Here Are The Towns CT Has Prioritized For The Coronavirus Vaccine

CONNECTICUT — As the federal government releases more doses of the coronavirus vaccine for use in the Connecticut, the state is making good on its pledge to get more doses to its most vulnerable areas.

A month ago, just prior to the roll-out of the vaccine to residents 65 and older, state health officials sent a memo to their vaccine providers underscoring the importance of prioritizing communities with the highest social vulnerability index.

The SVI score is a metric devised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and serves as a gauge of a community’s ability to "prevent human suffering and financial loss in the event of disaster." Among the criteria it tracks are poverty level, vehicle access, unemployment, minority status, disability, and crowded households.

This week the state Department of Public Health has identified 50 Connecticut ZIP codes that are in the top 25 percent of the CDC's social vulnerability index. DPH has directed vaccine providers to commit to administering at least 25 percent of available vaccine supply to the residents living in these priority zip codes. The clinics will also be collecting, tracking, and reporting data regarding race and ethnicity for vaccines administered.

Early race-related data indicated that Black and Hispanic communities were not only underserved in the vaccine roll-out, but were more statistically susceptible to contract the disease and succumb to it.

The renewed emphasis on high-SVI areas comes at a time when more and more mass-vaccination sites are popping up around the state and the number of retail pharmacies cleared to administer the vaccine expands.

Here are the areas Connecticut health officials have asked vaccine providers to target first:

Now a third vaccine has been added into the mix in Connecticut, and it could be a game changer. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one dose instead of two, and does not require storage in temperatures as low as the other vaccines do. On Wednesday morning, Hartford HealthCare received 7,400 doses and Trinity Health Of New England received 1,000 doses for the Saint Francis Hospital pharmacy. They're the first of the 39,000 one-hit wonders expected to arrive in-state this week.

Read More: CT Pharmacies Add Teachers, More Locales For Coronavirus Vaccine

• New Haven Man Charged With Animal Cruelty In Dog Dumping Case
• Third Coronavirus Stimulus Checks: What To Expect In CT

Hospitalizations for COVID-19 took an anomalous turn for the worse in the latest data report by DPH, jumping 38 beds on Tuesday. There are now 451 Connecticut residents hospitalized with the virus.

The daily positivity rate was 2.23 percent, with 494 new cases reported. Twenty more were reported dead from COVID-19.