The Newtown Health District is planning to wind down its community vaccine clinics in the coming weeks as Director Donna Culbert believes most local residents are now at least partially protected.

“I believe the majority of Newtown residents who want to be vaccinated are, or have at least gotten their appointment for their first [or only] dose,” Culbert told The Newtown Bee April 29. “Now we’re shifting our attention to clean-up.”

Culbert said the district’s final first-dose vaccination clinic is being planned now — likely for a date in early May — and that she will still conduct several second-dose clinics to accommodate those who received their first of two vaccines already. The first two second-dose clinics are set for May 5 and 7, with another pair penciled in for May 12 and 19.

By then, Culbert and her colleagues across the state and nation are hoping for firm guidance on administering one of the currently available vaccine types to youths age 12 to 15.

“Once we get clearance for providing a vaccine to younger residents, we’ll be working with regional partners to facilitate how we’re going to be handling that,” she said.

Trials to that end have been happening right here in Connecticut according to a recent release from the Yale School of Medicine. On April 9, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted data based on recently completed clinical trials for ages 12 to 15, expressing hope that the FDA will authorize this age group to be vaccinated before the next school year begins in late summer.

Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh, FACP, FIDSA, an infections disease specialist and associate professor of medicine at Yale, led Yale’s component of the 12-to-15 trial, as he had done in 2020 for the Pfizer BioNTech adult trial. He says returning to school is just one of several important considerations.

“If kids make up nearly 30%of the population and we can vaccinate them with a low margin of error, that puts us on an easier path toward herd immunity,” Dr Ogbuagu said.

The effort to evaluate COVID-19 vaccines in even younger children is now moving forward, as well. Inci Yildirim, MD, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics (infectious diseases) at Yale, will lead Yale’s component of Moderna’s clinical trial of a vaccine for children 6 months to 12 years of age.

Called KidCOVE, the phase 2/3 trial is being conducted at approximately 90 sites across the US and Canada and will include 6,750 children.

The news comes as Newtown saw a modest slowing of new novel coronavirus cases in the past week, with an increase of 45 bringing the local total to 2,058. The community’s the death total has been holding at 67 for several weeks.

According to state statistics, Fairfield County has continued to lead Connecticut in the number of cases (97,853), while Hartford County has outpaced Fairfield County by about 250 in registering the total number of COVID-related deaths by county at 2,391.

On April 28, the total of laboratory-confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported among Connecticut residents is 337,961; 407 patients were hospitalized with lab-confirmed COVID-19 at that time, and the statewide death count stood at 8,080.

Earlier in the week, the state reported that 2,978,724 vaccine doses had been administered, with 1,256,915 state residents counted among those fully vaccinated. So far, 66% of all Connecticut residents over the age of 16 have received at least one dose, including 90% of seniors over the age of 65.

Everyone over the age of 16 is currently eligible to receive a vaccine. There are walk-up vaccinations available, though many clinics still require appointments. Visit ct.gov/covidvaccine and enter a zip code to find the nearest clinics.

J&J Vaccine Restarting

On Friday, April 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may resume. Acting Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford followed up, saying, “We have advised our vaccine providers to start offering the J&J vaccine again.”

Gifford said as the CDC and FDA noted, their enhanced review of this very rare blood clotting event found a total of 15 cases, all in women under the age of 60, out of more than 6.8 million doses of J&J administered.

“This pause and review will hopefully give people confidence that we take the safety of these vaccines very seriously and are committed to ensuring that they meet the highest safety and effectiveness standards,” she said. “Revised fact sheets for providers and patients have been issued by the FDA and give additional information about the benefits and risks of receiving the J&J vaccine. These will be made available prior to resuming vaccine administration.”

Gifford said the CDC has determined that the known and potential benefits of the J&J vaccine outweigh the known and potential risks.

“That can be clearly seen here in Connecticut, where our case and hospitalization rates and COVID deaths are declining as our vaccinations increase. It is clear that these vaccines are an effective tool in the fight against COVID-19, and we continue to urge all Connecticut residents over the age of 16 to get vaccinated when they can,” she said.

“With nearly a one in a million chance of developing this rare adverse reaction to the J&J vaccine and no evidence of similar issues with the other two vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, you are far more likely to become ill or be hospitalized with severe COVID than you are from getting vaccinated,” Gifford added.

“I strongly recommend that all eligible unvaccinated individuals get vaccinated as soon as they can. If you have concerns about the vaccines, please talk to your health care provider,” she said. “We have vaccine providers throughout the state with open appointments ready to vaccinate anyone who wants a shot and makes the choice to take one more step toward a return to normalcy.”

New Mask Guidelines

The CDC announced earlier this week that people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

According to the update, if you’ve been fully vaccinated:

*You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying six feet apart;

*You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people of any age from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks or staying six feet apart, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19; and

*You can gather or conduct activities outdoors without wearing a mask except in certain crowded settings and venues.

The guidance goes on to say that if you are vaccinated and have been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms, with some exceptions: If you live in a group setting (like a correctional or detention facility or group home) and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should stay away from others for 14 days and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.

Also, if you are vaccinated and traveling in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.

Pay close attention to the situation at your international destination before traveling outside the United States.

It is only necessary to be tested before leaving the United States if your destination requires it; and you will need to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding an international flight to the United States.

Everyone should still plan to be tested three to five days after international travel; self-quarantine is not required after arriving in the United States.

For now, if you’ve been fully vaccinated, you should still protect yourself and others in many situations by wearing a mask that fits snugly against the sides of your face and doesn’t have gaps. Take this precaution whenever you are:

*In indoor public settings;

*Gathering indoors with unvaccinated people (including children) from more than one other household; or

*Visiting indoors with an unvaccinated person who is at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 or who lives with a person at increased risk.

The CDC continues to recommend avoiding large indoor gatherings.

Learn more at cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html.