BLOOMFIELD, Conn. — Governor Ned Lamont received the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine this morning at a clinic in Bloomfield.
Gov. Lamont is 67 years old and became eligible to receive the vaccine when the state expanded phase 1B of the vaccination rollout program last week.
The clinic is organized by Trinity Health of New England for members of the church's congregation who are over the age of 65.
Connecticut continues to rank in the top five among states in terms of the vaccinated population. There have been 580,432 doses administered in the state and 61% of people 75 years old and older have been vaccinated.
Gov. Lamont did say Connecticut is receiving 69,000 doses next week and asked residents to please be patient in regards to getting the vaccine.
Governor Lamont's office released Friday's COVID-19 statistics showing another drop in positivity rate and hospitalizations.
Connecticut administered 37,791 tests and 838 came back positive, yielding a positivity rate of 2.22%. There was a decrease in patients since Thursday and hospitalizations are under 700 patients for the first time in months. Currently, there are 674 people in the hospital for COVID-19.
There were 27 new COVID-19 related deaths reported Friday. The state death toll now stands at 7,381 people.
The Connecticut Department of Health announced there have been 22 new additional cases of the B117 coronavirus variant identified in the state. The variant was first discovered in the United Kingdom.
Connecticut has now reported 42 confirmed overall cases of the variant. CT DPH says the specimen collection dates of these new cases were from January 12 and February 3. The ages of the people who have the variant range from 5 years-old to 90.