Governor Ned Lamont announced the plan for distributing the COVID-19 vaccine to Connecticut residents on Thurs., Dec. 3. 

Lamont has given top priority to healthcare workers, medical first responders and nursing home residents in receiving the vaccine. Beginning Dec. 14, it is expected that 31,000 Pfizer vaccines will be distributed during that week.

“These are the folks most likely to suffer complications. These are the older folks who most likely suffer fatalities. And these are the folks most likely to go into the hospital,” Lamont stated in a press release last Thursday on CT-net.

The wait will be the longest for minors and low-risk adults in Westport.  

“Under Phase 2, which is expected to begin in early June, those under age 18 and remaining residents over 18 would receive the vaccine,” an article on CTPost.com wrote.

Dr. Deidre Gifford, Acting Commissioner of the Department of Public Health, said the timeframe for all who require the vaccine to get it will depend on supply and demand.

 “We are hopeful that by the early fall, we will have everybody who wants to be vaccinated to have received the vaccine, both doses,” Dr. Deidre Gifford, Acting Commissioner of the Department of Public Health, said at a press briefing last Thursday. 

Teachers in particular, fall under Phase 1b, which begins in late January and ends in late May. 

Due to their constant interaction with students and other faculty members, some believe educators should be among those in the first wave to get vaccinated.

“Because of their close proximity and interactions with so many students and so many other people,” Shanti Wimmer ’23 said, “I think that yes, if economically feasible, they also should have priority in getting vaccinated.”

 In an interview on the CTMirror podcast “Steady Habits,” Lamont views teachers as high priority, yet still not as high as those in Phase 1a.

“They should be in a very early wave [because] they are first responders,” Lamont said.

“Like cops and firemen and food service workers, all those folks who are constantly interfacing with the public.” 

Regardless, many feel confident in the distribution plan, including COVID-19 Advisory Committee member Suzanne Lagarde. 

“I think,” Lagarde stated in an NBC Connecticut article, “it’s going to be a real game changer.”