Christine Hallquist has the coronavirus.

The 2018 gubernatorial candidate and former Vermont utility executive announced Friday afternoon that she had just received confirmation of her status, five days after she was tested.

"I do have the virus. It has been a brutal week of illness," Hallquist wrote on Twitter and Facebook. "I think I may be through the worst of it. This is my first day fever-free in a week."

In a phone interview Friday evening, Hallquist told Seven Days she had “never experienced anything that comes close to this.”

“I’ve never been this sick,” she said. “Every day it’s touch and go. The fever was running 101 to 103 nonstop. Every day you get up thinking you would be better, but you weren’t.”

Hallquist had been staying in central New York with her elderly mother out of concerns for her mother’s health. She immediately left after showing symptoms on Saturday and said she is now recovering at her sister’s apartment. Hallquist’s sister, meantime, is now staying with their mother, and Hallquist said she is worried that she may have unwittingly infected them.

She said the length of time between her test and diagnosis is “a reflection of how flawed our health system is."

“It takes five days to get your test results back, but meanwhile you’re sick as a dog,” Hallquist said.

Still, in a strange turn of fate, Hallquist said she was actually glad to know her test was positive. Otherwise, she would have been “pretty nervous” about what was ailing her.

Nearly 680 other Vermonters have also tested positive for the virus. Twenty-four have died.
Hallquist's diagnosis grants her the unenviable title of Vermont's most well-known COVID-19 patient, though she is not the first in the Green Mountain political community to come down with the disease.

Vermont lawmakers this week mourned the death of their former colleague, Bernie Juskiewicz, who served on the legislature from 2013 to 2018 and died Wednesday from coronavirus-related complications.

Hallquist received an outpouring of support in response to her announcement, including from her 2018 gubernatorial rival, Gov. Phil Scott.

This terrible virus becomes even more real when it affects someone we know. Wishing you well, Christine. I hope you feel better soon. - Phil https://t.co/12XHV6f8nB

— Governor Phil Scott (@GovPhilScott) April 10, 2020

Hallquist responded by thanking Scott and commending him for the "excellent work" to lead "Vermont out of this terrible crisis." 

Updated at 2 p.m.

Gov. Phil Scott said on Friday that Vermont will remain in a state of emergency for at least another month, and he moved to extend orders aimed at keeping more people home amid positive signs that social distancing measures are curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

Scott first announced the move in a press release that indicated he was also extending his stay-at-home order and prolonging bar and restaurant closures until at least May 15. Those orders were set to expire next week.

Speaking at a press briefing Friday morning, the governor warned that the state doesn’t yet know whether the virus will still spike. But he said modeling data suggests the spread of the virus is slowing down, meaning it's important that the state doesn't "let up yet."

“I know how disappointing this is to many, as some were hoping that we could magically flip a switch and go back to normal. There’s no one who wishes that could be more the case than me,” Scott said. “The fact is, the data shows what we're doing is really making a difference. Vermonters are literally saving hundreds of lives by staying home."

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Scott later said. “It’s just a very, very long tunnel.”

Nearly 100 University of Vermont nursing students will graduate early and go right to work to help a health care system strained by the coronavirus crisis.

Among them is 21-year-old Kathryn Calisti, who admitted she is nervous but eager.

“I’m ready to jump in and help out,” she said. “We’re well trained. We know more than we think we know at this point.”

Most undergrad UVM students were scheduled to earn their degrees on May 17, but the in-person commencement ceremony has been canceled. Nursing students will now officially graduate on May 1, at which point the Vermont State Board of Nursing will grant them temporary permits to begin work immediately.

Nursing grads normally study in June for what’s known as the NCLEX exam, take it in July, and, if they pass, become registered nurses in August, when they traditionally start working. The changes and temporary permits will allow the grads to get to work months earlier, noted UVM provost and senior vice president Patricia Prelock. They’ll take licensure exams after the crisis.

Preliminary death certificates provided by the Vermont Department of Health reveal new information about 19 Vermonters who died with COVID-19.

In total, the state has reported 23 deaths from the novel coronavirus. The documents, obtained by Seven Days through a public records request, included death certificates that had been processed as of Tuesday, April 7.

The 19 who died were between the ages of 64 and 95; a majority were over the age of 80. Eighteen were listed as white, while one was listed as Asian Indian. In two cases, COVID-19 was not listed as a primary cause of death but under "Other Contributing Conditions."

Also in the documents provided by the Department of Health were two additional death certificates: one of an Addison County resident who was presumed to have the disease but who was never tested, and one northern New York State resident who died at Southern Vermont Medical Center.

Seven of the deaths occurred at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and seven at the Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home at the center of Vermont's outbreak. According to Genesis HealthCare, which owns the facility, a total of nine Burlington Health & Rehab residents have died from the disease.

Four Vermonters who died with COVID-19 were listed as residents of Essex. Three were listed as residents of Shelburne, though two of those died at Burlington Health & Rehab, suggesting that they were staying at the facility at the time.

Sixty-three percent of those who died were male. Though Vermont's current sample size is extremely small, the disease appears to disproportionately affect men; the majority of COVID-19 victims nationwide have been male.

In just 10 days, the University of Vermont's Patrick Gymnasium has been transformed from an athletic facility to a medical surge center intended to treat coronavirus patients.

The site, which can serve up to 100 patients, could be operational within a week.

"We'd be totally fine to not have to use this place, and that's actually our goal," said Daniel Hudson, a nursing director at UVM Medical Center who works at the facility. "But if we do need to use it, we believe we're ready to do it. We believe the patients will be safe."

A team of University of Vermont scientists, engineers and doctors has created an inexpensive and quick-to-manufacture ventilator intended to help patients suffering from serious cases of COVID-19.

The Vermontilator is about the size of a toaster and weighs about five pounds. Unlike a traditional ventilator — a complex device that can cost more than $25,000 to make — the Vermontilator can be built for a couple hundred bucks with simple, widely available parts. It’s powered by a 12-volt battery.

Using determination and a bit of Yankee ingenuity, the team's goal is to mass-produce the device before the expected surge in coronavirus cases. Vermont health officials expect the state will see peak infection in late April or early May, but the wave is already hitting places such as New York City.

“The whole thing is going at a bewildering pace,” said project lead Jason Bates, a lung expert at UVM. “At the same time, we’re trying to get to the finish line for this prototype that can be safe, robust and meet the requirements that gives it a chance at [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approval.”

In a speech equal parts sobering and uplifting — and marred only slightly by technical difficulties — Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger focused his state of the city address Monday night on the Queen City's new normal in the age of the coronavirus.

Weinberger did not deliver his speech from a podium in City Hall's echoing Contois Auditorium, as he had eight times before. Rather, he spoke to Burlingtonians from his office using the video-conferencing program Zoom, which introduced its own aural challenges as the mayor was forced to pause several times to sort out audio glitches.

It was a stark and surreal scene. During a meeting known traditionally for its collegial atmosphere, filled with handshaking and back-patting, the mayor sat alone at a table, addressing a video camera. The city councilors, new and incumbents alike, were sworn in via video from the comfort of their homes.

While such annual speeches generally contain the line, "The state of the city is strong," Weinberger tweaked his for current events, saying instead that "the state of the city is a state of emergency."

"Tonight, we believe we are approaching the crest of the public health emergency," Weinberger said, referring to the approaching surge in COVID-19 cases. In the previous 19 days, he said, nine Burlington residents had died and dozens more were sickened.

"At the same time," Weinberger continued, "it is clear today that, thanks to the commitment and effort of the overwhelming majority of Burlington citizens and Chittenden County residents, we are succeeding in flattening the curve."