Connecticut sets vaccine standards for residents of all ages

Connecticut’s public health commissioner sets vaccine schedules after considering recommendations from federal vaccine advisers and medical groups. The standards cover residents of all ages and guide vaccination rules for schools, colleges, nursing homes, and child care settings. Nursing home vaccination rules allow medical and religious exemptions. Clinicians may document medical reasons for an exemption even when those reasons are outside the state standards. Pharmacists may give federally approved or authorized vaccines on federal or state schedules to adults. Patients ages 12–17 need consent from a parent or legal guardian or custodian, or proof of legal independence. Pharmacists may also give vaccines outside those schedules to adults, or give vaccines under a prescription for a specific patient. These provisions took effect April 27, 2026.

Within available funding, the Department of Public Health purchases vaccines and distributes them to approved providers through its vaccines for adults program. The program serves people age 19 or older through free clinics, local health agencies, and other licensed providers approved by the commissioner. Providers may use a program vaccine only when the patient’s private insurance, public health coverage, or payment agreement with the provider does not cover that vaccine. The commissioner selects vaccines based on their ability to prevent serious illness and death and decides which providers receive them. The commissioner’s vaccine list and provider eligibility rules are exempt from the usual state agency rulemaking process. The program provision took effect April 27, 2026.

Covered health insurance policies must cover vaccines included in Connecticut’s vaccine schedules starting January 1, 2027. The requirement covers specified individual and group health insurance policies that include prescription drug coverage. The requirement applies to covered policies delivered, issued for delivery, renewed, amended, or continued in Connecticut. The insurance coverage provisions take effect January 1, 2027.

Connecticut’s religious freedom statute does not apply to specified vaccination requirements for education and child care. The exclusion covers specified requirements for schools, colleges, child care centers, and child care homes. Separate exemptions in school and child care vaccination laws still apply. These include medical exemptions and limited religious exemptions tied to statements submitted before April 28, 2021. The exclusion took effect April 27, 2026, and applies to civil cases pending on or filed after that date.

During a public health emergency, the governor may authorize the public health commissioner or a designee to issue a statewide medical order. The authority applies during a statewide or regional public health emergency and can cover vaccination and other medical care. The order must allow medical care needed to respond to the emergency. A physician’s order can allow licensed providers to give care without a separate order for each patient. It does not require anyone to receive that care. This authority took effect April 27, 2026.