While the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes have been administering the COVID-19 vaccine to tribal members and now, on a limited basis, to some of their casino employees the Eastern Pequot Tribe has been struggling to get its elderly members vaccinated.
The Easterns’ chairwoman, Katherine Sebastian Dring, believes it’s another consequence of her tribe’s lack of federal recognition, a status the Mashantuckets and Mohegans have long enjoyed.
“Here we are, a state-recognized tribe with a reservation established in 1683, scientists have said we need to get vaccinated and we have not been acknowledged as an at-risk population,” Sebastian Dring said Friday. “As Native Americans, we are at risk. That’s a scientific fact.”
Norwich Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz thanked municipal leaders, senior centers and health centers, such as United Community and Family Services, for the state’s top ranking in vaccinating eligible residents and third-place status in testing for COVID-19 infections.
During a visit to the UCFS health center at 47 Town St. on Wednesday, Bysiewicz said 338,859 Connecticut residents had received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, and 86,285 had received second doses. Statewide, 45% of residents age 75 and over have received at least their first dose.
“We are very excited to be the best vaccinated state in the country, Bysiewicz said, and the third top testing state in the country, which is also really critical to keeping people safe and healthy.”
Norwich As COVID-19 vaccination sites proliferate in communities around the state, including in southeastern Connecticut, it was revealed Friday that a mass vaccination site at Foxwoods Resort Casino is being planned.
The news emerged during U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s visit to Backus Hospital, where the Connecticut Democrat met with Donna Handley, Hartford HealthCare’s East Region president, and more than a half-dozen other Backus officials gathered inside the hospital’s main entrance.
Handley indicated the Foxwoods site could eclipse the vaccinating capacity of the mass vaccination site Hartford HealthCare opened late last month at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford.
As a business reporter, I write about small businesses opening and closing, manufacturing, food and drink, labor issues and economic data. I particularly love writing about the impact of state and federal policy on local businesses. I also do some education reporting, covering colleges in southeastern Connecticut and regional K-12 issues.
Erica Moser
As a business reporter, I write about small businesses opening and closing, manufacturing, food and drink, labor issues and economic data. I particularly love writing about the impact of state and federal policy on local businesses. I also do some education reporting, covering colleges in southeastern Connecticut and regional K-12 issues.
HOOD RIVER, Ore. (AP) — As COVID-19 surged, retired attorney Susan Crowley did some simple math and discovered a chilling fact: people over 60 made up 91% of coronavirus deaths