Lamont Outlines COVID-19 Vaccination Timeline

Gov. Ned Lamont has set a goal to vaccinate all Connecticut residents who want the coronavirus vaccine by late summer 2021.

The first phase of vaccine distribution in Connecticut will involve inoculating over 200,000 healthcare workers, about 22,000 residents of nursing and long-term care homes, and about 6,000 medical first responders, Lamont said.

“Number one, these are the folks most likely to suffer complications,” Lamont told reporters Dec. 3.

“These are the older folks who most likely suffer fatalities, and these are the folks most likely to go into the hospital.

“So not only will we hopefully be saving lives, we’re hopefully keeping these folks out of the hospital, which, again, adds to our capacity in the hospitals.”

Executive Order

An executive order Lamont signed Dec. 7 calls for:

• Authorizing licensed pharmacists to administer any coronavirus vaccine that has been approved by the FDA under certain conditions, as well as administer influenza vaccines to children aged 10-17
• Requiring any pharmacist who administers an influenza vaccine to any patient under the age of 18 and obtains the vaccine through the Connecticut Vaccine Program to electronically report the information about the administration of the vaccine to the Department of Public Health’s immunization registry
• Caps the amount that providers may charge to administer COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that no one is required to pay out-of-pocket costs for the vaccine

NEWS: The Pfizer-@BioNTech_Group #COVID19 vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the @US_FDA but has been authorized for emergency use to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 16 & older. See conditions of use: https://t.co/RbC0OwSEEi pic.twitter.com/9b2BYPFk9Z

— Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) December 12, 2020

Vaccine Shipments

Lamont said Connecticut expects to receive around 90,000 vaccine doses by the third week of December—about 60,000 from Moderna and 30,000 from Pfizer.

By the end of January, the state could receive up to 380,000 doses of the two vaccines.

The second phase will run from the middle of January into May and will provide vaccines to critical workers, state prison inmates, group home residents, adults 65 and older, and people under 65 who are considered high risk.

With the FDA poised to authorize the emergency use of the first COVID-19 vaccine, @GovNedLamont announced that Connecticut expects to administer the first doses on Tuesday to front-line medical personnel, with nursing home patients to follow a week later.https://t.co/b1Qa7udlmW

— Connecticut Mirror (@CTMirror) December 11, 2020

Under the final phase, which was projected to begin in early June, vaccines will be given to residents 18 and under, as well as those over 18 who remain unvaccinated.

As of Dec. 8, Connecticut had confirmed over 135,000 confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus and a daily test positivity of around 8.6%—the highest rate in months.

A total of 5,224 state residents had died as a result of COVID through Dec. 7.