Vaccinations, restrictions easing, and variants: Connecticut and COVID-19 in 2021
It was a year defined by the amazing things the COVID-19 vaccines have been able to do, but also one big thing they haven’t: End the pandemic.
As the state entered its second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was finally a glimmer of hope in battling the illness.
It was a year defined by the amazing things the COVID-19 vaccines have been able to do, but also one big thing they haven’t: End the pandemic.
A Dark Start to 2021
Nationally, the pandemic’s darkest days were at the start of 2021 while vaccines were just beginning to rollout.
According to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker, around 46,500 Americans died of COVID-19 in just the first two full weeks of the year – over 3,300 deaths a day.
By February 22, the total number of pandemic deaths in the country hit 500,000.
In Connecticut, the state reached 7,000 total deaths on January 28. But, all in all, our winter wave was far less severe than the rest of the country. By that point in January, our wave was beginning to recede and hope was growing that maybe it was the beginning of the end of the pandemic.
However, in 2021, nearly 300,000 more Americans would die from COVID-19 or virus-related issues, ending the year at about 800,000 deaths. The United States has the highest reported death toll of any country. The U.S. accounts for around 4% of the world’s population but about 15% of the 5.3 million known deaths from the virus since the outbreak began two years ago.
More than 200,000 of those deaths were after the vaccine became available almost for everyone in the springtime.
But vaccinations have already been able to do so much.
The pandemic was more or less around for 300 days in 2020, and in that time, Connecticut saw 5,995 deaths.
For the first 300 days of 2021, the state managed to cut the number of deaths in half to 2,756.
That, more than anything else, was the goal of the vaccination campaign.
The Vaccines
Vaccines began their national rollout in December 2020 with Pfizer and Moderna leading the way with their two-dose vaccines.
On February 22, as the nation faced 500,000 deaths from the virus, the Food and Drug Administration greenlit a third vaccine: Johnson & Johnson.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine differed from Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA technology and two-dose system and only required one shot. The vaccine was more shelf-stable making it easier to vaccinate people in hard-to-reach areas.
In late December 2020, Connecticut had laid out who’d get their vaccinations first. The first group included healthcare personnel, long-term care residents, and first responders at risk of exposure to COVID-19.
By the first week in January, over 100,000 people were vaccinated in the state which ranked it first in terms of percentage among states with over two million residents. By January 8, nursing homes had finished their vaccinations, and Lamont would complete the first phase.
After implementing phases, President Joe Biden came out and asked that all states work to make vaccinations available for anyone who wanted them by May 1, but Connecticut worked to make vaccines available for everyone by April 15.
By April 19, Connecticut hit a total of 8,000 COVID-19 related deaths but also had hit a peak of about 50,000 shots given a day. By that time, the pace of new deaths had begun to slow down.
However, on April 23, the FDA and CDC paused the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout over safety concerns over rare blood clots. The pause only lasted 10 days before the shots were given once more.
The pace of vaccinations closed in the following months, but the progress was undeniable. By mid-May, half of Connecticut’s population was fully vaccinated (those who got Pfizer and Moderna had both shots completed). Due to the progress of vaccinations in Connecticut and in other states around the country, the CDC changed its guidance to say fully vaccinated people did not need to mask up in most public settings.
By late June, positivity rates were under a half percent in Connecticut, but the vaccines were about to be put to the test.
Variants of Concern
By March, COVID-19 variants took over the conversation of the pandemic.
The delta variant shifted the whole feel of the rest of the year, and the course of the pandemic. Doctors had described it as the “most transmissible” COVID-19 strain at the time by the end of June.
By July 7, delta had become the dominant strain in the United States with health experts by the end of the month stating the variant was as infectious as chickenpox.
While symptoms for Delta remained the same as you’d expect from COVID-19 (loss of smell, chill, cough, shortness of breath), officials noted that the difference between the earlier version of the virus and other variants is how quickly people fell ill.
The biggest factor contributing to the rising delta cases was the unvaccinated population. Younger people were falling ill after it was once believed at the beginning of the pandemic that they wouldn’t suffer as greatly from the illness.
But delta wasn’t the only variant of concern that popped up this year. Its sibling, delta plus, was believed to be even more transmissible.
There were also murmurings of other variants in other countries including the mu variant. It was labeled a “variant of interest” by the WHO on August 30. It has not become the dominant strain in the United States after it already saw its peak in June and only decreased since.
As the US entered the final months of 2021, another variant of concern skyrocketed to the top of the pandemic conversation: Omicron.
Omicron was identified first in South Africa in November, almost immediately leading to action by world governments imposing travel restrictions once more. South African health officials had seen COVID-19 cases skyrocket by the end of November, leading them to study the virus samples to see if a variant was responsible, leading to the discovery of omicron.
Shortly after, the WHO labeled it as a variant of concern, like delta.
Doctors were concerned over the new variant due to its number of mutations – 30 – which made it easier to spread to people.
But, despite its spreadable nature, South African health officials and doctors saw signs that omicron is actually milder than delta in terms of symptoms, hospitalizations, and deaths reported. However, omicron is here to stay as we head into the new year.
Connecticut detected its first omicron case on December 4.
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Delta and omicron dominated the conversation regarding the pandemic for the year. Discussions always contained talk of the variants quickly followed by explanations of the vaccine and if it would or would not be effective in the face of delta and omicron.
But health officials keep stressing month after month, since they were first available, that being fully vaccinated is key. By September, health officials and organizations started to approve the population for booster shots in order to help shore up defense against COVID-19 and its offshoot variants.
It’s looking more and more that, while the pandemic will die off someday, the virus may be here to stay.
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Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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