Name: All Connecticut adults will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccine on April 1 as state moves up timeline for vaccination
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All Connecticut adults will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccine on April 1 as state moves up timeline for vaccination

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantMar 25, 2021 at 3:44 pmIn another acceleration of Connecticut’s coronavirus vaccination timeline, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday that all residents aged 16 and older will become eligible for vaccination appointments on April 1.The new timeline will allow Connecticut adults to begin making vaccination appointments four days earlier than expected — previously, the general population was slated to become eligible on April 5.Advertisement“That means that starting April 1, in one week, everybody will be able to make that appointment,” Lamont said at his Thursday press briefing. “Again, it’s going to be a rush at the gate, we understand that, but we’re finding we have a fair number of doses available in our appointment schedule.”But that doesn’t mean that everyone in the state will be able to make an appointment when slots open on April 1.AdvertisementLamont said Thursday that the state expects to administer 200,000 first doses next week, but still he urged patience particularly in the first few days of eligibility.“Check frequently, because every day we get new doses, new appointments open up,” Lamont said.But with more than 1 million people becoming eligible on the same day, state officials are asking low-risk residents to consider waiting a little longer before scheduling their appointments.“The 16- and 17-year-olds and really all the people in their young 20s, [if] they don’t have a comorbidity, they’re extremely low-risk,” said the state’s chief operating officer Josh Geballe. “That’s a particular group that we’re going to ask to maybe not rush in, in the first couple days.”The accelerated eligibility date will place Connecticut in the top 15 earliest states to open vaccine eligibility to all residents. The earliest, Alaska, opened eligibility in early March, , and an additional 11 states will make that move before the end of March.Connecticut will share an April 1 expansion date with Montana, edging ahead of five other states that are still slated to expand on April 5.Connecticut state and hospital officials have said the vaccination timeline is dictated primarily by how many doses the federal government supplies. While supply has ramped up significantly in recent weeks — due both to increased production of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and the authorization of the Johnson &amp; Johnson vaccine — there still aren’t enough doses for all residents.As it happensGet the latest updates on Coronavirus and other breaking news events happening across Connecticut &gt; But the increasing supply has meant sped-up timelines, both across the country and in Connecticut.AdvertisementWhen vaccinations first began, state officials estimated that everyone who wanted to be vaccinated would have been vaccinated by fall 2021. Then, in February, state officials moved up the timeline significantly, saying that appointments would open all adults by April 5 and that most people who wanted to be vaccinated would receive the shot by some point in May.The new timeline also has implications for the state’s “accelerated access” strategy, which is meant to allow Connecticut’s younger, high-risk residents to access vaccinations more easily. But hospital officials are still working through which conditions qualify as high-risk, and how to push those residents to the front of the line — and now, they have just one week to finalize their plan.Statewide, over 1.1 million residents have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including about 620,000 residents who were fully vaccinated as of Thursday.About 31% of Connecticut’s population had received at least a first dose as of Thursday. The state has consistently ranked among the top handful of states for vaccination per capita.Emily Brindley can be reached at . Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantMar 25, 2021 at 3:44 pmIn another acceleration of Connecticut’s coronavirus vaccination timeline, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday that all residents aged 16 and older will become eligible for vaccination appointments on April 1.The new timeline will allow Connecticut adults to begin making vaccination appointments four days earlier than expected — previously, the general population was slated to become eligible on April 5.Advertisement“That means that starting April 1, in one week, everybody will be able to make that appointment,” Lamont said at his...

All Connecticut adults will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccine on April 1 as state moves up timeline for vaccination

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