Conn. begins 2nd doses despite snags elsewhere
Roughly three weeks after getting the first round of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, health care workers throughout the state are starting to get their second doses.
The second shots come as efforts to distribute the vaccine have hit supply snags elsewhere in the country.
In Florida, seniors formed long lines and in some cases camped out overnight hoping to get innoculated against the virus, the Associated Press reported.
But Gov. Ned Lamont and members of his administration downplayed concerns about the rollout of the vaccines in Connecticut Wednesday afternoon.
The governor highlighted that Connecticut is among the first eight states in the country to distribute the vaccine to more than 2 percent of its population. Many of the other states on
the list are small population states.
“For us it’s a little more complicated as a very dense state with a lot of people,” Lamont said during his afternoon news conference live from the Old Appropriations Room at the state capitol. “We have to be very thoughtful about how you rollout the vaccine, get people notified and make sure you do it on a timely basis. To date, working with hospitals and working with nursing homes, we’ve had pretty good success.”
He noted that second doses of the vaccine began rolling out that day “so we’re now beginning to catch up and complete what we had always anticipated doing for those firsttier responders.”
On Monday, New York officials announced the first case of a more infectious variant of the virus, found in a man in his
60’s who works in Saratoga Springs, the Associated Press reported.
In Connecticut, state health officials reported
4,516 new cases of the disease Monday. The positivity rate, found among 85,344 new tests, stood at 5.29
percent.
Hospitalizations for the disease increased, with a net 55 more patients bringing the statewide total to
1,111. Another 69 fatalities attributed to the illness brought the statewide death toll to 6,168.
As of Sunday night,
75,180 doses of the vaccines have been administered in Connecticut and the state has received about 167,000 doses, according to Lamont.
State health officials expect to have the first dose vaccine clinics completed at nursing homes by Friday. The clinics are carried out by staff from CVS and
Walgreens, who give the shots out to nursing home residents and staff members at the same clinic.
Vaccinations were also set to begin at assisted living facilities Monday, Lamont said.
Around the state, 85 sites are now administering the vaccines, with pharmacies to be added in the coming weeks. Lamont said that will make it easier for residents to get the vaccine “on a retail basis.”
The governor addressed the issues with vaccine distribution reported in Florida directly, saying the state plans to register people to get their shot online or by phone.
“If we find we do have additional vaccine, we’ll open up the lens a little bit more either in terms of age groups, demographics or other frontline responders to make sure that every drop of that vaccine is administered on a timely basis,” he said. “I don’t want to leave anything to chance and I don’t want to leave anybody behind.”
Hartford HealthCare system employees led the way Monday morning, getting their second doses during a press conference at the Connecticut Convention Center. The health system gave employees the first round of vaccines 21 days ago. Other area hospitals, including Yale New Haven Hospital, plan to provide second doses later this week.
The first Hartford HealthCare employee to roll up his sleeve for a second dose was Keith Grant, senior system director of infection prevention at Hartford Healthcare. Before getting his shot, Grant said he and others believe in the vaccine’s ability to help end the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is what we do believe will ... completely flatten the curve,” he said.
Grant said he had no side effects after getting his first shot, and was eager to get his second. After Grant received his second dose, there was a chorus of cheers and applause from the audience.
Most of the employees vaccinated Monday were from Hartford Hospital, which is part of Hartford HealthCare — as is St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport. There were no St. Vincent’s employees among those getting vaccinated Monday, but the hospital is slated to begin its second round of vaccinations Tuesday morning.
Other hospitals slated to receive the second round of vaccine include Yale New Haven Hospital. Hospital spokesman Mark D’Antonio said the hospital’s first five employees to get vaccinated are scheduled to receive their second vaccines starting Tuesday. The second round of vaccination will continue through this week, he said.
Stamford Hospital employees also are expected to start receiving their second dose of vaccine this week.
According to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker, about 4.33 million doses had been administered in the United States as of Sunday night.
The state has used almost 65 percent of the doses it received, giving it one of the higher rates of use. For instance, though nearby Massachusetts has vaccinated about 88,000 people, it has used a little less than 31 percent of the doses it has received. Nationwide, the United States has administered about 33 percent of the 13,071,925 doses it has received.
In the Hartford HealthCare system, about 13,500 people had been vaccinated as of Sunday said Eric Arlia, system director of pharmacy for Hartford HealthCare. He said he expects vaccinations to increase now that the holidays are over.
Grant said he thinks Connecticut has done an “exceptional job” in distributing the vaccine. Michael Urban, director of occupational therapy at the University of New Haven, agreed, but added that Connecticut is in a better position to distribute vaccine efficiently than other states.
“Our state is state very small compared to other states and, within Connecticut we have two large organizations that employ a large number of the healthcare workers,” he said, referring to Yale New Haven Health and Hartford HealthCare.”
He also mentioned that “other states have not been able to distribute their vaccines as efficiently, due to poor state planning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as a whole.”
“The country has not had a clear direction (throughout) this whole pandemic, thus each state has been left to their own agenda,” Urban said. “We have seen regions in the South and (Midwest) to be slower to adopt many of the practices that the Northeast and West coast have implemented.”