Schoolteachers and everyone 55 and older will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations under a revamping of rules announced Monday by Gov. Ned Lamont.
Forget phase 1(c) or Phase 2 or other breakdowns of who can and can’t get the shots when. In a release, the governor declared that his previous system for rolling out the vaccinations was proving “overly complex and confusing.” He also concluded the previous system “would potentially exacerbate inequities in vaccine distribution, and slow down the process of providing it to Connecticut residents.”
So instead, he’s going with a fully age-based rollout, with one important exception: all “preK-12 school staff and teachers, and professional childcare providers” will be eligible for vaccination, at dedicated sites, starting next Monday.
Here’s how the age-based rollout is to proceed:
• All people ages 55 to 64 become eligible March 1.
• All people ages 45 to 54 become eligible March 22.
• All people ages 35 to 44 become eligible April 12.
• All people ages 16 to 34 become eligible May 3.
Lamont said he’s directing his public health team to “set numerical targets and work with vaccine providers to ensure that vaccines are administered to people living in the highest-risk communities in proportion to their population.” Details on that plan to come.
Connecticut has been ranking in the top four of states across the country in the percentage of its population receiving vaccines so far.
“In a perfect world, we would have enough doses of the vaccine to get it to all 3.6 million people in Connecticut right now, however each state is being given a very limited supply, which is why we must take this phased approach,” Lamont’s release quotes him as saying.
“Connecticut’s healthcare providers have been doing an amazing job getting the vaccine to people as quickly as they can, and using age as the only qualifying factor is one of the reasons why they’ve had success so far. The last thing we want to do is complicate the process for them and cause delays that slow things down and exacerbate issues regarding equitable access.
To schedule an appointment with the city, call (203) 639‑2245 or register here or call 1 – 877-918‑2224. To schedule an appointment with Yale New Haven Health, register here. Click here for information on scheduling a vaccination through the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center.
Click here and here for stories from CT News Junkie and CT Mirror about the reactions to the governor’s pivot, from concerns about racial inequities to applause from teachers.
The new plan came as a disappointment to the Connecticut Food Association, which represents grocers. It issued a statement calling it “unfortunate that the change in policy excludes essential grocery workers.”
“Since the start of the pandemic, Connecticut’s grocery community has operated with two overarching missions: (1) provide our fellow Connecticut citizens with healthy, nutritious, and safe foods; and (2) protect our essential workers so they can continue to perform their critical roles,” the statement read. “Despite the heartrending impacts of COVID-19, our state’s residents have been able to count on a safe, stable supply of food to sustain them over the last year. That would not have been possible without the selfless individuals who came to work every day so that others could feed their families. We will be having difficult conversations with our associates who believed they would be eligible for a vaccination in the next phase. It is important to ensure these workers receive the vaccination as soon as possible to keep them safe and to keep the supply chain operating efficiently.”
Rochelle Palache, Connecticut’s leader of the 32BJ SEIU chapter representing maintenance and security workers, echoed the sentiment in a statement: “We were dismayed and deeply disappointed to learn this afternoon that Governor Lamont has abandoned the needs of essential workers and people with pre-existing conditions in the next phase of the coronavirus vaccine rollout. We fully expected the Governor to follow the recommendations of the CDC and his own Vaccine Advisory Group and prioritize those whose risk is now greatest. Our union’s 5,000 janitors and security officers in Connecticut are among the thousands of essential workers who have kept our state running by chancing death every single workday. While many workers 55 and over can still do their jobs from home, most Black and Latinx workers can’t, which in part explains why they face Covid mortality rates far higher than white workers do. As the past year repeatedly proved, racial and economic blindness only perpetuate racial and economic injustice.”
Looks like the teachers used their police pull to jump the line ahead of people at higher risk.