Data: 200K CT residents got first COVID-19 dose — but not second

“Persons who have not received their second dose of an mRNA vaccine should go out and get it. Although the second doses should be three to four weeks after the first, it is acceptable for it to be delayed.” Dr. Rick Martinello, medical doctor for infection prevention at Yale New Haven

Nearly 200,000 Connecticut residents have had a first COVID vaccine dose, but are not yet considered fully vaccinated. It’s unknown how many have chosen to delay their second vaccinations beyond the recommended two weeks.

“We currently don’t track this information,” state Department of Public Health spokesperson Chris Boyle said Wednesday when asked about delayed second doses.

The Texas state department of public health said this week that about 2 million residents have missed their second dose. The Washington Post reported in July that almost 15 million people nationwide were overdue for their second dose.

“Persons who have not received their second dose of an mRNA vaccine should go out and get it. Although the second doses should be three to four weeks after the first, it is acceptable for it to be delayed,” said Dr. Rick Martinello, medical doctor for infection prevention at Yale New Haven. “They do not need to restart the two-dose series.”

Despite the number of people who have not received a second dose, Connecticut remains among the top states in the nation for the percent of its population that is fully vaccinated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 77 percent of eligible residents were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Connecticut positivity rate for new COVID tests was 2.92 percent. Hospitalizations dipped again with a net decline of 10 patients for a total of 328 statewide. Officials said 73 percent of those in the hospital were not vaccinated.

Available public data in Connecticut makes it difficult to determine how many people have missed their second dose of the vaccine.

The state reports how many residents have had at least one dose, and how many people are considered fully vaccinated. That data does not say, however, how many of those fully vaccinated residents took the singleshot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, though according to CDC data, only 134,800 doses have been allocated to Connecticut, and none since May.

The state also does not report how long residents have waited between their first and second doses.

The data does show the difference between first and second doses, as both a real number and a percentage. That gap has widened and shrunk over the months since COVID vaccines became available.

In February, there were 248,516 people who had taken the first shot, but not the second. About 7 percent of people who had received at least one dose had not yet received the second.

By April 14, the number of people who had received one dose, but who were not fully vaccinated, had grown to 612,518, but this fell close to an expansion in the eligibility for vaccines.

Since then, the number of partially vaccinated people in the state has shrunk. It was at its lowest at the beginning of August, when there were 167,838 people who had at least one dose, but were not listed as fully vaccinated.

As of Sept. 8, the most recent data available, 197,512 residents had one dose but were not fully vaccinated.