COVID-19: 55.3% of New Canaanites Have Received a Booster Shot

Though just 55.3% of all New Canaanites have received at least one booster shot for COVID-19 virus, that percentage is still is relatively high compared to the rest of the state, according to Health Director Jenn Eielson.

One reason may be that New Canaan is still holding clinics routinely, whereas many towns and even pharmacies have gotten away from the practice, Eielson said during the June 2 meeting of the Health & Human Services Commission, held via videoconference. 

“And a lot of people are holding out for the fall and seeing if there’s going to be a different Omicron-specific booster because they don’t want to get it in May and be told in October they can’t get another one,” she said.

She spoke in response to Commissioner Jim Lisher, who asked whether there’s anything the town could do to encourage more residents to get at least a third dose of vaccine.

“I know a lot of people at all ages that are saying ‘Oh, I don’t need a booster, I didn’t need the first booster let alone the second booster,’ “ Lisher said.

“Is there anything we can do or anything anyone is doing around the state to get these people who are rational, educated people, and the reason they don’t want to do it is because they know they’ll have a reaction for a day maybe two days?” He said. 

Lisher added, “Is there anything anybody is using as a campaign to get up to 90-plus (percent) on demographic cohorts?”

The discussion came during Eielson’s general report to the Commission. In all, 89.41% of New Canaan’s total population has had at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, she reported. Through May 28, New Canaan had 587 new cases reported, according to the most updated figures available on the town website. Eielson said that though last month was “very high,” that “luckily now are on the downtown back in June, which is historically, the last two Junes— really sad that I can say that we are on our third June—but the cases are generally low in June.”