CONNECTICUT, USA — On Tuesday, Governor Ned Lamont announced there will be a tiered approach to the Phase 1B vaccine appointments.
Phase 1B of the state's vaccine distribution plan includes almost 1.4 million people. Connecticut anticipates receiving about 45,000 doses of vaccine per week for the federal government. Lamont directed the CT Department of Health to tier the remaining groups in the phase with a tiered approach based on the risk of "adverse health outcomes from the virus."
The tiered approach will first focus on people over the age of 75, who can schedule their vaccine appointments now. The second tier, which will begin likely in early February, will be for people between ages 65 and 74. Finally, the next tier, which is likely to begin in late February or early March, will be for frontline essential workers and people with underlying medical conditions who have increased risk for severe illness.
“We are working to administer the vaccine to as many people as possible, but the greatest barrier continues to be our supply as we are only scheduled to receive about 45,000 doses of the vaccine per week, while 1.4 million people are eligible under phase 1b,” Governor Lamont said. “That is why we are working to roll this out in a way that gets the vaccine to the people who are at greatest risk first. The good news is that we are seeing an overwhelming number of people in our state who want to receive the vaccine – and that is a key component of keeping our residents safe from COVID-19. In the meantime, our administration will continue doing everything we can to get more doses of the vaccine into Connecticut as quickly as possible.”
Lamont pointed out the priority of distributing the vaccine to Connecticut's older residents was due to this group's high death rate due to the virus, especially among Black and Hispanic/Latino communities compared to White communities.
More information regarding which essential workers and a list of eligible underlying medical conditions will be made available in the next several weeks.
As of Tuesday, Connecticut has distributed 220,820 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and ranks fifth nationally in terms of the percentage of population vaccinated. Lamont mentioned the current priority is to finish the people 75 years and older in Phase 1A and though the Governor said Connecticut can handle more vaccine distribution, supply from the federal government is limited.
For more information about vaccines in Connecticut, click here.