New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Inside: Mayor says 71% of eligible New Haven residents have been vaccinated.
NEW HAVEN — Seventy-one percent of eligible city residents have received at least a first COVID-19 vaccine shot, and 64.7 percent are fully vaccinated, Mayor Justin Elicker said Tuesday.
What’s more, 50.29 percent of the city’s young people have received their first shot and 41.89 percent are fully vaccinated, Elicker said.
The battle against COVID-19 is not over, “but we are making a lot of progress,” he said, calling it a sign of “how far we’ve come as a community.”
Over the past three weeks, New Haven’s infection rate “has seen a decline ... all because of the work that our community members are doing,” Elicker said.
Ninety percent of the city’s employees have registered for New Haven’s vaccination tracking system, with 78 percent of them vaccinated, Elicker said. The remaining 22 percent opted for weekly COVID-19 testing, he said.
So far, the city, in cooperation with Griffin Hospital, has held more than 500 pop-up vaccination sites around the city — Health Director Maritza Bond put the number at 530 — and continues to make progress, Elicker said.
He praised the city’s school system — in particular, its athletic department — which has worked with the city to make inroads among high school-aged teens, using teen athletes as role models in an ad campaign aimed at their peers.
“Having young people out there with the courage to do the right thing is a big deal,” Elicker said.
“It’s a major milestone,” Bond said of the city’s progress to date. “... I’m really excited that we are able to be here today to share” that progress.
Elicker introduced New Haven Public Schools Athletic Director Erik Patchkofsky and Wilbur Cross High School basketball players Christian McLease and Alfredo Delgado, who have been involved in the outreach effort to city youth.
Patchkofsky said he knew 18 months ago when the pandemic first reached New Haven “that we wanted our athletes to be part of the solution.”
“I encourage our fellow athletes to get vaccinated so everybody can be safe,” said McLeese.
McLease said later in response to a question that it would be possible to compete in athletic competition without being vaccinated, but it’s important to get vaccinated “just to make sure things are safe.”
Delgado said he got involved because “I just want to help.”
Other speakers included Crystal Emery, founder of URU The Right To Be, a nonprofit that aims to fosters communication and understanding among diverse people; Sarah Keiling, director of school-based health for Cornell Scott Hill Health Center; Community Action Agency President and CEO Amos Smith, and Jackson Higginbottom from Community Alliance for Research and Engagement, or CARE.
“It’s been an extraordinary challenge,” Smith said of the fight to contain COVID-19. “This is an all-out war and it’s time to take it seriously.” One way to do that is to target young people, he said.
“For those people who are watching who have not yet decided” whether to get vaccinated, “it’s time to give it up,” Smith said. “... It’s time for us to realize that this virus is a killer and it’s not going anywhere.”