1 million now fully vaccinated in state
Mobile clinics will make return visits if 2nd doses needed
Connecticut on Thursday reported a dip in coronavirus hospitalizations and the lowest single-day positivity rate since October — although the singleday numbers haven’t returned the state to the low metrics it saw during the quiet summer months.
The state on Thursday reported 702 newly identified coronavirus cases out of 34,388 tests administered, for a daily positivity rate of 2%.
“That’s not zero, but it’s the lowest it’s been in a number of weeks,” said Gov. Ned Lamont at an afternoon press briefing.
While the daily rate was notably low on Wednesday, the weekly rate dipped only slightly to 3.2%.The state’s hospitalizations also dipped by 13 on Wednesday, for a total of 505 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. In recent days, Connecticut’s hospitalizations have appeared to flatten, according to state data.
Also on Thursday, the state reported six additional coronavirus-linked deaths.
Since the pandemic began, Connecticut has seen 328,000 coronavirus cases and 7,990 coronavirus-linked deaths.
Nationwide, there have been more than 31.4 million coronavirus cases and a total of 565,014 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
More than 1 million fully vaccinated
More than 1 million people in Connecticut are now fully vaccinated, state officials announced on Thursday.
That number includes those who have received both of their two-shot vaccines, as well as the 100,000 people who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine before its use was paused on Tuesday.
In addition, more than 1.6 million people have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, as of Thursday.
In all, more than 45% of Connecticut’s population is now at least partially vaccinated.
The vaccination rates are notably higher among the older age groups, owing in part to Connecticut’s age-based vaccine rollout.
Among residents aged 65 and older, 87% have at least received their first dose. That’s compared with 34% of residents aged 16 to 44.
Falling short of equality targets
In the most recent week of state data, Connecticut’s vaccine providers moved closer to the state’s goal to equally distribute vaccines in vulnerable neighborhoods. Providers’ progress in the most recent week was enough to undo the ground they lost the week prior, but they still fell short of the state’s goals.
Overall, providers allocated 25% of coronavirus vaccine doses to residents of vulnerable ZIP codes in the week ending April 10, according to the state’s chief operating officer Josh Geballe. That’s a 3-point increase from the week prior, returning the providers to the rate they achieved two weeks prior.
However, the regained ground is not enough to push the providers all the way to the state’s goals. As a whole, vaccinators still fell far below the state’s goal of 31%.
State officials set that goal based on the proportion of the population that lives in the vulnerable ZIP codes.
That means that, while 31% of Connecticut adults live in the target neighborhoods, those residents are receiving only 25% of the state’s vaccine supply.
Following trends seen in previous week, federally qualified health centers allocated the highest percentage of doses to the target neighborhoods, coming in at 29% in the most recent week. Pharmacies, on the other hand, continued to rank lowest on the equity targets, allocating 18% of doses to the target neighborhoods.
And because residents of color are more likely to live in the vulnerable neighborhoods, the continuously missed target will likely impact Connecticut’s vaccination disparities.
Throughout the state’s vaccine rollout, white residents have been significantly more likely to have received a vaccine dose, when compared to Black and HIspanic residents. And the gaps continue to widen.
In the most recent state data, from April 14, about 61% of white adults have received at least one vaccine dose.
In comparison, just over 34% of Black residents and 35% of Hispanic residents have received at least one dose.
Mobile vans will return for 2nd doses
Connecticut’s mobile vans, which have been rolled out largely in vulnerable neighborhoods as an effort to increase vaccination among hard-to-reach populations, are now slated to administer both doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccines.
The Griffin Health vans had been carrying the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine as a way to simplify the vaccination process, until Tuesday’s federal “pause” on that vaccine.
State officials said Thursday that the vans have headed back out, carrying doses of either Pfizer or Moderna. But because both of those vaccines require two shots, the vans will circle back to each vaccination location either three or four weeks later.
The logistics are more complicated with a two-shot vaccine, but state officials underscored the importance of vaccinating as many people as possible.
“It’s in the interests of the entire state, the entire community to make sure that no one gets left behind,” Lamont said.
Geballe said that the mobile clinic staff are now attempting to schedule second doses as soon as the first is administered. Some patients were likely missed in the past two days, Geballe said, but he added that the providers have those patients’ contact info in order to schedule a second shot.
And for residents who aren’t available on the day of the scheduled second clinic, Geballe said he hopes that there will be plenty of other options available in a few weeks.
“The good news is, three to four weeks from now we’re anticipating that we will have significantly more supply than demand in Connecticut,” Geballe said. “So if that second dose appointment at the mobile clinic doesn’t work for someone, there should be plenty of other options available to them.”