Vermont health care providers can resume some elective visits and procedures after weeks of putting off these nonessential services due to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Scott said Monday.

Scott's latest order — which lifts restrictions put in place March 20 to slow the spread of the virus and preserve vital medical equipment — comes as Vermont continues to see a small number of new coronavirus cases. 
"While the initial restrictions were necessary, we also know that procedures put on hold are important to overall health," Scott said at a press conference Monday. "So we thank everyone for their patience as we made sure we didn't risk the ability to care for COVID-19 patients." 

Gov. Phil Scott on Friday took further steps to reopen Vermont's economy,  announcing an order that will soon allow thousands to return to work amid continued signs that the state has slowed the spread of the coronavirus.

Starting Monday, certain outdoor businesses such as construction and landscaping companies, manufacturers, and distribution operations can have 10 people working at a time. These employers can then return to full operation May 11 if they complete a training program and adopt a series of preventative measures, Scott said.

"There's no playbook on any of this," Scott said. "So we focus on sectors like manufacturing and construction that have controlled environments, open space and are accustomed to following rules dedicated to safe work sites.”

Companies that return to full operation will need to comply with a stringent set of requirements. For example, they must offer employees expanded health training, make good faith efforts to secure thermometers to perform temperature checks on employees prior to the start of each shift, and designate on-site health officers charged with ensuring that protocols are being followed, according to Friday's order.

The order also requires public transportation employees and travelers to now wear cloth masks at all times.

Seven more prisoners at Northwest State Correctional Facility have tested positive for the new coronavirus, a setback following weeks of cautious optimism that the outbreak had not spread.

These are the first new cases identified since the initial prison-wide round of testing was conducted on April 8. Forty-five inmates and 17 employees have now tested positive since the outbreak was detected nearly a month ago.

The new cases were acknowledged on Friday, even as officials said 16 of the other infected prisoners have recovered from weeks of medical isolation at a quarantine prison in St. Johnsbury. Three other COVID-19-positive inmates have been released.

"The inmates who tested positive were already in a quarantined unit thanks to the hard work of our contact-tracing team working with the Vermont Department of Health, who determined they may have interacted with a positive inmate from our first round of testing,” Department of Corrections interim Commissioner Jim Baker said in a press release.
Last week, Department of Corrections officials expressed hope that their quick action to isolate and transfer infected residents had contained the outbreak. The COVID-19 virus is believed to have an incubation period of 14 days, and no remaining inmates at Northwest had shown symptoms for at least that long.
The state retested the 155 inmates in recent days, leading to the discovery of seven new cases.

Those seven prisoners were transferred to Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury for quarantine, Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said during Gov. Phil Scott's press conference on Friday.
Asked if officials still believed the outbreak at Northwest was contained, Smith congratulated the Department of Corrections.

"They have done an amazing job," he said.

Results of 154 employee tests are still pending.

The University of Vermont Health Network is anticipating a $152 million loss in revenue this fiscal year due to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the system announced in a press release Friday.

Since the crisis began, the network has canceled elective procedures, created temporary testing sites, boosted telehealth services and suspended collections — all of which cost "upward of $20 million" through the end of April, according to the press release. The network also saw a $44 million loss in revenue in March alone.

The network is now taking several austerity measures to right the ship. Department directors will take a 5 percent base-pay cut, and vice presidents and other executives will lose 10 percent of their base pay; they will also no longer receive an employer contribution to their retirement benefits. These workers make up 300 of the network's 14,000 employees, the system said in its statement.