CT Healthcare Workers Get Second Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine

Some Connecticut healthcare workers who received their COVID-19 vaccine a few weeks ago received their second dose Monday.

Officials from Hartford HealthCare began to administer the second and final dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to the first group of frontline health care workers Monday.

Health care workers and residents and staff of nursing homes are in the first group in Connecticut to receive the vaccination.

Keith Grant, senior system director of infection prevention at Hartford HealthCare, was among the the first people in the state to get the vaccine.

"I've had no side effects," Grant said on Monday at a news conference. He said the majority of the people who have received the vaccine had had some discomfort at the injection site that subsides within 24 to 48 hours.

Hartford HealthCare officials said they have vaccinated more than 13,000 people so far and expect the speed of distribution to continue to increase.

Who Gets COVID-19 Vaccine in CT Next?

An advisory group is expected to recommend to Gov. Ned Lamont this week which Connecticut residents should receive the next round of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Dr. Deidre Gifford, the acting public health commissioner, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee’s recommendation that frontline essential workers and people over the age of 75 be included in phase 1B will be the foundation for Connecticut’s plan.

“They may opt to make some additions to that group. But I don’t want to speculate on what they’re going to advise until after they’ve met,” said Gifford, who expects Lamont will have the recommendations by Thursday. The group is scheduled to meet Tuesday.

State officials previously said they expected “critical” workers, those living in other congregate settings, adults over age 65 and high-risk people under age 65 would be eligible for vaccination in the phases between January and May, but the list had not yet been finalized.

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Lamont said last week that he is pleased so far with the pace of vaccinations in Connecticut, despite reports of a slow rollout in other parts of the country.