Vermont COVID-19 trend favourable, but holiday surge looms

The number of new cases of people infected with the coronavirus continues to drop, but officials are waiting to see if the holidays will cause a spike in cases, officials said Tuesday.

Vermonters generally stayed home during Thanksgiving, and travel data shows that with the New Year’s holiday still to come, travel is down significantly over last year.

In counties from Ohio to Virginia to Maine, eight of the 10 with the lowest rates of active infection per 1 million people are in Vermont.

“We are holding our breath a bit,” Gov. Phil Scott said during his twice-weekly virus briefing.

The relatively good news about the virus comes as Vermont health officials continues to vaccinate those at highest risk — health care workers — and those considered at the highest risk of death from COVID-19, the usually frail, elderly people living in long-term care facilities.

So far, just under 10,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine.

Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said that by Jan. 8 the first dose of the vaccine should have been provided to those in the highest priority groups.

State officials are now planning who should receive the vaccine in the second priority group and then expanding the vaccination campaign into the general population.

Smith said that in general, there will be four locations where Vermonters will be able to be vaccinated, primary care offices, pharmacies and 12 health department district vaccination sites. Mass vaccination sites will also be set up in conjunction with the state’s COVID-19 testing sites, Smith said.

“It’s the easiest way to administer vaccines and it’s easiest for the public to understand,” Smith said.

Who gets the vaccine will be based on age and underlying health conditions, Smith said.

The process will begin focusing on people who are 75 and older and then expanding to younger people, Smith said.

___

PRISON LOCKDOWN

A Vermont prison is on full lockdown after two staff members tested positive, the Department of Corrections said Tuesday.

One of the staff members at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans was last in the facility on Dec. 23. The other staff member was not in the facility during the infectious period, the department said in a news release.

Contract tracing has been completed, officials said.

Inmates at the prison were last tested for the coronavirus on Dec. 21, and all results were negative. Testing of all staff and inmates is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

A total of 32 Vermont corrections staff members have tested positive since the pandemic began. A total of 137 inmates held in Vermont prisons and 224 held out of state have tested positive during the course of the pandemic.

___

NUMBERS

On Tuesday, the Vermont Health Department reported 82 new cases of the virus, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to more than 7,200.

There are currently 31 people hospitalized, including six in intensive care.

The state reported one more death, bringing the statewide fatality total to 130.

Of those fatalities 70% have been among residents of long-term care facilities.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 111 on Dec. 14 to 83.71 on Dec. 28.

The latest average positivity rate in Vermont is 2.06%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Vermont the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test specimens using data from The COVID Tracking Project.

The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 2.17% on Dec. 14 to 2.06% on Dec. 28.