The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Hospital runs out of vaccine
Waterbury Hospital reschedules appointments for first inoculations
WATERBURY — Amid falling hospitalizations but ongoing concerns of an inadequate supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the state, one Connecticut hospital has rescheduled appointments over the next few days because of a lack of doses.
Waterbury Hospital said in a statement that its supply of first doses of the vaccine has been “exhausted.”
Affected patients — who were scheduled for their first vaccinations at the hospital’s clinics on Friday, Monday or Tuesday — were contacted and told to reschedule, the hospital said.
“We apologize to our patients and want to assure them that we are making every effort to ensure they receive their first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in a timely manner,” the hospital said.
The hospital’s vaccine allotment comes from the state. Lauresha Xhihani, a spokeswoman for Waterbury Hospital, said the shipment is expected to arrive
Tuesday morning and the hospital hopes to begin giving first doses “right after.”
The state did not respond to request for more information on the issue Friday.
The holdup comes as the
state’s COVID-19 metrics have remained relatively stable, even as the state recorded more than 1,000 deaths tied to the virus in January.
On Thursday, Connecticut recorded 1,258 new infections out of 34,577 tests for a daily positivity rate of 3.64 percent, according to the state’s numbers. The daily positivity
rate has remained below 5 percent for more than a week. Hospitalizations for the virus fell by a net 10 patients, bringing the statewide total down to 985 — the lowest it has been since the days leading up to Thanksgiving.
Over the past week, Connecticut’s hospital beds have been at a little more than 81 percent capacity, while intensive care units were at a little over 62 percent capacity.
But the state recorded
more than two dozen additional deaths attributed to the virus, with 26 more fatalities pushing the death toll to 7,046. The state’s official death toll surpassed 7,000 on Thursday, just shy of four weeks since the state surpassed 6,000 deaths.
Friday afternoon, Gov. Ned Lamont announced interstate youth hockey will continue to be postponed through at least the end of March for public and private school teams as well as youth leagues. The announcement, which was also made by the governors of Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire, does not affect professional or college hockey.
Concerns about the vaccine supply have arisen nationally.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday he will increase the amount of 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 has 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 one-time bump-up.
The Naugatuck Fire Department’s clinic was among those supplied by Waterbury Hospital.
Fire officials on Friday morning said the clinic will honor all appointments that have been canceled once the clinic reopens next week. The clinic is set to reopen Wednesday.
“We understanding that this can be very frustrating,” the fire department said. “Not receiving the amount of vaccines from the state that the VAMS site takes appointments for is out of both the clinic and Waterbury Hospital’s control.”
Those who scheduled appointments through the VAMS — Vaccine Administration Management System — can change their appointment to another clinic through the system, officials said.
Appointments for patients scheduled to receive their second dose will still be honored. Second doses are being administered at the Waterbury Hospital clinic.
The hospital said other than issues with the supply of vaccines, it is also having issues with its drivethrough clinics with the bitter cold temperatures. The hospital said the cold weather could lead to the closure of these clinics, at least for Friday.
The shortage comes as Gov. Ned Lamont has described a race to get people vaccinated before new variants of the virus become widespread.
Mutated forms of the virus have emerged in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil. All three have been detected in the U.S., and all three are believed to spread from person to person more easily according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first U.S. cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, were reported Thursday in South Carolina.
So far, only the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, has shown up in Connecticut, with eight confirmed cases so far.
On Friday, Johnson & Johnson announced its single-dose vaccine proved effective against the disease in a Phase 3 trial. No serious safety concerns were reported.
The study involved nearly 44,000 participants in the U.S., Latin America and South Africa. In the U.S., the vaccine was 72 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 infection after 28 days. But in South Africa, where the B.1.351 variant is widespread, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine proved less effective.
Connecticut is in Phase 1b of the vaccination process.
Right now, residents ages 75 and older are able to schedule and receive their vaccine doses.
Next up in this phase will be individuals between the ages of 65 and 74, followed next by front-line essential workers and individuals with underlying medical conditions with increased risk for severe illness.