State urges residents to get boosters

NEW HAVEN — As the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests in Connecticut continues to hover near 6 percent, state and federal officials said Monday it is everyone’s responsibility to get vaccinated and to get boosters.

They said while the omicron variant of COVID-19 is on everyone’s mind, hospitalization cases still are being caused by the delta variant.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s office reported Monday afternoon the positivity rate was at 5.8 percent, up from 5.3 percent Friday. There have been 5,481 more cases reported since Friday, for a total of 430,756, as well as 80 more hospitalized patients, totaling 500.

The number of deaths in Connecticut, which is reported Thursdays, was 8,909 as of last week, an increase of 44 from the previous week.

State Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said omicron appears to be more contagious than delta. “Severity of disease, I think, is an open question,” she said. “There have been some reports of milder disease.”

There has been one confirmed case of omicron in the state, in Hartford County, she said.

“We know that there was a family that is affected, and so there are other members of the family that are in the process of being tested, a few have been symptomatic, so whether it is omicron or not, we don’t know that yet,” Juthani said.

“But I think it would be fair to assume that there have been already two people of one family and there are other members of the same household that it likely will be the same,” she said.

She said the confirmed case was a man in his 60s who had traveled to New York.

She and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said while New York Mayor Bill DiBlasio has mandated all private sector employees be vaccinated by Dec. 27, they were not aware of similar discussions being held in Connecticut. Gov. Ned Lamont, who attended the press conference, had left before the question could be asked.

“The governor has thus far allowed municipalities to make a decision and we continue to monitor every day to see if we need to make further measures, but people need to use common sense,” Bysiewicz said.

In terms of booster shots, Connecticut numbers have not risen substantially in recent weeks, despite broader eligibility and an increasing threat of infection.

The threat of the omicron variant and increasing rates of COVID-19 have health officials hopeful that booster rates could rise sharply.

Juthani Monday said the places where more people are getting boosters are those where the number of COVID cases is rising, whereas Connecticut has had a relatively low positivity rate until recently.

“There is no motivator greater than fear,” Juthani said. “People saw the benefit of it . ... I do believe that the surge of cases in some of those other states did motivate people to act early on.”

Mayor Justin Elicker said, “Our test positivity rate at this moment over the past two weeks is 2.3 percent, which is good compared to the rest of the state, and we’ve just gotten updated information on the percentage of New Haveneligible population that has been vaccinated because it now includes the 5 and up age as well. And we’re at 63.24 percent of the eligible residents that have been fully vaccinated receiving those two doses. So that’s really good. We still have a lot, a lot more work to do, though.”

Gov. Ned Lamont, said, “Here’s what you got to know. You got to know that maybe with each of these variants coming on, we can’t always prevent mild illness. But you got to know that the boosters and the vaccines are keeping you out of the hospital and are keeping you out of the morgue. It is amazingly effective when it comes to preventing complications. And that’s the message you got to give to all your friends and family.”

Juthani said vaccines are the best way to make sure a case of COVID will not be severe. “If we convert this disease into something where you cuddle up in a blanket if you’re vaccinated and stay home for a few days and then get better, that is the success of the vaccines that kept you out of the hospital and that kept you alive and well with your family this holiday season,” she said.

She added that boosters start increasing immunity as soon as they are injected because the immunity from the original vaccine still is present.

She said anyone age 18 and older is eligible for a booster and the easiest way to find where they are being offered is to go to ct.gov/covidvaccine, and that pop-up clinics are being held with no appointment, insurance or documentation of immigration status needed.

Those clinics include Union Station on the second floor, the New Haven Public Library, the Trumbull Mall, the Stamford train station and Bradley International Airport. City Health Director Maritza Bond said the Union Station clinic is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and clinics are held at the Health Department, 54 Meadow St., Thursday and Friday until 7 p.m. There also is a clinic on Long Wharf Saturdays and Sundays, she said.

Bond said children younger than 5, who are not eligible for vaccines, and adults 25 to 49 years old “are the ones that are testing positive in our city.”

Patrick Charmel, CEO and president of Griffin Health, which is running many vaccine clinics, said, “You know, it’s been 19 months since COVID entered our state, 19 months. This has been a marathon. And I know we’re all tired and we’re losing focus. And now’s the time to redouble our efforts. This is a marathon. We’re at mile 25. And it’s when most people drop out of the marathon. We can’t do that. You know we have over 600,000 adults that are eligible for vaccination in Connecticut that haven’t been vaccinated.”

Charmel pointed out that many in Connecticut are still unvaccinated. “What we’re seeing right now, in the increase in hospitalizations over the last two weeks, there’s been an 80 percent increase in hospitalizations. That’s not because of omicron. That’s because of the delta variant that’s still with us. We don’t know the impact of omicron,” he said.

He added that there likely will be an increase in flu this year, as well, because fewer people are wearing masks.

While little is known about the omicron variant, Gov. Ned Lamont, who appeared on “Face the Nation” early Sunday, said he believes Connecticut residents are doing the right thing and new restrictions are not needed at this time.

“They don’t need me pushing. But people of a certain age, stay out of contagious situations. We just don’t know enough about this variant. Be careful,” Lamont said on “Face the Nation.”

But given Connecticut’s location between major urban areas such as New York and Boston, Lamont said Sunday he was concerned.

Little is yet known about omicron, which was discovered less than a month ago in South Africa, aside from it having a menacing number of mutations — 34 on the spike gene. Researchers globally are working quickly to determine what characteristics the strain possesses. The obvious concern among health officials at the local, state and federal levels is whether this variant can spread more rapidly or evade vaccination or natural immunity.