State Agencies Set To Reopen For In-Person Appointments

CONNECTICUT — As one more example that your life is getting back to normal, you'll soon be able to wait on line at the DMV again.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced this week that as of June 1, customer-facing offices in the state's Executive Branch, including the Departments of Social Services, Labor and Motor Vehicles, will fully reopen.

The governor said the state had decided to make some of the workarounds adopted during the pandemic permanent options for a few of the agencies. As of June 1 residents can return to in-person appointments and walk-ins at their local DMV, but the online options, which proved both necessary and popular during the pandemic, will stay in place.

On July 1, state office workers would return to their pre-coronavirus teleworking model, with at least 50 percent of the employees back in their cubes, and the remainder telecommuting to one degree or another. Lamont said the state was taking advantage of more employees working from home to downsize some of the state office spaces.

The state Department of Public Health on Thursday released data showing that 1,987,211 residents have had one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 1,618,266 have been fully vaccinated. A total of 3,482,860 doses have been administered to date.

Hospitalizations continued to drop, and the positivity rate remained comfortably below 2 percent in the latest set of daily coronavirus numbers provided by the state Department of Public Health.

An additional 471 cases of the coronavirus were confirmed Tuesday in the state, bringing that total to 344,612. With 29,973 tests reported, the daily positivity rate now crept up a half a percentage point to 1.57 percent.

Reported hospitalizations continued their plunge, dropping 21 beds overnight, according to the state Department of Public Health. That brings the number of those hospitalized with the virus to 222.

Coronavirus-associated deaths across the state rose by seven on Wednesday. The COVID-19 death toll in Connecticut now stands at 8,168.

See Also: Mass Nursing Home Strike Averted In CT: Lamont

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