Gov’s order: Pharmacists can vaccinate youngsters
In preparation for vaccines to arrive in Connecticut as soon as next week, Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday issued a new executive order allowing Connecticut pharmacists to acquire and administer coronavirus vaccines, despite a regulatory structure that would otherwise inhibit the druggists.
The governor’s order will let pharmacists provide vaccines to youths between 10 and 18, whom they are usually prevented from inoculating.
The order will also let the pharmacists inject vaccines that have been “authorized” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Ordinarily, vaccines must meet a higher grade of testing, reaching the of FDA- “approved” and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-scheduled thresholds before state pharmacists are allowed to acquire and inject them into patients.
“I feel that indoor dining is very risky. I don’t think that it’s necessary to continue at this point. And I would suggest that we all do takeout and tip people who are providing service for us, to be able to help restaurant workers.”
Dr. Manisha Juthani of the Yale School of Medicine
Lamont’s new order was released Monday night as the state prepared for the FDA on Thursday to authorize the Pfizer vaccine, which will begin to be distributed in the United Kingdom this week. As many as 16,000 doses are expected to reach Connecticut in the initial batch of Pfizer medications, followed by another 16,000 a week later.
The FDA is scheduled to review the Moderna vaccine next week.
During his hourlong news conference from the shut-down State Capitol, Lamont on Monday announced a net increase of 33 hospital patients over the weekend, for a total of 1,183, compared to the state’s highest hospitalization rate of 1,972 patients on April 22 at the height of the spring wave of the virus.
The fatality total rose by 78, to 5,224 since the first patient death on March 17. Those with positive tests over the weekend came in at 6.6 percent, down from last week’s high of 7.13 percent.
Lamont’s guest for the day, Dr. Manisha Juthani of the Yale School of Medicine, who has interviewed numerous hospitalized patients, warned Connecticut that restaurants in particular are hotbeds of COVID infection. Juthani was among a group of physicians who recently asked the governor to shut down indoor dining.
“I feel that indoor dining is very risky,” Juthani, an infectious disease expert, said in the virtual news conference. “I don’t think that it’s necessary to continue at this point. And I would suggest that we all do takeout and tip people who are providing service for us, to be able to help restaurant workers. There are also other places that I consider to be high-risk. I am concerned about what happens in casinos. I am concerned about things like tanning salons. There are a variety of different places. I think the month of December is a very high-risk month.”
She said that interviewing hospitalized patients has given her vivid pictures of people who think their behavior is safe in the moment, but young people in particular are bringing the virus to older members of their families, who are getting sick. Even older people dining with close friends are getting infected.
“Don’t gather for meals indoors with people who are not part of your household,” Juthani warned. “This is not forever. This is for, hopefully, a short period of time as vaccines can roll out and we can just get through this winter.”
But Lamont said he is still trying to keep restaurants open, in a balancing act that takes into consideration the announcement Monday that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo may shut down indoor restaurant dining as early as next week.
“I can’t mandate common sense,” Lamont said, stressing that many state residents are heeding the warning, because restaurant reservations were down by nearly 20 percent in October and double that in November. “For those few people who are still doing indoor dining, if I shut that down, where do they go?”
He warned that discouraged restaurant diners could go to other states, or indoors at private parties that could become virus spreaders as well.
Lamont wants to work on the issue regionally, with fellow governors.
At Aetna, a CVS Health company, an official on Monday said that in anticipation of the historic nationwide vaccination program, about 9,000 pharmacy technicians have been hired. CVS has a nationwide contract with the CDC to provide vaccinations at long-term-care facilities, including nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities, with vaccinations for residents and staff. There are about 17,900 nursing home residents in Connecticut.
CVS stores in Connecticut are looking to fill more than 700 full- and part-time positions, including 140 pharmacy technician positions.
The technicians are expected to help support the influenza season, COVID-19 vaccinations, and the busy end-of-the-year holidays. The drugstore chain does not have the contract for assisted-living facilities in Connecticut, where 7,533 reside, according to state data.