoors, unless they are in crowded areas.

While vaccine uptake has been high among older Stamford residents, “we’re still struggling to get the younger individuals,” Martin said. Of residents ages 15 to 44, 54 percent have not yet received a first dose of vaccine.

With not enough demand at mass vaccination sites, the strategy has shifted to pop-up vaccine clinics, as well as clinics at places people might be likely to visit, as well as “canvassing” from door to door to offer residents a shot, Martin said.

The city also has a program to vaccinate people who are homebound through appointments.

That comes as Pfizer has submitted data from clinical trials of its vaccine involving children as young as 12 to the Food and Drug Administration. Martin said he hopes to have more information on that eligibility for the vaccine possibly as early as next week.

“Keep your social-distancing-wash your hands... and don’t go to wild parties,” he said.

Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Stamford Health COO Jonathan Bailey leads a tour during the grand opening of the COVID-19 vaccination “super site” at Silicon Harbor in Stamford on March 15.

Stamford Mayor David Martin speaks with nurse Cecil Chan before receiving his first COVID-19 vaccine at Stamford Hospital on March 8.