Around Town

Health Director: 1,000 Kids Aged 5 to 11 Registered for Nov. 11 COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic [CORRECTION] 

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More than 98% of 12- to 17-year-olds in New Canaan have been vaccinated against COVID-19 virus, according to the town’s health director. And 100% of town residents aged 18 to 44 also are vaccinated, Jenn Eielson told members of the Health & Human Services Commission during their regular meeting, held Thursday via videoconference. 

The 45- to 64-year-old age bracket stands at about 89%, while 100% of those aged 65-and-over are vaccinated, Eielson said during an update to the Commission. “The percentage of the total population with at least one dose—this includes those that re not currently eligible, is 80.12%,” she said. Eielson added that 72.9% of the total population is fully vaccinated. 

The town’s Health Department was scheduled to run a booster clinic Thursday of Moderna and Pfizer shots, she said, and 350 people registered for that. A booster clinic for teachers will be held Nov.

Dr. Harrison Pierce

Town Officials: New COVID Cases ‘Mostly Unvaccinated Individuals, But Not All’

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Area hospitals have seen an approximately 10% increase in COVID-19 virus cases in the past month, the chair of the New Canaan Health & Human Services Commission said Thursday. 

The Norwalk Hospital system “had 50 in-house with COVID with about 30 patients under investigation,” Dr. Harrison Pierce said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held via videoconference. “These are mostly unvaccinated individuals, but not all. The recent numbers on those who are vaccinated and less than 75, there hospital prevention is in the realm of about 95%, but once you get beyond 75 and 80’s, 90’s then it drops to about 80%, so even though the vaccines are great they are not 100%.”

The comments came during a general update to the Commission. New Canaan Health Director Jenn Eielson is on vacation and did not attend the meeting. Pierce relayed statistics from her that included vaccination rates by age group:

Ages 12-17: 92% vaccinated
18-24: 100%
24-44: 100%
45-64: 87% 
65-and-over: 100%

“I think they are all great numbers,” Pierce said.

Alicia Meyer

Health Director: State Funding for New Canaan’s Public Health Nurse Now Uncertain

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New Canaan’s health director said Thursday that state officials “dropped a bombshell” this week regarding funding for a nurse whose responsibilities include administering vaccine. Hired in November through an Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity or “ELC” grant, the public health nurse has helped with COVID-19 virus testing, contact tracing and vaccinations amid the pandemic, and is to work on program expansions such as in telehealth, Health Director Jenn Eielson told members of the Health & Human Services Commission during a regular meeting. “Obviously, I cannot lose my public health nurse—there’s going to have to be a solution to that,” she said during the meeting, held via videoconference. 

“With the potential of another wave coming in the fall with the Delta variant—because even though we have very high vaccination rates, we still have the unvaccinated, the under-12 group that can’t get vaccinated yet,” Eielson added. “And there’s no timetable on that until ‘some time in the fall,’ is all we kept hearing for the under-12.”

The comments come as town officials decide how to spend $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding that’s been allocated to New Canaan. One specific category that the funds may be applied to is “public health expenditures” and bolstering local public health response, officials have said.

Dr. Harrison Pierce

COVID-19: New Canaan Health and Human Services Chair Urges Residents To Continue To Be Cautious

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Though thousands of New Canaanites are being tested and vaccinated at clinics that are filling to capacity and receiving high praise for their efficiency and effectiveness, health officials are urging residents to be cautious amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Even on the high side, some of the vaccines now being administered to town residents are perhaps 95% effective and “it’s still 5%” outside of that protection, according to Dr. Harrison Pierce, chair of the Health & Human Services Commission. “We have had three or four people locally who have been vaccinated and have gotten the disease, or at least tested positive,” Pierce said during the Commission’s regular meeting, held Thursday via videoconference. 

“And it’s happening in the community, too. So we have to take all the precautions that we were taking previously and reinstitute them if we are not continuing with them. The travel issue is big and you are going to have to, via the DPH [Connecticut Department of Public Health]/CDC, you are going to have to quarantine seven days coming back and then negative test before you re-enter society.”

The comments came following a general update from New Canaan Health Director Jenn Eielson.

Dr. Harrison Pierce

Health Director on Complaints from Residents 55-and-Over: ‘We Have Been Getting Screamed At’

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As the town turned its focus this week to vaccinating New Canaan Public Schools educators following a state directive, residents 55-and-older who also became eligible for vaccine shots March 1 have been forcefully lodging complaints, according to the municipal health director. School faculty and staff members were “crying tears of joy” Wednesday during the clinic at Lapham Community Center at what Jenn Eielson called “by far the best clinic we have ever had.”

Even so, “This week has been awful for me,” Eielson said during a regular meeting of the Health & Human Services Commission, held Thursday morning via videoconference. “I’ve been beaten up beyond belief, because we are not doing the 55-and-over,” she said. “We have been getting screamed at every single day. So yesterday was a welcome relief of people that were actually happy.