‘This is no time for us to relax’
Conn. nears 300,000 total COVID cases as positivity rate rises
As Connecticut officials expressed confidence Monday in the accelerated vaccination plan, they acknowledged the state is nearing 300,000 total COVID cases since the onset of the pandemic amid a rising positivity rate.
With increases through the weekend, Connecticut has seen 299,667 total cases of the coronavirus since last year, and the new tests since Friday brought the daily positivity rate to 3.59 percent, data shows.
“This is no time for us to relax,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “We are looking at New York, we are looking
at Massachusetts, things that ticked up a little bit there. Like I’ve said before, I am a little less anxious about the positivity rate unless I saw a big ramp up.”
Three days after the state lifted many business restrictions, Lamont said Monday he remains focused on the hospitalization rate, a number that decreased through the weekend by 13 net cases to a total of 389 statewide, among the lowest amounts it’s been in recent weeks.
As the positivity rate continued to sit above 3 percent, officials said Connecticut was on track with its accelerated vaccination rollout plan.
Since eligibility opened Friday to people age 45 to 54, state officials said there were about 80,000 scheduled appointments. It marks about 40 percent of those state officials expected would want the vaccine in this group.
Unlike previous eligibility expansions, the state said providers were told to limit appointments to midApril.
“I encourage people to keep looking each day,” said Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer. “If you are still looking for a slot, new ones are opening all the time. We remain confident that we are very much on track to get everyone an appointment by the time we change the phase on April 5.”
Geballe said Monday it appears the state has been timing the transitions well to ensure appointments do not go unused by moving the dates to when projections show demand diminishes.
“Our goal is ... as soon as we see a slackening in demand from the prior phase to immediately move into the next phase. I think we really nailed that this time,” Geballe said.
Lamont said Monday that 22 percent of people age 45 to 54 had already received the vaccine, but that number was bolstered by individuals who already fell in previous stages of the rollout, whether they were teachers or health care workers.
The state hopes to get about 60 percent of people in this age group inoculated with a first dose of the vaccine when it transitions to people age 16 to 44, the final stage of eligibility, which includes about 625,000 people who the state projects will be eager to sign up.
In an effort to reach more people with vaccines, Lamont said Monday the state Department of Public Health will deploy a fleet of 35 vehicles that will serve as mobile clinics capable of administering up to 160 doses of the vaccine a day as they come online through April. The mobile clinics will work through community partnerships where local leaders will set up appointments.
“We have to continue our outreach, especially for Black and brown populations,” Lamont said. “We have some of our towns where you have 70 percent of the eligible population has been vaccinated, and some of our cities where it’s more like 35 or 40 percent.”
When the state shifted its vaccine strategy last month to an age-based approach, Lamont’s administration announced it would designate 50 priority ZIP codes for increased vaccination efforts. The ZIP codes were chosen based on their high social vulnerability scores, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention metric that weighs factors including health care, housing density, access to transportation and education, among others.
More than three weeks into this effort, vaccine distribution to people living in these areas continues to lag substantially behind other communities, officials said.
State officials said Monday that 22 percent of people in these priority areas have been vaccinated, falling below the previous goal of 25 percent.
Lamont said it’s “not quite where we wanted ... so we’ve got a little ways to go.”
The state has emphasized several strategies to increase these numbers, acknowledging that hesitance toward getting the vaccine may be higher in these communities.
Providers have been conducting outbound calls, door-knocking campaigns, and other concerted outreach to connect these residents with vaccines. While maintaining large mass vaccine clinics in cities, providers have been partnering with smaller organizations like houses of worship to run targeted vaccination events.
Lamont said the new mobile clinic vans will be “in the church parking lot at the end of the service” or visiting other congregate settings.
“We’re taking the vaccine to you to do everything we can to expand our reach,” Lamont said.
As these strategies develop to reach vulnerable communities, state officials appear poised to double down on the efforts when the demand for the vaccine wanes by using these mobile clinic vans to reach more people.
“By the time we get to the late spring to summer, we are going to have more vaccine than people who want to take it,” Geballe said. “We envision these mobile units operating almost on an ice cream truck model, where you can drive through neighborhoods and you can flag them down and get a vaccination.”