New Order Provides Easier Access To CT Vaccination Records

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont has issued an executive order that permits patients, their doctors, local health directors and school nurses access to digital records related to their individual COVID-19 vaccination history from Connecticut's immunization information system.

Immunization information systems function as a digital registry which enable residents and their health care providers to keep track of their immunization status. The system in Connecticut was recently updated to keep track of COVID-19 vaccinations, but existing statutes prevented those records from being released to patients and health care providers. The new executive order removes those restrictions.

The order, signed last week, "will bring Connecticut’s access to vaccine records more in line with those in effect in at least 37 states, including New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island," according to a statement from the Governor's Office.

Specifically, the new order allows residents and their health care providers access to their COVID-19 vaccination records, and school nurses and local health directors "timely information about the vaccination status of their communities."

"Easy access to a person's COVID vaccination status is critical to an efficient, non-duplicative vaccine delivery system," Ken Lalime, CEO of the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut, said. "Many patients have lost their vaccine card, are confused as to what brand they received, and so on. Easy access to this information will greatly help us to deliver appropriate COVID vaccines in a timely manner."

Connecticut’s immunization information system was launched in 1998 and is known as CT WiZ. All health care providers, school nurses, and local health department system users are required to sign a user agreement and a confidentiality agreement that is re-signed every two years. Access is monitored and logged, and inappropriate activity can be investigated and addressed.