CT 'Still Has Some Work To Do' Getting Children Vaccinated: DPH

CONNECTICUT — The adult population of the state is near "herd immunity," with 79.6 percent of that demographic having received at least one jab of the coronavirus vaccine.

That was the "good news" delivered by Dr. Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health on Thursday.

The "not so good news," according to Gifford, is that the vaccination numbers for the state's child population is nowhere near where she wants it to be.

"We're still going to have a large chunk of kids unvaccinated in the schools in the fall," Gifford predicted.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance, advising schools that vaccinated teachers and students do not have to wear masks while in the classroom starting this fall.

Gov. Ned Lamont said he felt strongly that students and teachers would be able to return to school safely in the fall, but stopped short of predicting a return to normal

"I'm going to have to see where the teachers are. If the teachers are 100 percent vaccinated, and they are 100 percent going back to the schools, then that's one thing. If they are hesitant because they see things flaring up, then we'll have to take a look," Lamont said.

With less than half of children between the ages of 12 and 15 vaccinated, Lamont said DPH was still not in a position to provide any formal direction to school districts in Connecticut regarding masks or social distancing protocols for the fall.

DPH also "still had some work to do" educating residents in eastern Connecticut on the value of getting the vaccine," Gifford said. Her agency is focused on eliminating the "pockets of low vaccination" throughout Connecticut as a hedge against the spread of the delta variant of the virus.

"We know it's more transmissible, and it probably causes a more severe disease," Gifford said. "We want to make sure we don't have any areas that are vulnerable to a return of COVID in the fall."

In Mansfield, less than a third of its residents have been fully vaccinated, and just over 34 percent have had their first dose.

Health experts have said that although the risk of getting sick from the delta variant is low for those who have been fully vaccinated, its spread could delay the end of the pandemic.
“Delta will certainly accelerate the pandemic” around the world, F. Perry Wilson, a Yale Medicine epidemiologist, said in a statement.

The delta variant, first seen in India, has not gotten much beyond a toehold in Connecticut due to the robust vaccination rate for adults in the state, but "it could become dominant in the pockets of under-vaccinated people," Gifford said. Instances of the variant in Connecticut are up five cases this week, to 48, according to the most recent data.

Andy Slavitt, a former member of President Joe Biden’s Covid Response Team, told CNN the delta variant is 'the 2020 version of COVID-19 on steroids."

'It’s twice as infectious," Slavitt said. 'Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the delta variant in its tracks: It's called vaccine.'

Gifford said DPH is focused on preventing "pockets of outbreaks with a potentially more infectious and virulent strain of COVID that could lead to more hospitalizations and more deaths." Such outbreaks could disrupt school, sports and other social activities, she said.

Lamont said he "thought we were out of the wood months ago, before delta came along."

The demand for the vaccine has dropped sharply in recent weeks. Just over 36,200 doses were administered in the most recent week reported by DPH, down from a high of around 315,000 in April. Connecticut is behind Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Maryland and Massachusetts in the percentage of its population fully vaccinated against the virus, as of Thuursday, according to the CDC.

Gifford said that many young women, "especially in healthcare," have resisted getting the vaccine out of fear it will interfere with their reproductive health and ability to have children. The DPH commissioner, a former obstetrician, said she was particularly keen on getting the word out that "there is no evidence whatsoever that the COVID vaccine causes any problem with infertility."

As of Thursday, Connecticut residents who have received at least one dose by age group include 95 percent of those over the age of 65, 85 percent of those between 55-64, 74 percent of those between 45-54, 71 percent of those between 35-44, 62 of those between 25-34, 58 percent of those between 18-24, 65 of those between 16-17, and 48 percent of those between 12-15.

The CDC has identified three types of coronavirus variants: variants of interest, variants of concern and variants of high consequence. The agency has also recently introduced a new category, "substitutions of therapeutic concern," which can be found across all variants, and may be more resilient against certain man-made antibodies.

As with the delta variant, there has been very little movement among the state's other variants of concern. Alpha and epsilon are both up seven cases to 3,309 and 68 cases, respectively. Variant gamma is up one case in the state, to 169. Cases of the beta variant held steady at 40.

There has been even less movement among the variants of interest currently found in Connecticut. Incidents of variants Zeta, Eta and Kappa have all held steady at nine, 21 and two, respectively. Cases of the Iota variant rose by two, to 1,797.

One substitution of therapeutic concern, E484K, was found in 1,080 variant cases, up two cases from last week. The other, L452R, was up three cases, from 549 previously.

The death toll for the pandemic has held at 8,279 over the past week.

There was one case of coronavirus this week among residents in a Connecticut nursing home, at Ingraham Manor in Bristol. One case was also reported at an assisted living facility, The Landing of North Haven.

New Hartford was the only Connecticut towns categorized any hotter than "gray" in the latest update of municipal alert levels issued by the state DPH. It remains in the yellow zone, with 5.4 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 population during the last 2-week reporting period.

Towns fall into the yellow zone when average daily cases are fewer than 5-9 cases per 100,000 population over a two-week average. The color codes correspond to guidance from the state Department of Public Health.

An additional 322 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the state over the past week, bringing that total to 349,798. With 10,553 tests reported Thursday, the daily positivity rate going into the weekend is 0.52 percent, down 0.07 percent from last week.

The number of Connecticut residents hospitalized with COVID-19 is 26, down 16 beds over the past week. The "vast, vast majority of people" who are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Connecticut are unvaccinated, Gifford said.

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