Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont issued an executive order that allows patients and their doctors to access patients’ own COVID-19 vaccination digital records stored in the state information system. The order also permits local health officials and school nurses to access the vaccination status of people in their communities.
Gov. Lamont announced on Thursday that patients and their health care providers would be granted access to patients’ COVID-19 vaccination history, according to a statement.
Connecticut state statutes currently prevent vaccination records from being released to patients and health care providers, the statement said.
The decree will allow individuals to obtain a copy of their immunization records to satisfy vaccine mandates put in place by employers and businesses.
Health care providers will be allowed to see their patient’s vaccination history, for example, if they needed to administer vaccine boosters, instead of keeping track of it on their own, the statement said.
Local health authorities will be permitted to access the vaccination status of people within their jurisdictions to assess the vaccination status of their community, the statement said.
According to the statement, many communities in Connecticut are still below herd immunity thresholds for COVID-19, so vaccination status data will be used to inform community outreach efforts.
“Specifically, school nurses and local health directors will be equipped with timely information about the vaccination status of their communities,” the statement said.
The disclosure remains in effect until the end of September, but it can be modified or terminated, the executive order stated.
“Without this order, patients will continue to be frustrated that they are blocked from accessing their own vaccination records, and doctors and healthcare providers will be unable to easily lookup when and with what vaccine their patients were administered a COVID-19 vaccine,” Lamont said in the statement.
Several Connecticut hospitals, health centers, and health center associations expressed their support for the governor’s order.
Marna Borgstrom, CEO of Yale New Haven Health, said in the statement, “Vaccinations are the only safe and proven way to end this pandemic and giving all Connecticut residents access to their vaccination records will allow us all to return to doing all the things we love with those we love.”
Connecticut’s immunization information system was created in 1998 and has been recently updated to include vaccination against COVID-19, the disease caused by CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
In order to use the system, all health care providers, school nurses, and local health department users are required to sign a confidentiality agreement that needs to be renewed every two years, according to the statement. Access to the system is monitored and logged, and inappropriate activity can be investigated and addressed, the statement said.