The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Health official: COVID cases plateau in Middletown
Half of city residents vaccinated
“We should expect it to go up and down for a little bit. That’s going to be the situation for the next few months.” Kevin Elak, acting city health director
MIDDLETOWN — For the past few weeks, COVID cases appear to be leveling out in the city, with vaccine efforts so successful that health officials are finding it “more challenging” to find people to inoculate.
“That’s a good thing,” said Acting Health Director Kevin Elak, who cautions that with Middletown (as of April 15) seeing 28.2 cases per 100,000, it’s still in the red zone, so safety precautions and mask wearing remain essential.
“We should expect it to go up and down for a little bit. That’s going to be the situation for the next few months. We’re seeing what a lot of the rest of the state is seeing.”
The city’s COVID Summary indicates there were 69 cases reported in Middletown between April 11 and 17, and 66 the prior week, down significantly from a high of 106 during the week of March 28, and 144 from Jan. 24 to 30.
Fifty percent of people in Middletown have been vaccinated, Elak said.
Demand for vaccinations has dropped some. “Now, we’re finding when we call, [people] either say they are scheduled this week or just received theirs,” Elak said. “It’s been a little more challenging to find people to give it to, but that’s not bad.”
Moving forward, the challenge will be to reach out to the vulnerable populations, the acting health director said. Many have been inoculated at Cross Street AME Zion Church’s weekly clinics, at the recent FEMA mobile van sessions
at the Russell Library and St. Vincent dePaul Middletown, others in Cromwell and Durham, as well as the Middletown Senior Center.
“They may not be hesitant to get the vaccine, but maybe there are barriers in the way, or they don’t know how to navigate the system,” Elak said.
This week’s report indicated there were 126 active cases (positive test results within 10 days of the update). So far, 6,644 vaccine doses have been administered, with 2,368 recipients fully inoculated against COVID. Elak’s data shows 597 of those received the Johnson & Johnson dose and 6,047, the Moderna.
In total, Middletown reports 4,144 people have test positive since the start of the pandemic, a rise 167 over the prior week. During that same time, there was an additional death, bringing the total to 137, Elak said.
Next up will be outreach efforts, Elak said, with pop-up clinics at housing complexes, businesses. One was scheduled for Wednesday night at Cross Street Church for workers at the Coleman Bros. carnival, which opens its two-week run Friday night.
Elak went Tuesday to the Juicy Cajun Seafood restaurant to vaccinate employees, then walked down Main Street, popping into businesses asking if anyone needed a shot, he said. Forty people took advantage of the offer over a 90-minute span. “I thought that was pretty cool.”
About 400 shots were administered over the weekend at the Community Health Center mass clinic on Vine Street to 400 Xavier, Mercy and Middletown high students, the acting health director said. The agency, which has another smaller site one on Grand Street, gave its 300,000th shot Tuesday to a Middletown man.
As summer approaches, it’s hard to predict the path COVID-19 will take. “The warm weather could lower it, but at the same time, all the restrictions will be loosened (as of May 19), so that might balance it out,” Elak said.
This week, The United Way of Connecticut, CHC and Uber is offering free transportation to vaccination appointments. For information, visit bit.ly/3n8aZHI.
View the city’s COVID-19 Summary at middletownct.gov.