Conn. to get less vaccine than state expected
As Connecticut will become one of the first states in the nation to vaccinate nursing home staff and patients on Friday, state officials are also preparing for a shortage in doses.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday the state will receive about 12,000 fewer doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine than originally anticipated.
The problem, which is affecting other states as well, will mean Connecticut will receive about 86,000 doses of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine after expecting 98,000. Connecticut received its expected amount this week, but the shortfall will begin
affecting shipments next week.
The shortage will be partially offset by some vials containing more than the expected five doses.
Josh Geballe, the state’s chief operating officer, said the shortage could push vaccination timelines back “a week or so,” but said there are still too many variables to know for sure — including how many health care workers and nursing home residents and staff elect to take the vaccine in the first phase.
Connecticut hospitalizations, however, sharply declined Thursday with 49 fewer patients. Hospitalizations have also fallen over the last seven days, according to the state's data. As of Thursday, the amount of patients hospitalized for the illness fell by nine statewide to 1,205 from one week ago.
“I think all the impact of Thanksgiving is in our rearview mirror,” Lamont said Thursday afternoon during his COVID-19 news conference.
“But look, Hanukkah, Christmas, it’s going to be a busy couple of weeks,” he added. “There’s been a lot of travel, there were millions of people traveling over Thanksgiving and that was risky. We’re hopeful people are going to stay closer to home this holiday season.”
The Connecticut National Guard plans to set up a field hospital Friday at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The field hospital, which will be staffed with Hartford HealthCare doctors and nurses, is intended to provide overflow capacity for patients who do not require intensive care.
The state is still well below its peak for COVID hospitalizations when there were 1,972 patients in April.
As of Thursday, the state’s hospital beds were at 78 percent occupancy, Geballe said. Intensive care units were a little more than half-full, of which 42 percent are COVID-related, he said.
The state recorded 2,321 new COVID cases on Thursday from 35,948 tests, for a daily positivity rate of 6.46 percent.
Forty-six deaths were reported, bringing the state’s death toll to 5,5 52.
For Sunil Parikh, associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, the drop in hospitalizations was “a bit of encouraging news.”
“It appears that the extent of the expected Thanksgiving surge in total cases has not been as severe as expected,” Parikh said. “However, we can’t forget that cases are still at staggeringly high rates, and that modeling suggests that we will likely not peak until after the new year. We must continue to take extra care during the holidays so that we can emerge safer and healthier in 2021.”
Dr. Luke Davis, an epidemiologist at the Yale University School of Public Health, said the state has not seen a large spike in hospitalizations post-Thanksgiving.
“An important factor seems to be that Connecticut residents are wearing masks and avoiding the indoor gatherings with nonhousehold members that drive transmission. Our hospitals, and especially our ICUs, nonetheless remain busy because critically ill COVID patients require long times in hospital.” he said.
Lamont said Thursday nearly 2,000 doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered. On Friday, five Connecticut nursing homes will be among the first in the nation to receive the vaccine.
On Friday morning, Lamont will be in West Hartford at The Reservoir, a nursing home with 38 residents, where staff and patients will be vaccinated.
Geballe said the five Connecticut nursing homes receiving the vaccine ahead of Monday’s rollout were selected by CVS and Walgreens. Both companies are administering the vaccines to nursing home staff and residents, while health care workers receive the vaccine at hospitals and other health f acilities.
It also depended on which homes were ready.
“This is a big logistical lift for them, they have to collect consent forms from various residents who may have other family members making medical decisions for them. ... They’ve picked these knowing that they’re ready to go,” Geballe said.
State officials have not released the names of the other facilities receiving the vaccines on Friday. Geballe said the names of the facilities are being withheld to allow CVS and Walgreens staff room to work, given the tight restrictions homes have been under to keep the virus from entering the facilities.
Teams from CVS will conduct vaccinations in Connecticut and Ohio Friday ahead of the “national rollout,” Mike DeAngelis, a spokesman for CVS Health, told Hearst Connecticut Media.
Florida and Delaware also expect to vaccinate nursing home residents this week, and some homes in West Virginia have already begun administering doses, the New York Times reported.
A panel advising the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday endorsed the Moderna vaccine, clearing it for an emergency use authorization by the agency, the Associated Press reported.
Connecticut is expected to receive some 63,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
The Moderna vaccine uses the same messenger RNA technology to teach an administered patient’s body to develop antibodies to the novel coronavirus.
However, Moderna’s vaccine, which also requires two doses, can be stored at comparatively warmer temperatures than Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, easing concerns about storage and distribution outside hospitals with ultracold storage capabilities.
On Thursday, Lamont also announced he plans to use an executive order to extend a ban on evictions through Feb. 9. The governor this week also signed another executive order, giving residents an extended grace period to pay property, motor vehicle and municipal taxes through April 1.