By Paul Hughes, Republican-American
HARTFORD — While Connecticut just achieved the highest vaccination rate in the nation, Gov. Ned Lamont and state officials continue to worry about COVID-19 complacency stymieing the state’s progress.
Lamont on Monday spotlighted rankings from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing Connecticut is the first state to fully vaccinate more than 50% of its population over age 18.
The 50.3% rate reported Monday barely topped that threshold, and several others states were close behind — New Mexico with 49.9% full vaccinated, South Dakota with 49.8% and Maine with 49.3%.
“We’re the first state in the country to have over half of adults fully vaccinated. That is an extraordinary achievement that allows the reopening to continue in a prudent way,” Lamont said. “It makes such a big difference.”
He reaffirmed his plan to lift the remaining coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses on May 19, though he said the mandate to wear masks indoors will remain in effect for the next few months at least.
ONLY 50.3% OF ALL CONNECTICUT RESIDENTS are fully vaccinated, but that rate also led the country in overall state populations, according to the latest CDC data.
Through Monday, nearly 1.9 million people were fully vaccinated, meaning they had received either a shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or a second dose of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
In all, nearly 3.2 million vaccine doses have been administered since the state vaccination program was launched in mid-December. All Connecticut residents over the age of 16 are currently eligible to receive the vaccines.
Lamont said 69% of adults age 18 and older have now received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but he also expressed concern because vaccinations are slowing.
In a related development, the governor announced 27 municipalities and local health departments will split $13 million in federal funding to increase vaccinations for targeted populations and communities.
“We’re trying everything we can,” Lamont told reporters. “As you saw, the number of new people getting vaccinated is not going up as quickly as it was a few weeks ago, and we realize now we have to work a lot harder in underserved communities, younger people, everybody.”
The federal funding will be used to form “vaccine equity partnerships” as part of a nationwide effort to provide equal access to COVID-19 vaccinations to people in underserved communities, including communities of color and ethnically diverse communities.
The selected municipalities and health departments will use the grant money to form partnerships between local health, community organizations, and vaccine providers to promote and increase vaccine equity.
The list of recipients includes: Bristol-Burlington Health District, Chesprocott Health District, Farmington Valley Health District, the city of Torrington and the city of Waterbury
Outreach activities of these vaccine equity partnerships will include: door-to-door canvassing, employer canvassing, outbound calling and texting, peer-to-peer training, public service announcement publication, train-the-trainer programs, and canvassing in immigrant communities.
Grant money will also be used to support transportation services, homebound and homeless vaccinations, and fixed site and mobile vaccination programs.
The state Department of Public Health solicited applications from local health districts and departments for the grant funding. Each applicant was required to identify their community and provider partners and describe the activities that the partnerships would be undertaking to address vaccine equity in their coverage areas.
STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS Tuesday reported 416 new cases out of 13,833 test results received Monday for a daily positive test rate of 3%. There have been 340,962 confirmed and probable cases since last March.
There were 343 patients hospitalized, up one patient from Monday.
There also were five new coronavirus-related deaths reported, bring the total coronavirus-related deaths to 8,117.
State health officials reported Tuesday there have been 3,462 COVID-19 cases in Naugatuck, 915 in Prospect and 557 in Beacon Falls since last March.
There have been 92 coronavirus-associated deaths in Naugatuck, six in Beacon Falls and five in Prospect, according to state officials.
Elio Gugliotti contributed to this report.
