The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
CT approaching 7,000 deaths
Biden increases vaccine supply allowing CT to give more shots
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said Tuesday he will increase the amount of COVID-19 vaccine sent to states by 15 percent and will send federal staff to states including Connecticut, to help set up vaccination sites.
Biden said he had placed more orders with Pfizer and Moderna, a move that will bring more doses to Connecticut at a time state officials have said the supply levels have been problematic.
Connecticut will receive 53,700 doses next week, the state Department of Health confirmed, while shipments have averaged about 46,000 doses over the past several weeks — although last week’s total was over 90,000 in a onetime bump-up.
Nationwide, the federal government will oversee the shipment of 10 million vaccine doses next week, up from 8.6 million. The United States has now ordered 600 million doses, enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans, by the end of summer or early fall, Biden said in a speech.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna shots require two doses multiple weeks apart for full efficacy.
The changes are part of Biden’s goal of administering 100 million
shots in his first 100 days in office. He also activated a war-time law, the Defense Production Act, to order manufacturers to produce more gloves, masks, syringes and other supplies need to administer the vaccine, he said.
Connecticut has been among the top states as measured by the percent of population inoculated and the percent of doses received that have been shot into arms.
“We’ve been saying all along we have the infrastructure ready to handle more doses across the state as demand continues to far outpace supply,” Gov. Ned Lamont’s Communication Director Max Reiss said. “This increase is a significant first step toward getting as many Connecticut residents vaccinated as possible.”
Numerous providers, including Yale New Haven Health and Community Health Center Inc., have said they have more capacity to administer vaccines than they have vaccine doses over the last few weeks. Considering that, it’s unclear how federal assistance in setting up vaccination sites would help the state speed up the process.
Biden directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up federally run mass vaccination centers around the country to assist with administering the shots. Locations for these centers have not been announced yet. But FEMA has alerted Connecticut that the agency will send support staff to the state to erect vaccine sites and for logistics, Reiss said.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients and
other senior administration officials held a call with governors Tuesday afternoon to discuss the vaccine distribution process. Biden promised that states will now have a three-week reliable forecast of how much vaccine they will receive and a receptive ear at the White House to coordinate distribution efforts.
Biden also announced that the federal government will cover the cost of governors using the National Guard to assist with vaccine distribution in their states. Connecticut has used the National Guard to help set up and direct patients at its first mega-vaccine site on an old runway at Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, run by Community Health Center.
“We anticipate using the guard throughout to stand up additional vaccination sites,” Reiss said.
According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Connecticut has received 515,675 vaccine doses and administered about 66 percent of those doses.
Only a handful of other states have been able to administer more of the vaccines doses they receive more quickly. For example, West Virginia is leading in this metric, having administered 76 percent of doses received.
Connecticut has vaccinated health care workers, first responders and nursing home residents. The state is now scheduling vaccine appointments for individuals 75 years and older.
In Connecticut, 291,257 people have received one or more vaccine doses, while 45,190 people have received two doses, CDC data shows.