The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Lamont: Residents 65 and over will soon be able to register for vaccine
Connecticut residents 65 and older could begin registering for COVID-19 vaccines as early as next week, Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday.
On average, just under half of the state’s 75 and older population have already received the vaccine, according to the Lamont administration’s data. That population is the only group eligible to receive the vaccine in Phase 1B of the state’s rollout. Medical first responders, health care workers and staff and residents of longterm care facilities are also being vaccinated under Phase 1A.
“I’d like to think that we’ll be able to give you a green light on 65 and over in a week or 10 days. Very soon thereafter people start getting their first shots, maybe it’ll take another week to get that done,” the governor said.
Johnson and Johnson announced Thursday it submitted an application for an emergency use authorization for its one-shot vaccine candidate to the Food and Drug Administration.
The company estimates its vaccine can be stored for up to three months in a standard refrigerator. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines already in use, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine uses a modified adenovirus as a vector, or carrier, of the virus’ genetic code to help a patient’s body develop antibodies.
As Connecticut’s COVID hospitalizations reached their lowest point since before Thanksgiving and the state’s daily positivity rate was the lowest since Halloween, Lamont on Thursday warned of Super Bowl gatherings on Sunday.
“We’ve got to make sure it’s also an event we handle cautiously and make sure it doesn’t create a spike-up,” he said. “The trendlines are so positive right now.”
There were 37 fewer hospitalizations recorded Thursday, dropping the statewide total to 837.
The daily positivity rate declined as well. A total of 937 new infections were recorded out of 29,864 tests, for a positivity rate of 3.14 percent — down from 3.77 percent the previous day.
There were 28 more deaths were reported, bringing the state’s death toll to 7,185, a figure Lamont called “tragically too much.”
That comes as the state’s allocation of vaccine from the federal government has received a boost of about 5 percent. The Biden administration also announced this week that it would begin shipping vaccines directly to some pharmacy locations, including in Connecticut.
Those additional doses, on top of the state’s increased allocation, puts the total number flowing into the state over 60,000 each week, according to the governor’s office.
Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer, said the number of vaccines the state receives next week — when the 5 percent boost is supposed to start — should be the new minimum the state can expect to receive each week.
“That’s very helpful in terms of us being able to provide better headlights for our providers about what they can expect,” Geballe said.
Vaccine appointments that were canceled this week due to the winter storm are on track to be completed by the end of the weekend, according to Geballe.
It’s unclear exactly when the state will begin vaccinating those with underlying health conditions and frontline essential workers, a group that includes teachers. The state’s vaccine website still lists “likely March” for both those categories.
Also unclear is exactly which health conditions will be included. The state’s website provides a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s lists of conditions that put people at greater risk of the virus.
But Lamont said the state is still working with the CDC to identify the list of co-morbidities. “They had lists that included smoking and a whole variety of things, we want to narrow that list to make sure it really deals with people who are most at risk.”
But Lamont said he would prefer to rely on the guidance of the CDC when asked about narrowing that list.
“We want to be clear, we understand people are very anxious for information about who will be eligible that has an underlying chronic condition,” said Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the state’s Department of Public Health. “It’s obviously complicated ... we need to rely on the CDC data and the list that they published.”
Gifford said the state’s health care providers will be a “key part” of the effort, since they house the medical records needed to confirm a person’s medical condition. For those who are not affiliated with one of those providers, the state will provide a way for people to “raise their hand” and be included, she said.
Lamont also announced Thursday the state will allocate an extra $40 million to acute care hospitals through money Connecticut received through the Coronavirus Relief Fund.
That money was set aside for Connecticut as part of the CARES Act last April. The money will be sent to “non-governmental, short-term general hospitals,” that meet certain requirements for pandemic-related expenses, Lamont’s office said in a statement. The governor said the money, which comes on top of $980 million already dispersed to hospitals from the federal government, recognizes the “frontline role” the state’s hospitals played in the pandemic.
“It is not an overstatement to say that this role has been heroic and continues to be indispensable as we all work together to defeat the virus,” a statement from Lamont said. “Our hospitals have needed to adapt to new protocols and infection control measures, while also ceasing elective procedures during the crest of the first wave of COVID-19, which had the effect of increasing costs and decreasing revenues, not to mention the physical, mental, and emotional toll this pandemic has taken on their staff.”