Norwalk reports high childhood vaccination rates; health staff warn of rising respiratory viruses and West Nile activity

Norwalk Health Department staff reported on immunization coverage, respiratory-virus trends and vector-borne activity at a Board of Health special meeting on Oct. 7, 2025, and announced upcoming flu clinics and funding updates.

At the meeting, Pam Bates, leader of Norwalk's Immunization Action Plan, summarized recent calculations drawn from CT WiZ, Connecticut's immunization information system. "CT WiZ is, as we know, Connecticut's immunization information system, and it just celebrated its seventh birthday," Bates said. She told the board the statewide registry now contains about 4,000,000 patients and more than 9,700,000 recorded doses.

The Norwalk Immunization Action Plan area ranked among the highest in the state for the combined seven-vaccine series for children born in the 2020'to'2 cohort, Bates said. She cited a Connecticut Department of Public Health report showing Connecticut kindergartners had a 98.3 percent two-dose MMR coverage for the 2024'25 school year.

Why it matters: High, accurate immunization records let local public-health staff identify children who are overdue for vaccines, target reminder/recall outreach and connect families without a medical home to providers. Bates described outreach methods the Norwalk team uses, including monthly reminder-recall reports from CT WiZ, phone and internet…