Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has fired his health commissioner while the Nutmeg State grapples with reopening plans amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Lamont bounced Department of Public Health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell late Monday and replaced her with the state’s Department of Social Services commissioner, Deidre Gifford.

Lamont refused Tuesday to say why he removed Coleman-Mitchell.

“I thought this was a good time to make a change,” Lamont told Connecticut reporters. “I think the job has changed, and I want closer coordination with our different departments.”

Coleman-Mitchell issued a statement through her lawyer Tuesday through that she was looking “forward to greater opportunities to come.”

“I was informed by the Governor’s staff that the decision to move the Department of Public Health in a different direction was not related to job performance,” Coleman-Mitchell said. “I take them at their word.”

As in New York, Connecticut has struggled to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in its nursing homes.

Connecticut just announced that it’s opening specialized nursing homes for coronavirus patients only to contain infections in its other nursing homes.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker have come under fire for policies that critics say claim contributed to infections and deaths in nursing homes, leading to calls for an independent probe.

Cuomo on Sunday rescinded a controversial March 25 Health Department directive that required nursing homes to admit or re-admit recovering COVID-19 patients from hospitals.

The revised policy says hospitals are barred from discharging patients to nursing homes unless they test negative for COVID. The governor also is requiring that staffers in nursing homes be tested twice weekly for the virus.

Nearly 5,400 residents of nursing homes in New York have died from confirmed or suspected cases of COVID.