State departments of education, economic development and mental health have lowest rates of compliance with COVID-19 vaccine mandate among state agencies in Connecticut

The State Department of Education, the Department of Economic and Community Development and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services are the state agencies with the lowest rates of compliance with Gov. Ned Lamont’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, numbers from the governor’s office showed Thursday.

Under the mandate, all executive branch employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing. As of Thursday, 98% of roughly 32,000 executive branch employees have submitted documentation confirming compliance, leaving 671 holdouts.

But while the vast majority of state employees have complied with the governor’s order, some agencies have done so at higher rates than others. At the state Department of Education, 83.3% of employees are vaccinated and 9.6% have agreed to testing, leaving 7% out of compliance, the highest of any agency.

“What we’re looking at is specifically in the vocational technical high schools, that’s where there seems to a lower level of vaccination and compliance,” Max Reiss, a Lamont spokesperson, said Thursday, “but throughout the rest of SDE you’re looking at close to 100%.”

Meanwhile, 4.9% of DECD employees are currently out of compliance, along with 3.7% of those at DHMAS. At the Department of Correction, which has the most employees of any state agency, only 57.1% of employees are vaccinated but 40.5% have agreed to regular testing, leaving just 2.3% out of compliance.

Some smaller state agencies — including the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Policy and Management, among others — have reported 100% compliance with Lamont’s order. Of 671 employees at the Department of Public Health, all but 44 are vaccinated and all but one is in compliance with Lamont’s order.

Reiss said Wednesday that employees who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 and who refuse testing could be placed on unpaid leave as soon as Friday.

“It’s been made clear that there are some employees who have no intention of complying,” Reiss said. “By the end of the week, we are prepared to start to take the actions we’ve been discussing when it comes to unpaid leave and the potential for termination.”

Thanks largely to the Connecticut’s high vaccination rate, the spread of COVID-19 has been dramatically curtailed. About 70 percent of state residents are fully vaccinated.

Connecticut on Thursday reported 548 new COVID-19 cases out of 32,205 tests, for a positivity rate of 1.7%.

Courant staff writer Christopher Keating contributed to this report.

Alex Putterman can be reached at aputterman@courant.com.

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