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Monday, May 11, 2020

Posted By on Mon, May 11, 2020 at 2:36 PM

click to enlarge Vermont Retail Stores Can Reopen With Capacity Limits on May 18
File: Paul Heintz
Gov. Phil Scott at the Statehouse earlier this year
Vermont retail stores that follow certain health guidelines can reopen on May 18, Gov. Phil Scott said Monday.

Businesses must limit the number of patrons allowed inside to 25 percent of legal capacity. Employees are required to wear masks and maintain a six-foot distance from coworkers and customers, and they must complete a COVID-19 safety training course, the governor said.

"By taking a cautious approach, we'll be stronger and healthier when we get to the finish line," Scott said. "Instead of taking two steps forward and one step back, we've chosen to take one-and-a-half steps forward."

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Friday, May 8, 2020

Posted By on Fri, May 8, 2020 at 2:57 PM

click to enlarge Vermont Childcare Centers Can Reopen June 1; Summer Camps Allowed
File: Matthew Thorsen
Kids at Camp Abnaki in North Hero
Vermont childcare centers can reopen in the coming weeks, and summer camps can operate this summer, Gov. Phil Scott announced on Friday.

But with a ban on large gatherings still in place, officials said that traditional school graduation ceremonies would not take place this spring. Education Secretary Dan French instead urged Vermonters to think creatively when planning end-of-school-year celebrations for students.

The childcare and summer camp guidelines are part of Scott's phased plan for reopening the state's economy and were based on the latest COVID-19 modeling data, which "tell a favorable story for Vermont," said Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. The data show that Vermont's 919 confirmed coronavirus cases are well below the count that was expected at this point in the pandemic.

Despite the positive indicators, Scott explained that childcare and summer camps won't function the same way as before. Childcare centers can reopen on June 1 with 10 people or fewer, in keeping with the governor's executive order, though those requirements could change.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Posted By on Wed, May 6, 2020 at 7:51 PM

click to enlarge Burlington Plans to Offer Summer Camps, Reopen Some Parks
File: Matthew Roy
Roosevelt Park in the Old North End
The City of Burlington will reopen some parks facilities and is planning to host youth summer camps now that the state is permitting more social interaction during the coronavirus crisis.

Mayor Miro Weinberger said Wednesday afternoon that city dog parks, pickleball and tennis courts, and the Andy A_Dog Williams Skatepark, all of which had been closed to comply with Gov. Phil Scott's "Stay Home, Stay Safe" order, will open this weekend. Basketball courts and playgrounds will remain closed, the mayor said.

"We're gonna do these quarter-turns of the spigot here at the local level," Weinberger said, employing Scott's oft-used analogy. "We've gotta do this. These steps are needed for our collective physical, emotional and economic wellbeing."

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Posted By on Wed, May 6, 2020 at 4:08 PM

click to enlarge Vermonters Are Watching Their Neighbors — and Reporting Them
Eag1e | Dreamstime.com
Forget loving thy neighbor — in the age of coronavirus, some people are more interested in narcing on thy neighbor.

Vermont has created an online reporting tool that allows people to tell on those that they suspect are violating Gov. Phil Scott's "Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order.

It's proven quite popular: More than 270 people filed complaints between April 1 and 15, according to a ream of redacted public records obtained by Seven Days.

The complaints are funneled to the Vermont State Police but can be assigned to other police agencies, depending on where the alleged violation took place.

State troopers are leaning toward education instead of ticketing. And cops in Burlington, home to the most complaints filed with 17, say they have yet to cite or arrest anyone for violating the governor's executive order.

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Posted By on Wed, May 6, 2020 at 1:57 PM

click to enlarge Scott Relaxes Vermont Guidelines for Socializing, Getting Outdoors
File: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Colchester Causeway
Vermonters can now socialize in small groups and participate in outdoor activities with "low or no physical contact" as the state's number of coronavirus cases continues to decline, Gov. Phil Scott announced on Wednesday.

The relaxed measures are part of Scott's new "Play Smart and Play Safe" plan to reopen the state. In the last two weeks, the number of new COVID-19 cases  in Vermont has generally been in the single digits; there was only one new case reported on Wednesday.

"The stress of the last several weeks has left many of us missing our families and friends," Scott said. "The good news is, because of everything we've done and the sacrifices Vermonters have made, we can now take some steps to restart social visits and enjoy some recreation, as long as we continue to follow important, simple guidelines."

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Monday, May 4, 2020

Posted By on Mon, May 4, 2020 at 10:05 PM

click to enlarge South Burlington Aircraft Firm Turns Attention to Ventilators
Courtesy of the AutoVENT Foundation
The AutoVENT being tested in Beta Technologies' South Burlington lab
Ordinarily, when the engineers and software designers at Beta Technologies measure and design for air flow, they’re concerned with the aerodynamics of an aircraft, not whether a patient in respiratory distress is getting enough oxygen to stay alive.

But in March, as COVID-19 created a worldwide shortage of mechanical ventilators, Steve Arms, a sensor engineer with the South Burlington electric aircraft developer, decided to take on the problem. With help from company cofounder Kyle Clark, design engineer Cody Spiegel and other Beta staffers, as well as physicians at the University of Vermont Medical Center, Arms designed, built and tested an emergency ventilator in about three weeks.

The AutoVENT is designed to be small, portable, easy to use and inexpensive — about $500 to $600, compared to a typical mechanical ventilator used in an intensive care unit, which costs $40,000 to $60,000. The AutoVENT, one of several mechanical ventilators invented by Vermonters in recent months, is now undergoing emergency review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Arms based the design on a standard bag valve mask, or Ambu bag, which emergency medical responders routinely use in the field. That device includes a mask that fits over the patient’s nose and mouth, a valve for delivering pure oxygen, and a football-size bag that is squeezed manually to push air into the patient’s lungs.

“The situation in Italy became so dire that family members were … squeezing the bags to keep people alive,” Arms said.

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Posted By on Mon, May 4, 2020 at 1:33 PM

click to enlarge Scott Lifts Restrictions on Some Elective Procedures, Surgeries
File: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Gov. Phil Scott
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." 

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Friday, May 1, 2020

Posted By on Fri, May 1, 2020 at 1:54 PM

click to enlarge Scott Takes Further Steps to Reopen Vermont Economy
File: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Gov. Phil Scott
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.

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Posted By on Fri, May 1, 2020 at 12:10 PM

click to enlarge More Northwest State Correctional Facility Inmates Test Positive
Michael Letour / CC BY-SA/ creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Northwest State Correctional Facility
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.

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Posted By on Fri, May 1, 2020 at 11:19 AM

click to enlarge UVM Health Network Projects $152 Million Loss Due to COVID-19
File: courtesy photo
University of Vermont Medical Center
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.

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