We answer more of your questions about the coronavirus.
In a fourth FAQ about the coronavirus, we answer questions readers submitted the past couple of weeks on contact tracing, federal unemployment benefits, cases at Electric Boat, vaccinations, and vaping. If you want to submit a question, visit theday.com/coronavirusquestions.
How do I sign up for a volunteer position with CT for COVID-19 Tracing?
“At this point in time, we are not looking for volunteers for contact tracing from the general public, although that is something we might consider doing in the future,” said Kristen Soto, who is helping lead the state Department of Public Health's response to contact tracing.
Rather, DPH is staffing its initiative with three groups: existing DPH employees, existing staff at local health departments and volunteers from academic institutions, especially students in public health or other health care fields.
Soto said there are about 300 staff members in the first two groups, and the plan is to recruit 400-500 students. She feels this “will be sufficient for our initial statewide response.”
If you want to volunteer in another capacity — or be considered as a contact tracer in the future, should the opportunity be opened to the general public — you can fill out the form at ctresponds.ct.gov.
Why is Connecticut only one of 6 states in the country that hasn't given out the $600/week additional unemployment compensation that was passed by Congress in the CARES Act? This was money from the federal government that was supposed to go to the people to help them through this pandemic. Where is it?
This question came in on April 27, and on April 24, the Connecticut Mirror reported that Connecticut was one of only four states that hadn't yet provided the federal portion of
the unemployment benefits — known as Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, or FPUC.
But payments were processed April 25-26 and deposited into accounts on April 28, said Nancy Steffens, spokesperson for the state Department of Labor.
“It took CT several weeks to complete the intricate programming and coding necessary to incorporate the many integrity and accounting requirements needed to meet the federal requirements of this new program,” she said in an email. “CTDOL is currently working to replace its 40-yearold mainframe that operates on COBOL technology and plans to have a modern system in place next year.”
As of Tuesday night, DOL has issued $607,384,960 in FPUC payments, Steffens said. Federal payments totaling $89 million were added to state benefits issued last week, and on Tuesday, $335 million in retroactive payments for the weeks ending April 4, 11 and 18 were deposited into accounts.
Steffens said Tuesday night that between state and federal benefits, the Department of Labor has issued $1.05 billion since March 19, the first weekend after claims significantly increased.
Where can I find the daily brief of COVID-19 cases at the sub base and Electric Boat. Google results are from last week and I am looking for current data. Also is there testing on those 2 work sites?
Electric Boat President Kevin Graney puts all the updates at eblanding.com, but he doesn't do daily updates. There's no breakdown of cases for the Naval Submarine Base; COVID-19 case numbers are broken down by service but not by base. Local base commanders are not required to report infections at their bases.
Testing began Friday of about 400 Electric Boat employees at the company's Groton shipyard, the first step in a testing program that will be rolled out companywide.
Should you avoid getting vaccinated for other viruses at this time? For instance if you are due for your second shingles vaccination would getting it lower your resistance to fighting off COVID-19?
Kathy Kudish, immunization program manager for the state Department of Public Health, said there's no evidence to support the line of reasoning that getting a vaccination would lower resistance to fighting off COVID-19.
“The reasons for the guidance issued by CDC are out of consideration for potential spread of (COVID-19) in (health care) settings and observance of stay home orders, not out of safety concerns for vaccines themselves,” Kudish said in an email.
She was referring to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For adults living in areas with community transmission of COVID-19, the CDC says visits for preventive services that require face-to-face encounters, such as immunizations, should be postponed unless “an in-person visit must be scheduled for some other purpose and the clinical preventive service can be delivered during that visit with no additional risk” or the patient and clinician believe there is a compelling need for the service and the benefit outweighs the risk of coronavirus exposure.
The CDC says that if a practice must limit well child visits, providers should prioritize newborn care and vaccination of those through 24 months.
“Disruption of immunization services, even for brief periods, will result in increased numbers of susceptible individuals and raise the likelihood of outbreak-prone vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) such as measles,” the World Health Organization said in late March. “Such VPD outbreaks may result in increased morbidity and mortality predominantly in young infants and other vulnerable groups, which can cause greater burden on health systems already strained by the COVID-19 response.”
The WHO said influenza vaccination of health workers, older adults and people who are pregnant is advised “where feasible.”
The CDC also said there's no evidence that getting a flu vaccine increases the risk of getting COVID-19.
How many of the younger people who are dying from this were vapers?
This isn't data that is being tracked; Department of Public Health spokesperson Av Harris said it's impossible to tell.
The Food and Drug Administration said in March that vapers with underlying health conditions might be at higher risk from complications but told Bloomberg News in April, “E-cigarette use can expose the lungs to toxic chemicals, but whether those exposures increase the risk of (COVID-19) is not known.”
Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told Kaiser Health News, “Because of the recency, there's no data to show if there are differences in outcomes between people who vape and people who do not vape. There's no reported scientific evidence.”
But she said one “can predict an association,” noting that vaping produces inflammatory changes in the lungs, and “a tissue that has suffered harm is more vulnerable.”
If you want to submit a question, visit theday.com/coronavirusquestions.