Sunday, April 5, 2020
The state received results for two of the new cases in late March but didn't count them until last week, according to the health department, which has since back-dated the cumulative case count on its COVID-19 website.
One person reported dead Sunday was a patient at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, according to health department spokesperson Nancy Erickson. Information on the other deceased patient was not immediately available.
The state reported 738 more test results on Sunday. The number of tests processed daily continues to grow as the state expands testing to patients with milder symptoms. The state is also now sending specimens to commercial and public labs.
Vermont has conducted 6,582 tests to date.
A county-by-county map shows that Chittenden County has by far the most positive diagnoses with 271, just over half of the total cases in the state. Essex and Grand Isle counties still have no confirmed cases, according to health department data.
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Saturday, April 4, 2020
Dozens of Guard members wielded nail guns and power saws inside the bustling Robert E. Miller Expo Centre, which smelled of sawdust. Men and women muscled segments of wooden walls into rows that were quickly taking shape in the cavernous building.
Tags: Champlain Valley Expo , COVID-19 , hospitals , Web Only , Image
Vermont reported 71 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the state's total infection count to 461. Three more people have died.
The new positive cases represent about 12 percent of the 616 total test results reported on Saturday. That's the highest single-day test count since March 29, when the state reported 1,327 new results. Vermont recently expanded testing to patients with mild and moderate symptoms.
The state's death toll now stands at 20. Two of the three people reported dead on Saturday were patients at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vermont Department of Health spokesperson Ben Truman said.
The other was a resident at Birchwood Terrace nursing home in Burlington, where 26 residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19. One employee there has also tested positive.
Meanwhile, the outbreak at Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center continues to grow. On Saturday, after testing for all but one resident was complete, the center reported 10 additional cases among residents. Many of these positive patients are asymptomatic, according to Genesis HealthCare spokesperson Lori Mayer.
"We have cohorted or separated residents appropriately based on the results and recommendations by the Department of Health," she said.
Mayer would not say whether the facility plans to test all staff, writing in an email that Genesis was working with the health department "to determine next steps." Fourteen have tested positive, bringing the center's total case count to 46.
Nearly 16 percent of all coronavirus cases in Vermont stem from these two eldercare facilities.
Demographic data for the six dozen new cases was not immediately available.
Health officials estimate the state's total cases will peak in late April or early May. Gov. Phil Scott said Friday he expects to extend his stay-at-home order beyond April 15, when it's currently set to expire.
Vermont officials have also recommended that even asymptomatic people wear masks in public in accordance with recent guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The best way to slow the spread is to practice social distancing, according to the CDC.
Andrea Suozzo contributed data analysis.
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Friday, April 3, 2020
The new cases bring Birchwood's total infection count to 26 residents. It is the second largest known outbreak of COVID-19 in Vermont. At another Queen City nursing home, Burlington Health & Rehabilitation Center, more than 30 staff and residents have tested positive for the disease.
All staff members are also being tested. The remaining results are expected over the weekend. The one coronavirus-positive worker "feels fine," DiMario said.
"We continue to take extreme precautions to protect our residents, their families, and our staff," the statement continued. "Residents are still being closely monitored and screened, no visitors are allowed except at end of life, staff are being screened and receiving temperature checks twice per day. We also continue to be in close contact with the Vermont Department of Health and UVM Medical Center and are following their guidance."
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Vermont health officials on Friday recommended that people wear cloth masks in public, even if they don't have any coronavirus symptoms.
The new protocol comes as the Vermont Department of Health reported 51 new cases of COVID-19, the state's highest single-day jump in positive cases since the outbreak began on March 7. Vermont now has 359 coronavirus cases; 17 people have died.
Vermont health officials instituted the mask guidelines as the federal government debates issuing similar guidance.
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City Councilor Brian Pine (P-Ward 3) and his wife, former school commissioner Liz Curry, were recently hired to manage the covid Recovery Center, an ad hoc operation that will be overseen by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity.
The state is currently negotiating a lease with a hotel in Chittenden County, according to CVOEO executive director Jan Demers. The space will be able to house up to 200 people or families from Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle and Addison counties, along with several staff members, she said.
Eligible patients must have a positive COVID-19 diagnosis and either be homeless or live someplace where they can't self-isolate, such as at a group home, Demers said.
Tags: coronavirus , COVID-19 , Brian Pine , Liz Curry , CVOEO , Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity , Burlington , Jan Demers , Web Only , Image
Thursday, April 2, 2020
True North bills itself as “The other side of Vermont’s News,” and this was certainly another side. The 13-minute video features a voiceover by a YouTube conspiracy theorist who calls herself Dana Ashlie. She cheerfully announces at the top of the video, while strolling outdoors and smacking a ball into a baseball mitt, that citizens have scurried around to investigate the mainstream media's hoopla about people lining up for coronavirus tests and treatment.
Well, game on. Cue the scenes that question media accounts.
“People, look at the testing centers,” an unidentified woman says as her camera spans a makeshift building somewhere with no people and little more than a few empty chairs. “This is where they’re telling you the testing is going on in. Where’s the testing?” Her voice becomes urgent. “They’re empty. They’re abandoned, people. There is no testing going on.”
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That's according to estimates from state modeling data, which the Vermont Department of Health released on Thursday. Based on confirmed COVID-19 cases, the models convey the best, worst and likely scenarios for how the virus could strain the state's health care system.
Overall, the models show that Vermont is on track to avoid the worst possible outcomes during the coronavirus crisis. They also show that social distancing is working: The state's case count was rising at a faster rate until late March, when Gov. Phil Scott issued a "Stay Home, Stay Safe" order, officials said.
"That should be a glimmer of hope for Vermonters that their sacrifices are working," Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, said on the afternoon Zoom call. "It tells us also that they need to keep up those sacrifices and, in fact, double down on them because ... we do know that the worst is still ahead of us."
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The home announced the new cases in a press release Thursday morning.
"Unfortunately, due to privacy regulations we cannot share any additional information about the residents except [to] let you know that each continues to receive the full medical care they need," the release said. "We are in close contact with the Vermont Department of Health and UVMMC and are following their guidance."
Birchwood Terrace, located at 43 Starr Farm Road, is a large nursing home and short-term rehab center in the city’s New North End with 112 current residents. The facility's executive director Alecia DiMario told Seven Days on Wednesday that the initial seven patients were receiving medical care in a separate area of the facility.
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Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Seven residents of the Birchwood Terrace nursing home in Burlington have tested positive for the coronavirus, the center confirmed Wednesday, despite weeks of increasingly stringent steps to keep the disease away.
The first resident tested positive on Monday. Six other positive test results came back Wednesday, while several more are still pending, the center said in a press release. No employees have tested positive so far, executive director Alecia DiMario told Seven Days.
Birchwood Terrace, located at 43 Starr Farm Road, is a large nursing home and short-term rehab center in the city’s New North End with 112 current residents. Those with COVID-19 are receiving medical care in a separate area of the facility, she said.
The source of the exposure has not been identified, DiMario said. The center is working with the University of Vermont Medical Center and state health officials to identify other residents and staff who may have been exposed.
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