State DPH: 156K sign up for vaccine since Monday
Since eligibility expanded Monday, more than 156,000 people — most of them between the ages of 55 and 64 — have registered and gained access to Connecticut’s system to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, according to the state Department of Public Health.
From there, it becomes less clear how many of them scheduled an appointment. Connecticut officials say there is no centralized tracking method with two state systems — the Vaccine Administration Management System and the Vaccine Appointment Access Line — along with health care providers and pharmacies that independently make appointments.
Since eligibility expanded at 12:01 a.m. Monday, more than 140,000 people between the ages of 55 and 64 gained access to the VAMS, according to DPH data.
The amount of registrations, which could exhaust nearly a week’s worth of the state’s vaccine supply, represents more than a quarter of all Connecticut residents in the age group, though thousands of them have already been vaccinated during earlier stages of the rollout.
Hours after those 55 to 64 as well as school and child care workers became eligible, state officials said “tens of thousands” of new appointments were made on Monday, but they did not have a definitive number.
According to DPH, the state’s vaccine access line has helped facilitate 12,600 appointments the first two days of the expanded eligibility, but the ages of those who secured appointments were not available.
State officials also say the experience has improved after some on Monday reported having difficulty making appointments or struggling to find a slot before late April or early May.
“We think it’s smoothed out a little. We are aware of people getting earlier appointments people booked into April and later getting into appointments as early as next week,” Max Reiss, a spokesman for Gov. Ned Lamont, said Wednesday. “We are confident that the process is moving forward as we anticipated.”
As Lamont is expected on Thursday to announce easing COVID restrictions, Connecticut reported a 2.23 percent daily positivity rate Wednesday when hospitalizations increased by 38 patients to 451. There were 20 more COVID-related deaths recorded, bringing the total to 7,678.
With focus on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s sweeping order that lifted his state’s mask mandate and reopened businesses 100 percent, Connecticut officials have hinted at loosening restrictions here.
Lamont’s office, however, offered little specifics other than saying COVID-19-related metrics were trending in the right direction.
“Don’t expect a Texaslike reopening, but the governor is weighing options to ease restrictions in a sensible way,” Reiss said Wednesday.
The governor’s office said Lamont and key advisors have been meeting regularly, including on Wednesday, about easing restrictions.
Lamont has also hinted at relaxing the state’s travel advisory, which requires people traveling from most states to quarantine for 10 days.
Despite Abbott lifting restrictions in his state, Connecticut officials said Wednesday they are not planning to change travel protocol for those coming here from Texas.
Other states have moved to relax restrictions in recent days. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo increased the cap on gatherings in his state, while Gov. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts allowed for 100 percent occupancy in restaurants.
But one of the nation’s top health officials, referencing delayed case statistics, was concerned about lifting restrictions.
“With these statistics, I am really worried about more states rolling back the exact public health measures we have recommended to protect people from COVID-19,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a White House briefing on Monday.
Johnson & Johnson vaccines arrive
Providers across Connecticut have started receiving the first doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine as they start filling appointments for a staggering group of newly eligible people.
State officials said Connecticut is expected to receive this week a total of 39,000 doses of the vaccine, likely to speed up vaccination efforts because it requires a single dose, unlike the more widely administered Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“Everytime we do one of these launches of a new vaccine, it really represents hope for everyone — another vaccine, another option, more vaccines, our ability to increase how quickly to vaccinate everyone and return to a better state than we were in the past,” said Eric Arlia, director of systems pharmacy at Hartford HealthCare.
Arlia said the health care network received 7,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“We have tremendous faith in the J&J vaccine. I want everyone to remember that all of the vaccines prevent serious illness and death, 100 percent in all of the trials done,” Arlia said.
He said they have a number of plans for the doses, including earmarking some for teachers, community clinics and for the general public.
Yale New Haven Health said Tuesday it received 7,400 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“We believe we can get all the doses into arms this week,” said Tom Balcezak, chief medical officer for Yale New Haven Hospital.
Danbury Hospital expects to get a shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week, but does not yet know how many doses will arrive, said Dr. John Murphy, president and CEO of Nuvance Health
But Murphy said he anticipates a “fair amount.”
Johnson & Johnson shipped 4 million doses of the vaccine across the country on Sunday night, with another 16 million doses delivered by the end of March and 100 million total by the end of June, the Associated Press reported.
“I think there will be a surge and then a dip [in Johnson & Johnson doses], but it will be nice to have a flow of J&J vaccines,” Murphy said.
With a $100 million donation from delivery services giant FedEx, Yale is creating a Center for Natural Carbon Capture to lead research into how best to trap carbon found in the air and oceans, including forest expansion and harnessing the power of rock deposits.
The new center will also work to further industrial innovations to trap carbon.
Indy Burke, dean of the Yale School of the Environment, called it an “ambitious but realistic strategy” that comes on the heels of the U.S. rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, after former President Donald Trump pulled the country out of the treaty.
“Earth’s natural systems are ripe with opportunities, and the Center for Natural Carbon Capture will
enable research that transforms these opportunities into real-world, applicable solutions,” Burke was quoted saying in a Tuesday post by YaleNews. “These natural solutions must be used as part of a portfolio of methods to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.”
During the hiatus from the Paris Agreement, private sector companies and think tanks have continued to develop emerging technologies and strategies to limit carbon pollution. Amazon, IBM and Henkel are among more than 50 companies to have signed “The Carbon Pledge” to be carbon neutral by 2040 — a decade in advance of the goal set by the Paris Agreement — while chipping into a $2 billion fund to invest in new ideas.
On Tuesday, FedEx pledged an identical, $2 billion investment, including the Yale gift, while adding its name to the 2040 carbonneutral roster. The FedEx commitment approaches the company’s ballooning profits over a six-month stretch of the pandemic as home deliveries spiked during stay-athome orders.
FedEx founder and CEO Frederick Smith is a 1966 graduate of Yale.
“At FedEx, we have a responsibility to take action in addressing climate change,” Smith said in a statement posted Tuesday by YaleNews. “We have created a roadmap to achieve our carbon neutral goal that includes helping to establish the Center for Natural Carbon Capture. Yale has a deep reservoir of expertise and researchers working on this shared problem, which makes it the ideal place for this important work.”
Through its existing Yale Planetary Solutions Project, the university held a three-day symposium in early December with an array of speakers.
Yale economist and Nobel Prize laureate Bill Nordhaus, who addressed the topic of engagement on climate change, said there’s been “very little progress” on slowing carbon emissions.
“If you go back to the Kyoto Protocols of 1997 ... or the Paris accord which is not very long ago, you really cannot see a strong impact of these climate policies on global emissions,” Nordhaus said in October.
Yale scientists have been tackling the problem from different angles. Researchers Craig Brodersen and Erica Edwards engineer plants to be able to take in more carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. Others see the possibility for accelerating carbon capture through mineral deposits, as happens naturally with the formation of limestone and marble.
“There is essentially a limitless supply of weatherable rocks, and storing carbon in this manner is effectively permanent,” stated David Bercovici, chair of Yale’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, as quoted by YaleNews. “Developing these strategies has enormous potential for making a global impact.”