Hartford HealthCare is winding down operations at its large-scale mass vaccination sites, company officials announced Tuesday.
The so-called “mega” sites, which were set up in late December 2020, will close this week, just as Hartford HealthCare expects to administer its 500,000th coronavirus vaccine dose.
Executives with the hospital system said they will shift their focus toward more mobile, community-based vaccination efforts in the weeks and months ahead.
“This in no way means that our job is done,” they said.
Over the winter and early spring, as the state’s vaccine supply ramped up, Hartford HealthCare opened mass vaccination sites at the Connecticut Convention Center and Xfinity Theatre in Hartford, 1 Liberty Square in New Britain, the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Central High School in Bridgeport and Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard. The locations were able to administer 1,000 or more shots per day at their peak, but recently demand for the vaccine has slumped, mirroring trends seen at the national level.
Public health officials have said that, outside of extremely isolated rural areas, almost every American who wants to be vaccinated has been, leaving pockets of unvaccinated people who could still be susceptible to the rapidly spreading Delta variant. Hesitancy has remained most pronounced among younger adults in their late teens and 20s.
Community Health Center, another major vaccine provider in Connecticut, is closing its remaining mass vaccination sites today.
