Greenwich Covid-19 Update: Most New Active Cases Are 0-20 Age Range; 43.13% of Residents Have Had at Least 1 Jab

During a weekly Greenwich Covid-19 press conference, Selectwoman Lauren Rabin acting as First Selectman in Fred Camillo’s absence, said as of Wednesday there were 4,817 positive cases, which is an increase of 151over a week earlier.

Active cases are at 150, which is up 4 cases from a week earlier.

There were no new reported deaths in the past week.

Rabin said 43.13% of the town’s population has been administered at least their first vaccine, an increase of 8.9%.

She said in Greenwich the most active cases were in the 11-20 age range and 0-10 age range.

“It’s thought that a lot of that is vacation related and sports related,” Rabin said. “We’re going to be looking out for what happens next week because GPS are on vacation this week.”

Rabin added that it is believed the positive cases in younger age groups had to do with more contagious new variants.

“It’s much easier for a child in the household to get the new variant, and it’s spread pretty quickly to all the other children in the household,” she said. “It isn’t more dangerous, but it is more contagious.”

On Tuesday, the CDC and FDA recommending all states pause the J&J COVID-19 vaccine after 6 reports of an extremely rare adverse reaction to the vaccine.

The CT Dept of Health recommended vaccine providers pause on administration of J&J vaccine for the time being while the FDA and CDC complete their review.

Rabin said the J&J vaccine is on pause in Greenwich’s town clinics.

“We are happy to report that all residents who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to date, none have had any side effects,” she said, adding that her expectation was that new guidance would be coming with respect to the population that is safe to receive the vaccine.

“We’ll be holding the supply and continue to vaccinate our residents with Pfizer and Moderna,” she added.

Greenwich Hospital’s Diane Kelly said the hospital was seeing a downtrend for inpatients. “Probably due to the fact that the increases with the younger population in town and children are doing better with this virus.”

She said as of Wednesday 13 Covid-19 positive patients were under the hospital’s care, which is down from 19 last week. Three of them are on ventilators in the ICU.

Across the Yale New Haven Health System, they are treating 177 patients, down from 199 last week.

“We too, as the whole state of CT, have taken a pause on the usage of the J&J vaccine until we have further guidance,” she added. “I believe the guidance will come from the CDC.”

“We also have no reportable major side effects, but we’ve continued to open up our clinics at Brunswick with Moderna and Pfizer,” she said.

If people have questions about the vaccine they can go to YNHHS.org or call the 888-ASK-YNHH.

Ms Kelly said people who had appointments for the J&J vaccine were having their appointments rescheduled for Pfizer or Moderna. Both the hospital and the town are holding onto their J&J vaccines while they await guidance.

Rabin said the J&J was being held for the home bound and younger children because it is the one-shot vaccine.

“As we have clearance with the J&J we’ll move forward with the appropriate populations, so it shouldn’t slow things down,” Kelly said.

She urged residents to continue to practice good hand hygiene and wear a well fitting mask when with groups of people.

“We do not have enough of the population vaccinated to think those things are not important,” she added.