Gov. Ned Lamont took questions from the media following a State Bond Commission meeting on Friday afternoon and addressed the coronavirus vaccine and an extension of a moratorium on evictions.
Lamont said that an executive order is about to go out to extend the moratorium on evictions, which had been extended until Jan. 1. The next extension will go to Feb. 9, the date the governor said he is allowed to extend it until.
"There's tens of billions of dollars and a couple hundred million coming from the feds our way -- they may be voting on that as soon as today or this weekend -- for rent relief and that non-eviction gives us more time, say another five, six weeks at a minimum -- unless the legislature would like to extend it -- to allow landlords and tenants to negotiate a way that people get to stay in their homes, Lamont said.
The governor was also asked about a shortage of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Lamont on Friday was asked about whether a Pfizer shortfall would lead to a permanent loss of doses for the state and he said he did not believe it will.
He said he met with CVS, one of the pharmacies administering the vaccine, and they feel confident that Pfizer is on track.
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"What slowed up a little bit this week was sort of a bureaucratic snafu between Operation Warp Speed and Pfizer," Lamont said.
He said he thinks they are going to be able to catch up and he'd not worried.
"I believe still that we're going to have all those tier one healthcare, first responders, nursing homes and hospitals taken care of, hopefully by the end of January," Lamont said.
Josh Geballe, the commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, said the state is working to scale up vaccine operations and the Moderna vaccine is expected to be approved as soon as Friday. He said the Moderna vaccines is expected to arrive next week.
"This will give us the opportunity to continue to broaden the number of sites, providers who are able to administer the vaccine and so we will start to see as soon as next week federally qualified health centers, local health departments and other providers start to receive vaccine and be able to start conducting vaccination clinics for Phase 1a populations, Geballe said.
People receiving the vaccine in the very first phase include healthcare workers and staff and residents of long-term care facilities.
The governor will likely talk about issues decided on at the meeting but will also likely be asked about the latest COVID-19 data in Connecticut.
