- Details
- Category: Current Issue
The Northeast District Department of Health (NDDH) and Day Kimball Healthcare (DKH) collaborated on a busy week of school vaccination clinics, delivering more than 1,600 vaccinations to eligible school personnel and licensed child care providers. Public, private, and parochial schools from Sterling, Thompson, Eastford, Putnam, Pomfret, Woodstock, and Hampton were vaccinated last week along with employees from EASTCONN, which serves multiple schools districts in eastern and central Connecticut.
The week of March 7 will include schools from Brooklyn, Killingly, and Canterbury, Marianapolis, Harvard H. Ellis Technical School, and EASTCONN’s Quinebaug Middle College. NDDH and DKH expect to deliver another 1,000 doses this week, which will bring vaccination totals for this target population to more than 2,600. Nearly 3,400 school personnel were eligible for vaccination.
“The initiative has taken a significant amount of coordination but has been well worth the effort because we have attained high vaccination rates in a very short amount of time,” said Sue Starkey, NDDH Director of Health “The aim was to vaccinate as many eligible education and child care personnel as possible and we did that thanks to strong community partnerships with our clinical providers, schools, vaccination planning teams, and Medical Reserve Corps volunteers. We could not be more grateful for these partnerships.”
Remaining EASTCONN employees will be vaccinated the week of March 14, along with any school personnel and child care providers who were unable to make scheduled clinics.
DKH used the new one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at school clinics last week and used it March 9 to vaccinate personnel from Killingly schools, while NDDH will roll out the J & J vaccine for its VAMS clinics set for Wednesday and Friday of this week.
Generations Family Health Center has added appointment slots in their VAMS scheduling platform and vaccine is also available at Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart pharmacies.
“The success of the vaccination effort in Connecticut is giving all communities a real sense of hope,” said NDDH Education and Communications Coordinator Linda Colangelo. “We are still abundantly cautious as we face variant strains and outbreaks that may arise as restrictions ease, sports return, and warmer weather beckons people to gather. Keep up the prevention strategies that work. Wear your mask, watch your distance, wash your hands. Let’s cross that finish line together.”
Vaccination eligibility: https://portal.ct.gov/Coronavirus/COVID-19-Vaccination
NDDH primary resource for linking people to vaccination options: https://www.nddh.org/services/emergency-preparedness/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-
19/covid-19-vaccination/
NDDH/DKH School Vaccination Plan:
Tuesday, March 9: Brooklyn Schools – NDDH, Brooklyn Elementary School, Brooklyn Middle School, The Learning Clinic, Killingly Schools – DKH, Goodyear Early Childhood Center, Killingly Head Start, Killingly Memorial School, Killingly Central School, Killingly Intermediate School, Killingly High School, St. James School.
March 10 – NDDH: Harvard H. Ellis Technical School, Quinebaug Middle College.
March 11 – NDDH: Canterbury Elementary School, Dr. Helen Baldwin Middle School.
March 12 – NDDH: Marianapolis.
Week of March 14 - Remaining EASTCONN; school personnel and child care providers.
Testing Sites
Sema4 COVID-19 regional testing sites, as of March 7: 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays at Quinebaug Valley Community College; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the Putnam Riverview Market Pavilion. 3 to 7 p.m. Thursdays at the Plainfield Senior Center. They are free, no appointments needed, any age, drive-thru or walk up.
..