Leaders in Windham are concerned as the number of COVID-19 cases in the region continue to climb.
The first shipments of Pfizer's COVID vaccine arrived in Connecticut Monday morning. The vaccine delivery comes at an urgent time, as case numbers climb across the state and the country.
"We have rising cases. Even though we have a vaccine online we don't have enough yet to vaccinate everybody," said Kagya Amoako, a biomedical engineer at the University of New Haven.
Amoako said that the general public will not be vaccinated for several months. He said it is critical that people are vigilant in the interim, warning that if people let their guard down, "it is just going to get worse."
The Town of Windham is one of many towns across the state that is seeing an influx of COVID-19 cases.
"Unfortunately we saw some of our highest case levels in the last week, in the last two weeks," said Jim Rivers, Town Manager of Windham. "All of our numbers are pointing in the wrong direction right now."
Rivers said that, despite constant messaging to the community, the average daily case rate per 100,000 population reached 78.1 in the last two weeks. He expects that number to continue to climb based on preliminary data.
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"This is not going to end because some people have been vaccinated. It is going to take many, many months for people to get vaccinated and not everyone may get vaccinated," said Rivers. "This is far from over. The worst, I think, is yet to come unfortunately."
Hartford HealthCare's testing site in Windham is now located at Recreation Park, 79 Main St. in Willimantic. The testing site will be open seven days a week.
"Don't wait until your family is sick or your friends," said Rivers. "Now is the time. Make sure they don't get sick."
