Early Data Shows About Half Of Connecticut State Workers Vaccinated

By Susan Haigh and Pat Eaton-Robb, The Bristol Press

September 30, 2021

Early data shows about 19,000 of Connecticut's roughly 32,000 state employees who work for executive branch agencies are fully vaccinated, a figure that's expected to change over the coming days, state officials announced Wednesday.

Josh Geballe, commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services, said about 3,000 of those 19,000 workers are unvaccinated but completed necessary COVID-19 testing, while more than 10,000 have not completed submitting their information. Geballe cautioned that many of those people appear to be vaccinated but had filling issues, including difficulties uploading their information to a third-party app.

Both he and Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said they're also optimistic more people will decide to get vaccinated in the coming days as state officials continue to sort through workers’ paperwork. The administration is now giving the state employees until the end of the day on Oct. 4 to fully comply with Lamont's executive order. It requires state employees and staff of all childcare facilities and pre K-12 schools statewide to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27 or else submit weekly testing results or requests for religious or medical exemptions. Those with religious or medical exemptions still have to provide weekly tests.

Lamont said those state employees who won’t get vaccinated or tested will be put on unpaid leave. According to his order, they will not be allowed on the premises of the state agency they work for until they provide adequate proof of compliance or prior written authorization from their agency.

“That’s a little ways off right now,” Lamont said.