Clinics eager for more COVID-19 vaccines

Dr. James Cardon said his colleagues are vaccinating as fast as they can.

Cardon is chief clinical integration officer with Hartford HealthCare. The health system has already opening 15 clinics dedicated to vaccinating people against COVID-19, and plans to open at least two more.

The clinics are at each of the health system’s hospitals — including St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport — and at least spot in the community surrounding the hospital. For instance, the Hartford area has a clinic both at Hartford Hospital and at the Connecticut Convention Center.

Cardon said, combined, the sites vaccinate roughly 2,000 people a day, but he wishes they could do more. “We modulate how many hours we're open by how much vaccine we have,” he said, adding that none of the sites are open seven days a week, because there’s not enough vaccine to accommodate that. “The vaccine allotment only comes once a week and we never know how much we’re going to get.”

Throughout the state, there are roughly 100 clinics where people can get the COVID vaccine, said Department of Public Health spokesperson Maura Fitzgerald. Some are at hospitals, while others are at outpatient clinics or somewhere in the community. She said, so far,

Beverly Rosner, of Shelton, receives the first dose of the two-part COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Raola Vigil at the Griffin Health Vaccination Center at 10 Progress Drive in Shelton on Wednesday.

only three sites have indicated that they are drivethrough clinics, allowing people to get vaccinated from their cars.

But she was quick to point out that the numbers “will most likely change as health departments and other providers are working hard at opening up more sites.”

On Friday, the drugstore chain Walgreens announced that select Connecticut Walgreens pharmacies will now offer COVID-19 vaccines to patients age 75 and older who are eligible as part of Phase 1B

of the national vaccine rollout plan. About a dozen Walgreens are participating, including those in Litchfield and Torrington.

The number of people that can be vaccinated varies from clinic to clinic, but health care officials, like Cardon, said they’re limited by how many doses of vaccine they receive.

“It is not a matter of capacity, but one of availability of vaccine,” said Mark Dantonio, spokesman for the Yale New Haven Health System. “We can ramp up to 20,00 vaccines per week (with

enough doses). We’ve shared our concerns with the State and they have shared those concerns with the federal government.”

Indeed, Lamont addressed that issue in his Thursday news conference on the COVID pandemic. “There’s one choke point: we need more vaccines,” Lamont said during the event.

The state has been receiving about 46,000 first doses of vaccine each week through federal distribution channels, though this week an extra 50,000 will arrive.

Right now, most hospitals and health care systems in the state are running multiple clinics. For instance, Yale New Haven Health has at least 12 clinics that are either open or about to open all over the state. Those include sites at the Northeast Medical Group locations in North Haven, Trumbull, Greenwich, Fairfield, Old Saybrook and New London — all of which opened on Thursday. Other clinics include one at the Yale West Campus in Orange, and one at Yale University’s Lanman Center in New Haven, both of which opened Friday.

Stamford Health, meanwhile, has partnered with the city of Stamford to operate a community vaccination clinic on the campus of Stamford Hospital, which can accommodate up to 1,000 people per day, by appointment only. Hospital and city officials are in the process of finalizing a second community vaccination clinic in Stamford.

Nuvance Health, meanwhile, has vaccination sites at all of its Connecticut hospitals, in Danbury, New Milford, Norwalk and Sharon.

Hartford HealthCare’s multiple sites include two in Fairfield County, at St. Vincent’s and in Shelton at the Hartford HealthCare Medical Group site there. So far, the St. Vincent’s site is averaging between 400 and 500 shots given a day and the Shelton site is averaging about 150 doses given a day, said Dr. Daniel Gottschall, vice president of medical affairs for the

Fairfield region of Hartford HealthCare and St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.

Gottschall said the goal is to get up to a total of 1,000 vaccinations a day at the Fairfield County sites. “We’re very close to that,” he said.

Hartford HealthCare’s Shelton site is one of two clinics in the city. Griffin Hospital just opened a vaccination center at 10 Progress Drive in Shelton, with 14 “vaccination stations” expected to serve about six patients an hour, for a total of about 1,000 a day.

Other clinics in Greater Bridgeport include at least two run through the city of Bridgeport, at the Communicable Disease Clinic at 752 East Main St., and one at Central High School.

Though Cardon, Gottschall and others lamented that they wish they had enough vaccine to immunize everyone who needed, all the authorities contacted encouraged anyone who is eligible to get vaccinated to try to get vaccinated. “We’re continuing to urge people to sign up, ask questions and get the vaccine,” Gottschall said.

Those eligible for the vaccine can either call 877-918-2224, or sign up directly through providers including UConn Health, Hartford HealthCare, Yale New Haven Health, and Walgreens. Patients can also register through the state’s website to use the federal Vaccine Administration Management System to schedule an appointment.