COVID unmasking on horizon
Vaccinated can uncover, indoors and out, on May 19
Connecticut and the nation took a giant step toward normalcy on Thursday when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drastically eased its COVID-19 recommendations, announcing that anyone fully vaccinated no longer needs to wear a mask inside or outside, under most circumstances.
Minutes after President Joe Biden finished a speech on the issue in the White House Rose Garden, Gov. Ned Lamont said he had anticipated the move, and Connecticut will follow the CDC guidance. Fully vaccinated people won’t be required to wear masks indoors as of May 19, under a previously scheduled lifting of pandemic restrictions, including the reopening of bars.
The loosening of one of the last major restrictions came on the same day that youths ages 12 to 15 received COVID-19 vaccinations for the first time. That rollout happened amid debate over whether schools should require proof of vaccinations starting in September.
Masks will not disappear altogether, especially in tight public spaces such as buses, trains, airplanes and among visitors to hospitals and nursing homes.
“Indoor masking will still be required for the unvaccinated for a little while longer,” Lamont said. “I think that’s the right thing to do.” Lamont issued a statewide mask order on April 17 of last year, as the pandemic raged through the state.
The governor announced seven new fatalities bringing the pandemic total to 8,168. He reported a net reduction of 21 patients hospi
talized with COVID, for a total of 222 statewide. The seven-day test-positivity was about 1.5 percent, he said.
The Naugatuck Valley and sections of major cities remain COVID hot spots. Lamont announced that the state’s fleet of mobile vaccination vans will soon be available for bookings from private individuals for workplaces, parades, school events and other mass gatherings.
The governor said there was no plan for how to confirm whether someone is vaccinated. “I think every store, business, restaurant may have their own rules that way. At this point, I think people are going to self-attest. We hope they are going to do the right thing,” he said during an hour-long news conference from the State Capitol.
Lamont ordered many state employees back to work as of June 1 and said more than half should return by July 1.
He said it will be up to legislative leaders, who run the state Capitol, to decide on guidelines in the days before the scheduled adjournment of the General Assembly at midnight June 9.
In Washington, Biden praised the nation’s ability to give 250 million shots of vaccine in 114 days. “We proved the doubters wrong,” Biden said. “The CDC is saying and concluded that fully vaccinated people are at a very, very low-risk of getting COVID-19, therefore, if you’ve been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask. Look, we’ve gotten this far. Please protect yourself until you get to the finish line because as great as this announcement is today, we don’t want to let up.”
The state has closely followed CDC recommendations on COVID-19 infection prevention since the onset of the pandemic last year. When the CDC eased its recommendations for wearing masks outdoors at the end of April, Lamont said Connecticut would immediately follow suit.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things you stopped doing because of the pandemic,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC. “We have all longed for this moment for when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”
The decision to modify the recommendations comes as CDC officials weighed factors, including the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing illness, as well as evidence that shows decreased transmission of the virus for those who are vaccinated.
In Connecticut, officials said key COVID-19 metrics continue to show progress against the virus.
As of Thursday, nearly 2 million residents had received at least the first dose of a vaccine and more than 1.6 million people were fully vaccinated. The percentage of people fully vaccinated puts Connecticut among the highest in the country. Seventy-two percent of adults have received their first shot of vaccine.
State starts vaccinating kids age 12 to 15
In an effort sure to increase vaccine coverage across Connecticut, the state’s providers started inoculating children ages 12 to 15 on Thursday, a day after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was recommended for the group by the CDC.
Dr. Jody Terranova, president-elect of the Connecticut chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who was Lamont’s guest Thursday, said parents seem eager to get their tweens and young teens vaccinated.
“Those parents that have been sitting on the edge of their seat waiting to get it have been calling to find out where,” she said. “There’s not many pediatrician offices doing it quite yet, but we know that around the state there are plenty of places that we can send our patients to.”
She said that while few children have been as impacted as some adults by COVID, many kids have been hospitalized and placed in intensive care units. “Children get a very severe complication, a multi-system inflammatory disease that adults don’t get, so children are still being impacted by COVID,” Terranova said, stressing that unvaccinated children should still wear masks in school.
The push to vaccinate youths comes as the supply of the Pfizer vaccine remains steady. The latest figures from the state Department of Public Health show that Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines comprise about half the roughly 150,000 new doses shipped into the state in recent weeks. The weekly number of inoculations in recent weeks peaked at about 230,000 doses, but is now down to 42,000, Lamont said.
While the number of severe cases impacting children in this age group have been relatively low throughout the pandemic, experts and officials said some kids have gotten seriously ill and others who are asymptomatic can spread the virus.
“While COVID-19 generally doesn’t affect children as severely as adults, children are not immune from contracting and getting sick with the virus, nor are they immune from spreading it to adults and others who may not be able to be vaccinated. I strongly urge parents with children in this age group to get your children vaccinated,” said Acting DPH Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford.
With vaccine doses widely available, clinics were immediately announced across the state to vaccinate children age 12 to 15. Along with clinics, major pharmacies including CVS, one of the largest chains in Connecticut, said vaccination efforts for this age group would start Thursday.
While plans were forming to quickly vaccinate these 170,000 children, DPH reached out to providers to ensure that pediatricians are part of the distribution process.
“We would like to encourage all pediatricians in the State of Connecticut to play an active role in enabling access for their patients to COVID-19 vaccines. This includes counseling children and families; conducting active outreach to families to discuss vaccination; and serving as a COVID-19 vaccine provider yourselves,” DPH said in the memo to providers.
An Associated Press story is included in this report.