Data reveals vaccination equity gaps between ‘high need’ and received

The Connecticut municipalities with the highest rate of COVID vaccinations tend to have few of what the state considers “highneed” residents, according to data released this week.

Only Waterford — ranked No. 18 in the state for vaccination rate — had a significant high-needs population among the topperforming municipalities as of Monday. High needs is defined as being at elevated risk of not having access to adequate health care.

The top municipalities also tend to be smaller, with around 20,000 people and populations consisting of mostly white residents.

The data also pointed directly to a continuing gap between the percentages of white, Black and Hispanic residents receiving vaccinations. The three towns with the highest percentage of their populations vaccinated — Essex (32.9 percent), Old Saybrook (32.7 percent) and Woodbridge (29.7 percent) — each consist of at least 75 percent white residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

A total of 1,042,534 vaccine doses have been administered in Connecticut

as of Thursday. Statewide, 681,488 people have received a first shot, or 19 percent of the population, while 361,046 have also received a second dose, state figures show.

A total of 155 Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccines, which were delivered this week, were administered through Thursday.

Of those 75 and older, 74 percent have received at least a first dose, while 59 percent of those between the ages of 65 and 74 have received the first shot.

Of those between the ages of 55 and 64, who became eligible on Monday, 17 percent have received a first dose.

Officials have acknowledged the state’s vaccination equity gaps. The state Department of Public Health has identified 50 ZIP codes as having vulnerable populations and plan to allocate a quarter of Connecticut’s vaccine supply to them.

Hartford and Bridgeport sit at the very bottom for the percentage of their populations vaccinated. Hartford has vaccinated 8.9 percent of its population, while Bridgeport sits at 9.3 percent, as of Monday.

These areas have a high social vulnerability-index, which are metrics devised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track those most at risk to not have health care access.

“We’ve been meeting regularly with providers all around the state talking about strategies to make sure that people in those high-SVI have access to vaccine,” said Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer.

Geballe said the state has launched several initiatives, including outbound calling and dedicated call-in lines.

“Many of our providers are now reserving appointment slots to make sure people in those ZIP codes have easier access to book an appointment,” he said.

Health workers have also begun knocking on doors, along with “more and more mobile clinics” starting up each day, Geballe said.

The data released Monday also appeared to show significant disparities between the percentage of white people who have received their first dose of the vaccine in Connecticut versus Black and Hispanic residents.

Among those whose race was recorded, slightly more than 55 percent of white residents aged 65 and above had received at least the first dose of the vaccine as of Monday. Up until that point, this was the only group in the general population eligible for the vaccine.

In comparison, about 37 percent of those who identified as Hispanic received their first dose in the same group, and 34 percent of those who identified as Black residents.

However, about 17 percent were listed under racial categories that make it difficult to break down the state’s vaccination rate by race, either because they were listed as more than one race, “other,” or “unknown.”

As the state prepares to lift many of the COVID restrictions placed on businesses in the coming weeks, Connecticut’s rate of positive test results remained below 2 percent on Friday, as the total number of people hospitalized with the virus declined slightly.

The one-day positivity rate stood at 1.84 percent after 830 new COVID-19 cases were found in 45,062 tests

There were five fewer patients hospitalized with COVID on Friday, dropping the statewide total to 428 — the lowest it’s been since Nov. 6, according to the state’s data.

Another 11 fatalities attributed to the disease brought Connecticut’s official death toll to 7,704 on Friday.