Deadline looms for vaccine holdouts
10,000 state employees have until Monday to show proof
HARTFORD — Sixty percent of state executive branch employees have shown proof they are vaccinated and another 10 percent have agreed to weekly COVID-19 testing, but thousands of others opposed to those requirements may remain on the job for another week or more, Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Wednesday.
The total who have shown proof of vaccination is about 19,000. About 3,000 have indicated they will comply with testing mandates, while more than 10,000 of 32,000 employees in executive branch agencies controlled
by Lamont — such as the Department of Transportation and the Department of Social Services — have not yet indicated what they may do and have not submitted documentation, risking unpaid suspensions if they fail to comply.
Higher education and Judicial Branch officials have ordered similar requirements for those employees.
Within the statewide workingage population of 25 through 64, the state Department of Public Health on Wednesday reported that 77 percent are fully vaccinated.
Lamont said that the vaccination and testing requirements are the key to the state’s defense against COVID and the rampant delta variant. Employees will now have until the end of the workday on Monday to comply with the order to choose vaccines or tests, or face unpaid suspensions.
It was unclear Wednesday how many state employees have refused to be vaccinated or tested; and whether the rate of vaccinations among state employees is higher or lower than the rate among Connecticut adults as a whole.
“Look, there will be some people who say ‘Hell no,’ and I’m sorry but that means you’re not safe, you’re not safe to the people around you and you’re not safe to the people you’re treating and they cannot come into work,” Lamont said. “Connecticut, for the last year, has always done the right thing. And we have done it with some pushing, we’ve done it with some explanation and I think Connecticut and our employees are always going to do the right thing.”
Unpaid leave will be the initial price to pay for workers opposed to the requirements, following by possible losses of health care coverage and retirement contributions. Unemployment benefit may also be unavailable. While the suspensions could take effect as soon as Oct. 4, they would occur no later than Monday Oct. 11.
“We still have thousands coming in every day,” Lamont said of workers filing information with the Department of Administrative Services. “It is going to take us a few more days to sift through that to see exactly what the status is. Labor is busy explaining this to state employees going forward. We want you to get vaccinated, to tell you the truth.”
Josh Geballe, Lamont’s chief operating officer, said that negotiations continue with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition over issues including whether the state will pay for testing employees after the first month of the new executive orders.
While workers in state-owned hospitals and long-term care facilities must be vaccinated or claim religious or medical exemptions to allow them to submit to weekly tests, the vast majority of state employees in other agencies have to decide only between inoculations or weekly tests.
Geballe said that interim data indicates 19,000 employees are fully vaccinated. “We’re still sorting through the paperwork and following up with the remaining 30 percent,” he said, adding that some union workers who are fully vaccinated have not yet been listed because of problems reporting in the computer system.
“We’re very optimistic that the number of people ultimately in noncompliance status at the end of the day on Monday will be relatively small,” Geballe said. “We are anticipating that there will be some and our agencies are making contingency plans and planning for those risks, accordingly, just in case there are.”
“I’m concerned about making sure we’re well prepared if there is another delta,” Lamont said, thanking the General Assembly for approving an extension of his civil preparedness and public health emergency powers until Feb 15. “I’m really concerned about keeping our schools open and our economy going. I think the vast majority of the people of Connecticut know we’re doing this right, with an eye on public safety, and keeping your kids in school and you at your job.”
He said that in nearby places such as New York, vaccination requirements with price tags put on noncompliance, are proving effective in people finally agreeing to inoculations. “I think we have seen some signs of that in Connecticut as well,” the governor said.
State health officials on Wednesday reported a net decrease of nine patients in state hospitals, bringing the statewide total to 250 patients. There was a daily COVID positivity rate of 1.78 percent. Over the seven-day period, there were 3,508 positive COVID tests out of a total of 160,485, for a 2.18 percent rate. The fatalities are announced on Thursdays, so the death toll still remains at 8,483 pending the next report.
In recent weeks, about 15,000 new vaccinations occur each week. There are about 300 testing sites in the state, said Dr. Deidre Gifford, the former acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, who appeared at the news conference with Lamont, Geballe and Dr. Manisha Juthani, the newly named state health commissioner. Gifford, the commissioner of the Department of Social Services, estimated that by the end of the week there will be 23 state-sponsored testing sites.
Further information is available through the state’s 2-1-1 website.
Juthani said that as the weather cools and humidity plummets, viral particles stay in the air longer. “This is when we anticipate respiratory viruses to circulate,” said the veteran infectious disease expert from Yale. “I am hopeful that maybe we will just get away with a steady, maybe a slight uptick because of the very high vaccination rates we have in the state of Connecticut.”
She said that when vaccines are approved for children below age 12, within the next few weeks, that will mean an additional cohort of 400,000 people can join the ranks of the inoculated. “It’s very difficult to predict the future, at this point,” Juthani said.