Connecticut hospitals could begin receiving shipments of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine in the next three-to-five days, Gov. Ned Lamont said Thursday, the same day a U.S. government advisory panel endorsed widespread use of the vaccine.
Those doses, to be shipped directly from the Pfizer warehouse to hospitals with ultra-low temperature freezers, will likely be prioritized for the “highest-risk employees” who deal with COVID-19 patients, “making sure those nurses and docs stay in the game,” the Democratic governor said.
By Dec. 21, shipments of the vaccine are expected be transported to CVS and Walgreens distribution centers and then sent along to nursing homes throughout Connecticut, Lamont said.
The state is slated to receive nearly 32,000 doses in this first order from Pfizer, which is being split evenly between the hospitals and the nursing homes, with more orders to follow. Doses of the yet-to-be-approved Moderna vaccine are also expected to arrive in about a week. Josh Geballe, Lamont’s chief operating officer, said roughly 240,000 health care workers and nursing home residents and staff should be fully vaccinated by the end of January, assuming 80% of people in those groups agree to get a shot.
From mid-January to May, about 1 million people in Phase 1b are expected to get vaccinated. That includes critical workers, people living in other congregate settings, people over age 65 and those under age 65 who are high risk. Everyone else is expected to begin getting vaccinated in June.
“You will see vaccine clinics in the coming weeks and months at places like our federally qualified health centers. Our local health departments will be conducting vaccination programs,” Geballe said. In addition to Walgreens and CVS, other pharmacies are being authorized by state regulators to administer the vaccine, while the state’s large health care systems are scaling up plans to vaccinate the general community after taking care of their own employees.
“You will see a very dramatic and large-scale ramp-up of administration sites across the state,” he said.
As of Thursday, 163 of Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns were listed in the red zone alert level, the highest of the state’s four alert levels for COVID-19 infections. To date, there have been 5,327 COVID-associated deaths, an increase of 42 since Wednesday’s figures. The number of hospitalizations decreased by 48 to 1,214.
In other coronavirus news:
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SCHOOL SAFETY
A coalition of public education unions is demanding that Connecticut schools shift to full-time remote learning if statewide COVID-19 safety protocols and a uniform policy for reporting and responding to positive cases are not required.
The group, which submitted a petition signed by nearly 14,000 education and community members to Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s office on Thursday, contends policies are inconsistent by district and that teachers and staff, as well as students, are being put at risk for contracting COVID-19.
“What we know is that in different places in Connecticut, in different districts, superintendents are under tremendous pressure to try to make sure that every kid is coming into school,” said Jeff Leake, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
He said there are some districts where students are not wearing masks and superintendents are not sending them home, as well as schools where the standard 6 feet (2 meters) of social distancing has dropped to 2 1/2-3 feet instead.
Meanwhile, union officials acknowledged that social distancing and other safety measures are working in some districts and those schools should remain open.
“What we were promised at the beginning of the school year were recommendations, guidelines and protocols. What we find is that they’re inconsistently applied,” said Mary Yordon, president of the Norwalk Federation of Teachers and vice president of the American Federation of Teachers Connecticut. “It should not be a local decision. There should be a basis of safety in every district. That’s a fundamental thing.”
Lamont said he has asked his state education commissioner about the “outlier” school districts that may not be following the rules originally agreed upon.
“If there are a few schools that aren’t taking the protocols as seriously as they should, they are now,” said Lamont, who has said previously that local officials could decide to shutter schools if there’s an increase in cases in their community. The governor has also said the state doesn’t plan to mandate school closures like in the spring.
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