Published July 28. 2021 9:38PM
KASTURI PANANJADY, The Connecticut Mirror
The season of zany vaccine incentives, from free drinks to million-dollar rewards, is giving way to vaccine mandates among private employers largely in health care as coronavirus vaccination rates stagnate and infections driven by the delta variant increase nationwide.
And while some states have also taken more aggressive steps to increase vaccination rates among state workers, Connecticut officials say they aren t currently planning to go that route.
Hospitals and higher education institutions have led the mandate charge, but it s hard to know how widespread that will become, said Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the Department of Public Health. A lot of it will depend on the level of transmission that people see in the community and also the level of uptake that exists without a mandate as to whether or not other employers want to follow a similar path.
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Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly are earning high marks from the Connecticut Business & Industry Association this year, with the business lobby applauding elected officials for passing a state budget with no new taxes, reforming unemployment benefits and upping investments in cities.
CBIA President and CEO Chris DePentima said lawmakers addressed most of the association’s 2021 policy priorities, which were mainly centered around jump-starting the economy after more than a year of COVID-19-related restrictions on business and travel. The work of the now-closed legislative session, DePentima said, “sets the course for the state’s recovery.”
“Overall, there are numerous reasons to be optimistic about the state’s future based on the actions the legislature and the Lamont administration took over the last five-plus months and the broad range of favorable economic news that is shifting the wind to our backs,” he added.