The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
All but 1 Chatham Health District town tops 50 percent vaccine rate
EAST HAMPTON — New COVID-19 infections fell in four of the six towns that are members of the Chatham Health District.
Further, the district has recorded vaccinations at a rate higher than the statewide average, according to data compiled by the district and released Friday by Health Director Russell L. Melmed.
Colchester, East Haddam, East Hampton, Hebron, Marlborough, and Portland make up the district.
Five of the six towns are in the red zone of the state’s tri-color coronavirus infections reporting.
Hebron remains in the orange category, with 19 new cases, a rate of 14.3 new cases per 100,000 people.
East Hampton recorded 47 new cases and has a rate of 26.1/100,000, while Portland had 20 new cases for a rate of 15.4 per 100,000.
However, Melmed said those results are actually an 11 percent decrease “in the number of new cases compared to the previous reporting period.”
“This is the first week in which we saw an overall decrease since March 11th, but all of our communities continue to experience high levels of transmission,” he said.
Equally encouraging, overall, the rate of firstdose vaccination for the district as a whole is at 54 percent.
Hebron has the highest rate of vaccinations, at 58.14 percent, followed by Marlborough at 56.59 percent and Portland at 56.21 percent.
East Hampton has a vaccination rate of 52.65 percent while East Haddam has the lowest rate of vaccination, at 49.41 percent.
“I’m thrilled that we are over 56 percent,” Portland First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said Friday.
“Getting vaccinated is very key to getting us back to the way things used to be,” she said.
“Connecticut has done, I think, a fabulous job of getting word out about getting vaccinated,” Bransfield said.
Melmed urged residents to remain alert to the spread of the virus and not to let down their guard.
“In order to continue to reduce the burden of COVID-19 in our communities, and with a more infectious variant of COVID-19 becoming dominant in Connecticut, we must remain vigilant in implementing our mitigation strategies,” he said.
In his regular reports to residents on the impact of the virus, East Hampton Town Manager David E. Cox has been emphatic that residents continue to pay careful attention to masks and social distancing rules.
He did so again Friday. “The big thing in all this is when you look where these infections are coming from it’s in small social gatherings where people become too relaxed,” he said.
When someone in those small gathering becomes infected, “then it rips through a family,” Cox said.
“We’re not seeing infections coming in wellregulated businesses or in classrooms,” he said, “which to me suggests we do have to be vigilant for little while longer.”
In his report to the community, which dropped on Friday, Cox said, “In addition to wearing facial coverings, a significant part of the effort to be safer is the vaccine.”
The state Department of Public Health said, “over 6,700 of the town’s residents have received at least the first dose of the vaccines,” Cox said, adding “All residents over 16 years old are eligible for vaccination.”
“Even after a resident has been vaccinated, they are reminded to remain vigilant and to wear a face covering when gathering socially and in public places and, in particular, when visiting restaurants, businesses or governmental offices and attending meetings,” Cox said.