Danbury area prepares for COVID vaccine expansion
The plan to expedite and expand COVID-19 vaccine eligibility thrilled Danbury area vaccine providers and caused at least one teen to cheer at track practice.
“It’s great,” said Katie Curran, chief operating officer and general counsel for the Connecticut Institute for Communities, known as CIFC, in Danbury. “It speaks to what a great
job I think Connecticut vaccine providers have been doing in getting the vaccine out. I think we’re all looking to get the vaccine in more arms.”
Gov. Ned Lamont plans to have all residents aged 16 and over eligible to sign up for an appointment by April 5. Residents age 45 to 54 can sign up for an appointment online on Friday, a few days earlier than originally scheduled.
“It’s going to take some time to get the vaccine to everyone who wants it and I urge patience to the greatest extent possible,” Lamont said in the release.
Connecticut ranks in the top five states in the country for vaccine distribution with 27 percent of first doses administered, putting the state just behind New Mexico, Alaska, and South Dakota, according to data from the New York Times.
For Mikki Harkin’s 17-yearold son RJ, the updated timeline means the high school senior might soon be able to see his friends at other schools and have less anxiety-inducing college visits this spring. The New Milford family has a visit to a Florida college scheduled for April 11, and Harkin is hoping to get her son in as soon as he’s eligible.
On Monday afternoon, RJ had been at track practice, and hadn’t yet heard the news.
“We just sent the text to him and he yelled, ‘Woohoo!’” the
53-year-old mother and occupational therapist said.
“He’s been so good at staying within his bubble. We’ve held him back because we didn’t want him to bring anything home” Harkin said. “Giving him this shot gives him the opportunity to have more freedom when he’s [visiting colleges].”
Harkin’s husband also got moved up in eligibility, and they plan to be on the computer right at midnight on Friday.
For another resident, Victoria Duncan, the news came as a very welcome 38th birthday present. Her birthday was Monday. The New Milford mother, who works in a hair salon, said she’s looking forward to celebrating her last COVID birthday and finally being able to eat out again.
As she watched friends and family members get the vaccine, she said she felt more than ready to get her own.
“They’re at the finish line, almost, and it’s just so nice to see that,” she said.
While increased distribution requires adequate vaccine supply from the state and federal government, many providers are already planning ways to increase their vaccination capacity when the time comes.
New staff at CIFC will need to be hired to ramp up distribution, Curran said. National Guard staff who had been helping with COVID testing were moved to the vaccine site.
Laura Cordeira, director of community health and wellness at RVNAhealth, said that a decision involving increased staffing at the local clinics they run is all dose-dependent.
“If we don’t have more doses, we don’t need more nurses,” she said.
At the Danbury Fair mall mass vaccination site, officials are also considering expanding hours and staffing to work the drive-through clinic, said Amy Taylor, Community Health Center Inc.’s vice president for Connecticut’s western region. The health center has been running the site with Nuvance Health and the National Guard since the start of March, vaccinating about 550 people a day.
“We are thrilled that more people are now eligible and will adjust accordingly,” Taylor said.
Taylor said their hours are not “set in stone,” and increased numbers of eligible residents could mean running longer and later clinic hours.
“Especially as we go into the lower age groups where people are working more, we recognize how important it is to have more flexible hours for people so they don’t have to choose between getting a vaccine and going to work,” Taylor said.
Cordeira said opening vaccinations through federally qualified health centers and pharmacies has helped significantly with demand and appointment availability at the local clinics RVNAhealth nurses run. With dose allocated from the federal government, those sites free up doses from the state, she said.
“I think everyone’s excited,” Cordeira said. “People are clamoring less for our few appointments because there are just more appointments available.”
In fact, CIFC announced Monday it is one of 700 vaccine sites in the country to receive doses directly from the federal government, in addition to the state.
The organization does not know how many doses it will get through the program, but expects they will arrive the week of April 8, Curran said.
CIFC has been averaging 550 doses weekly from the state, Curran said. This includes about 300 first doses and 250 second doses, she said.
But the organization hopes to distribute as many as 2,000 doses a week when it moves to a bigger site at the former Danbury Medical Group building at 132 Main St.
The organization was picked for the federal program because of the success it has had in getting the vaccine to low-income and minority patients, people experiencing homelessness, public housing residents, migrant workers, and those speaking English as a second language, among others.
About 40 percent of CIFC’s vaccines have gone to people from vulnerable communities, the organization said.
The organization has reached out to underserved populations through a virtual education forum, Curran said. Clients may fill out a form on the organization’s website to be called to schedule an appointment or receive extra doses when available. Curran said 5,000 people filled out the form when eligibility last opened.
She expects the system to get “overwhelmed” again when eligibility opens, but that providers were told to open their schedules further out into April.
“People just have to hang in there and keep trying,” Curran said. “And we’ll continue our outreach efforts to those in need.”
“We don’t pretend to be able to meet all of the demand for our area, but we want to do our part and that’s what we think we can do,” she said.
But even with the new federally qualified health center and pharmacy distribution, towns and providers are still not getting the dosage they ask for. In New Milford, Mayor Pete Bass said they are canceling Tuesday’s closed clinic because they didn’t receive enough doses.
This is the first time that has happened, Bass said.
“It’s this rationing that frustrates people,” he said.
The town and health department are hoping to open up their closed clinics to all eligible residents as soon as they get through those in the first few phases who still have not received doses. So, people are “pleasantly excited” by the governor’s news, but still waiting to see what happens with rollout, he said.
Cordeira said RVNAhealth still does not receive the number of doses they request each week, but the state will be sending them a needs assessment survey Tuesday to determine whether to increase or decrease their baseline vaccine allocation. She also noted there is lingering frustration surrounding the use and accessibility of the Vaccine Administration Management System from residents, even among the younger cohorts.
Still, RVNAhealth nurses were excited by the eligibility news, and morale was good, Cordeira said.
“I think everybody is just breathing a sigh of relief that it will become accessible to them sooner,” she said.