Connecticut residents encouraged to get seasonal and routine vaccines

Now that it's autumn, many will be dodging illnesses like COVID, Influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and other colds.

Health officials in Connecticut say vaccines are vital this year, encouraging people to get boosted against COVID, the flu, and RSV if you're over the age of 75 or pregnant.

It's the time of year -- we all know too well.

"I just try to be careful,” said Joyce Baldwin, of Farmington.

"Preventive is the best, I’m not too worried about it,” said Jane Hazard, of Norwich.

While people can get sick any time of year, health officials encourage extra precaution now through May.

Since August, the Department of Public Health says at least 13,740 people have had COVID, 193 have had the flu, and 140 have had RSV.

"Seventy-percent of people who were hospitalized for COVID were aged 65 and older," said Dr. Manisha Juthani, Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Juthani adds that 88-percent of hospitalized adults had not received the most updated COVID vaccine. She says if you had COVID recently, like during the August peak, it's still recommended you get a shot.

"The season goes long and we know it's not a season for COVID it's yearlong,” said Juthani.

"A lot has changed on the RSV front. So we now have vaccines for those who are high risk, and pregnant women,” said Dr. Scott Roberts, Associate Medical Director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital.

Roberts says there's also vaccines for babies at risk for RSV too. As for the flu vaccine, Roberts says results from the Southern Hemisphere's flu season indicates the shot will be effective this year too.

"Flu and RSV remain in very low numbers, although I would expect both to rise in the coming weeks as we get more into winter,” said Roberts.

Since May, data from the Department of Public Health shows just under 600,000 people in Connecticut have gotten the updated COVID vaccine, which is low compared to over 1 million people who have gotten the flu vaccine this season.

Health officials are also reminding you to be up to date on your regular vaccines too, like TDAP,  which in part prevents pertussis.

"We're seeing some of the immunity wane,” said Roberts.

Roberts says people are supposed to get TDAP every 10 years and if you're pregnant.

There's an increase of pertussis in Connecticut, with the Department of Public Health saying there are 2,016 cases in the state right now.

Roberts says this could be from people not getting their children boosted when it's time, noting vaccine compliance is lacking in some areas.

"Measles rates have gone down. Pertussis rates have gone down from a vaccination standpoint. So we certainly have our work to do to get vaccine compliance to where we were to pre-pandemic levels, and we're not there yet,” said Roberts.

Juthani says it's still spreading, even if many kids have indeed gotten their TDAP booster.

"We don’t know why that is, we expect some of this is post pandemic, we do see every few years an uptick of pertussis,” said Juthani.

Juthani says pertussis is important to avoid, because it can turn into walking pneumonia.

"The difference here is pertussis can be treated with an antibiotic - so that’s when going to see your provider to see if antibiotics would be useful for your child versus a virus,” said Juthani.