Back in the depths of the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, when successful vaccines were still only a dim hope, Gov. Ned Lamont earned new respect in Connecticut for the way he managed the emerging public health crisis.

Both he and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York watched their approval ratings soar as they reacted almost in lockstep in imposing often unpopular measures meant to keep us safe.

Of course, that was before we learned that Cuomo was running his finger up and down the spine of a female trooper assigned to his security detail, to her horror.

Lamont did finally call for his pal to resign, after first telling reporters he needed a day to ponder the latest reveal of Cuomo's egregious sexual harassment habits.

Meanwhile, Lamont lately seems to have lost his way, or certainly his resolve to keep us safe and deal with the new pandemic surge. I hope it isn't just because he's lost his COVID-19 management partnership with Cuomo.

Honestly, our governor is starting to look a lot more like the one that frustrated so many of us before the pandemic, often adrift, decision-averse, unable to broker a deal or get anything through a legislature dominated by his own party.

That's the Lamont I'm seeing these days, as he completely ducks his responsibility to manage the pandemic, forcing the mayors of the state's largest cities to fill the void he has created and issue indoor mask mandates for the vaccinated as well as the unvaccinated.

While the big city mayors may find they have the political capital to issue new mask mandates, our local elected leaders in smaller towns apparently haven't. And why should they have to summon any?

After all, they don't have the same resources at hand as the governor, like a department of public health.

It's a small state and the governor should be seeing that everyone in Connecticut follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that say the vaccinated should also now wear masks indoors in places where the surge is out of control.

Transmission rates in the entire state meet CDC guidelines for indoor mask mandates. New London County is one of four counties in the state with a "high" transmission rate, above 10%, for more than a week.

And yet, because of the governor's inaction, there is no indoor mask mandate here as there is in the state's cities.

I don't like the idea of going backward in the pandemic and returning to indoor masking. Making us do that would certainly not be a popular decree for the governor, and so he is just avoiding it. Shame on him.

I worry not just for the small number of vaccinated people who are getting breakthrough infections, but for the unvaccinated, increasingly younger people who are getting sick and hospitalized.

We may not agree with their decision not to get a shot, but I don't think that means they should be thrown to the pandemic wolves.

Children not eligible for the vaccines, sadly, are victims of the governor's inaction, and our health care system is being unnecessarily taxed as he does nothing.

Even more alarming is the lack of guidance about schools as we approach the start of fall classes.

Will the volunteer members of the state's school boards have to act and fill the mask mandate void because there is no leadership from Hartford? Will the school boards have to continue to stand up to the no-mask protesters alone, as Lamont hides?

How many others will be forced to step up and do something to help keep this health crisis under control, as the governor continues to fail to do his job?

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com