State prepares to receive, administer first shipments of COVID vaccine
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HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) — Plans are in place for Connecticut to receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccines next week.
Meanwhile, health officials fear the state is just starting to see the effects of Thanksgiving holiday gatherings.
Sixteen-thousand doses of Pfizer’s vaccine are set to be administered to hospital workers on Dec. 14.
Another 16,000 doses will be administered to long term care residents and staff the following week.
While that is promising news, health officials said people in the state can’t let their guard down and the worst of the pandemic is still yet to come.
At least 32,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine are set to be administered in the state this month.
That’ll cover 16-thousand people because individuals need to get two doses of the vaccine, three weeks apart.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the state’s first order was placed and weekly orders will be made going forward.
Supply and demand of the vaccine will be carefully tracked.
By June, the vaccine should be available for mostly everyone. Public health experts said don’t be surprised if companies require workers to eventually get it.
“Hospitals and health care settings, meatpacking industries and others where people work in close proximity to one another,” said Dr. Karl Minges, University of New Haven.
Like what people have seen in schools, exemptions can be made for medical or religious reasons.
Around 70 percent of people in our state have expressed interest in getting the vaccine. Lamont hopes that number can go up to about 90 or 95-percent.
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