CONNECTICUT, USA — During the special "You ask. We answer.: Get the facts on vax," Gov. Ned Lamont discussed Connecticut's success vaccinating its residents with the COVID-19 vaccine.
As of April 12, 52% of Connecticut residents ages 16 years and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
There have been 977,061 people fully vaccinated in the state and the number has been growing daily. When asked when he thinks Connecticut can fully reopen, Lamont answered with cautious optimism.
"I like to say if people get vaccinated whenever it's available to them over the course of the next five, six weeks if we get to that 75% number, I think by the end of May we ought to be in pretty good shape," he told FOX61 News' Jenn Bernstein. "But I have a couple of caveats there though. One, is we got these variants sneaking around New York, New Jersey and if people aren't careful with the masks and get vaccinated we can get a second hit."
Lamont said he was encouraged by the 52% number but directed his attention to the younger population.
About 30% of people between the ages of 16 and 44 years of age have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine since becoming eligible on April 1. However, Lamont said this group also has a large number of new COVID-19 cases.
"All of our infections are generally in a younger cohort, probably the 20-30, so it's really important the young people get vaccinated," he said. "Don't hold off now."
Connecticut's highest population of residents with at least one dose of the vaccine are residents 65-years and older with 83%, followed by 71% of people ages 55-64 getting at least one dose.
To address this issue of younger people getting vaccinated, Lamont said the vaccines will be distributed to schools and colleges across the state, along with other strategies.
"We're going to be bringing the vaccine schools, we're going to bring the vaccine to colleges, we had young people on TV telling their friends and friends of friends they got to do it," said Lamont.
During his daily press conference earlier Monday, the governor mentioned that Pfizer vaccines will begin to be available for residents ages 12-15 if the FDA approves the company's request.
Dr. Albert Ko of Yale School of Public Health, agreed with Lamont's sentiment of getting Connecticut residents vaccinated to reach herd immunity before the variants become more common and for younger people to get the vaccine.
"The big issue is: if we want to get out of this and we want to get normal, we're going to have to vaccinate not only the elderly or the people most at risk from, dying from the disease," he said. "But we're going to have to vaccinate the whole population so we can build up that herd immunity that the Governor was talking about."
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