‘We are really cranking’: Connecticut vaccination plan remains on schedule

Connecticut officials say they are confident the COVID vaccination schedule will remain on track after a quarter of the group that became eligible last week had already received a dose.

On Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont said 25 percent of those age 55 to 64 had received a dose of the vaccine since they became eligible last week. This group includes roughly 500,000 residents and was one of the largest expansions to the vaccine program.

“We are making progress ... a week into this next tier of 55 to 64, we’ve already got a quarter of the population vaccinated. So our providers are doing a fantastic job. We had over 35,000 vaccines administered last Friday, that was an all-time record for the state of Connecticut for one day. We are really cranking right now,” Lamont’s Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said.

In two weeks, eligibility expands to those age 45 to 54, which represents about 480,000 people. On April 12, vaccine eligibility expands to those age 35 to 44 and then on May 3 those age 16 and older become eligible.

On Monday, Lamont said Connecticut was expected to receive

137,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, a slight dip from last week. As anticipated, Connecticut will not receive Johnson & Johnson vaccines this week, but Geballe said the state received a “substantial” amount of Pfizer and Moderna doses.

“Our vaccinators will be busy this week,” Geballe said.

Lamont said Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which require a single dose unlike Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, will be supplied to the state again next week.

“You will continue to see a ramp up, which I think keeps all of our projected dates for other age groups on schedule,” Lamont said.

Geballe referenced a partnership between Johnson & Johnson and drugmaker Merck to produce doses of the vaccine under the federal Defense Production Act that he believes will scale up the number of vaccines coming to the state in the coming weeks and months.

Through the weekend, Connecticut saw a 2.63 percent positivity rate of new COVID-19 tests and an additional 11 fatalities, which brought the total to 7,725 deaths.

Lamont said hospitalizations, which were at 388 statewide on Monday, was the lowest in months.

Lamont credited Connecticut’s vaccination program for helping to stabilize the state’s COVID infection rate.

Connecticut reported an increase in the number of cases attributed to the U.K. variant of the virus, which is considerably more contagious, but Lamont said it is not increasing exponentially as anticipated.

“Right now, I think the vaccine is staying ahead of the variant and that’s slowing its increase,” Lamont said. “And, by the way, the vaccine works against the variant.”

As of Monday, about half of people age 55 and above had received vaccines, including about 75 percent of those age 75 and older and 64 percent of those age 65 to 74, according to Lamont.

A total of 1.16 million doses have been administered, 773,000 of which were first doses, according to the state. Since it arrived in the state in the middle of last week,

11,203 people have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, who joined Lamont and his staff during a press conference Monday, lauded the state’s vaccination efforts, but said the American Rescue

Act, which passed the U.S. Senate this weekend, was crucial to the continued success.