Elderly New Yorkers Who Traveled to Connecticut for COVID Vaccine Turned Away
On 2/5/21 at 11:39 AM EST
A group of elderly New Yorkers who traveled to Connecticut in an attempt to receive a COVID-19 vaccine were turned away as they did not meet state requirements.
According to WNBC News in New York, the Ledge Light Health District first called the Waterford Police Department after they were notified of the situation by the state s department of health.
In an email sent to Newsweek, Waterford Police Chief Brett Mahoney wrote, When OFFICERS responded they spoke with the department of public health people on scene and CVS associates. It was ultimately determined that the people were from New York and were not able to get a vaccination in the Connecticut location.
Governor Ned Lamont announced the finding of four additional cases of B.1.1.7, commonly known as the U.K. variant of COVID-19, in Connecticut on Monday, Jan. 25. The statewide total is now at eight cases.
Given that the U.K. variant of COVID-19 is highly transmissible, safety precautions including social distancing, quarantining and mask wearing are necessary.
“The Connecticut Department of Public Health has warned school districts across the state to be prepared for the possible need to switch to fully remote learning come March because a more contagious viral strain may become more common,” NBC News reported.
Despite this, Westport elementary and middle schools have returned to full-in person schooling starting Feb. 1. This decision was questioned by many students because of the uncertainty surrounding the U.K. COVID-19 variant.
By Kasturi Pananjady, Jenna Carlesso and Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, CT Mirror
For weeks, Robert Rubbo, head of the Torrington Area Health District, has been fielding calls from anxious seniors trying to schedule their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
Residents began scheduling appointments for their second Moderna shot in mid-January, but there weren’t enough appointments to accommodate everyone. So Rubbo has re-routed his staff and recruited additional volunteers to nearly double the appointments in his three weekly clinics.
“We were getting a lot of phone calls. People were concerned they couldn’t find appointments for the second dose,” he said. “We felt the need to try and open this up to help them out. We didn’t want them to get left out there without a clinic.”