Tuesday, October 26, 2021
The listening sessions are scheduled to take place this Wednesday, October 27, and Thursday, November 4. The events are part of the state’s investigation following a Seven Days cover story in early September that found patients sometimes have to wait up to a year to be seen by specialists within the University of Vermont Health Network.
Tags: Vermont , University of Vermont Health Network , Green Mountain Care Board , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 25, 2021
The group issued its plea during a press conference at the Statehouse on Monday that featured comments from Democratic and Progressive lawmakers, health policy researchers, school nurses and parents of young children.
They argued that the Scott administration's departure from proven mitigation measures has allowed the highly infectious Delta variant to run rampant through the state, disrupting schools and pushing case counts to unprecedented heights.
“While these numbers keep soaring, the administration keeps doing nothing,” said Rep. Tanya Vyhovsky (P-Essex), a school social worker, noting that Vermont at one point this month was reporting the largest increase in the country in cases over the previous 14 days. “This points to the need for swift and decisive action. Doing what we are doing is clearly not working.”
Tags: Gov. Phil Scott , Pandemic response , State of emergency , COVID , Surge , Web Only , Image
Friday, October 22, 2021
In previous school guidance, a close contact was someone who was within six feet or less of an infectious person for 15 minutes or more.
Tags: contact tracing , quarantine , Vermont Agency of Education , Dan French , American Academy of Pediatrics , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
The University of Vermont Health Network has released a plan to confront the years-old problem of long waits for medical appointments, offering a mix of new and old initiatives.
Seven Days detailed the problem in a cover story last month, recounting how patients are waiting months, and in some cases more than a year, for certain specialty care at the state's largest hospital, the University of Vermont Medical Center. The state is now investigating the issue and says it hopes to publish a report by year's end.
The health network's plan says it will reduce these backlogs by addressing staffing shortages, increasing patient capacity and using technology to create a more efficient system.
A number of the items on the plan have been in the works for years. Many call on the health network to spend more money. And, according to health network CEO and president John Brumsted, none represents a “silver bullet.”
“There's not a time where we're going to flip the switch and access is going to be totally fixed," Brumsted said at a press conference on Tuesday. "All of these things will incrementally improve access to care, over the coming days, months in the next couple of years.”
Tags: UVM Health Network , Wait Times , Patient Access Plan , Vermont , Web Only , Image
During the administration's weekly press conference Tuesday, both Gov. Phil Scott and Health Commissioner Mark Levine said they didn't think it would make a difference if the state were to require people to wear masks in indoor public places. Currently, the state recommends people do so.
“Look at who would abide by a mandate,” Levine said. People who believe that masks and vaccinations are important in controlling the pandemic would follow the rules, he said. Others probably wouldn’t.
“So it’s very challenging,” said Levine. “We know that masks are effective. There’s no question about that, even though people seem to be newly raising that question again.”
Scott agreed.
“I don't think my saying it or us mandating that is going to get one single person to wear a mask that doesn't want to wear a mask,” he said. A mandate, he said, would distract people from focusing on managing the pandemic response.
“It would just create one more controversy,” he said.
Tags: Phil Scott , Mark Levine , mask mandate , Web Only , Image
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Seven Days detailed the problem of long wait times for medical appointments in a cover story last month, recounting how patients are waiting up to a year for certain specialty care at the state's largest hospital, the University of Vermont Medical Center. The state is now investigating the issue and says it hopes to share its findings by the end of the year.
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation's announcement on Thursday highlights several online consumer tools that help people find new doctors when the ones they seek out initially have extended wait times.
Tags: Wait Times , Vermont , Hospitals , Specialty and Primary Care , Resources , PSA , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
But finding staff for the work will test school districts already stretched thin by a pandemic that surged to its second deadliest month in September. Education Secretary Dan French acknowledged that, but nevertheless expressed optimism that it was better than the alternative — busloads of kids in quarantine following possible exposure.
“We have a lot of logistical issues to solve,” French said Tuesday during Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly press conference. “[Yet] I can’t help but think this is going to be the solution that really strikes the appropriate balance between keeping kids safe but also keeping kids in school and their education progressing.”
As of October 3, there had been 651 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases connected to Vermont schools since the beginning of the academic year, resulting in significant loss of instruction time for students, French said.
Tags: COVID-19 , testing , schools , Gov. Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
One of the programs, dubbed "test to stay," would provide a new option for unvaccinated students who had close contact with a person with COVID-19. Instead of quarantining for up to 14 days, these students would be offered rapid tests each day before entering school, until seven days after their last known exposure.
A similar program is in use in Massachusetts, Education Secretary Dan French said at the governor's weekly COVID-19 press briefing.
Tags: COVID-19 , Phil Scott , Dan French , Vermont K-12 Schools , Test to Stay , COVID-19 testing , Close Contacts , Quarantine , Web Only , Image
Friday, September 24, 2021
Vermont has opened registration to those 80 and older who are eligible for a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The state's announcement on Thursday came hours after an advisory group within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared the jabs for people 65 and older. Later, after midnight Friday morning, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that boosters would also be available to younger people at higher risk of contracting the disease because of underlying health conditions or their jobs, such as health care workers.
Walensky’s decision aligns with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which authorized emergency use of the vaccine for similar groups, including people who live in congregant settings, such as those in prison.
Later Friday morning, the state said it would open registration on October 1 to those between the ages of 18 and 64 who have underlying medical conditions.
The state, though, is waiting for further CDC guidance "on what occupational or institutional settings at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure should be eligible for booster shots." More information is expected next week.
Registration in Vermont is opening by age group. Those 80 and above could sign up on Friday morning; 75 and up can do so on Monday; 70 and up on Wednesday; and 65 and up on Friday, October 1. The Vermont Department of Health is setting up clinics to administer the jabs, which are also available at pharmacies and from health care providers. More information is available here.
Only those who have received their two-dose course of the Pfizer shot are eligible for the third booster shot, though “it is expected” that Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will receive federal clearance for boosters in the coming weeks, the state said in a Thursday night press release. The third shots are intended for people who received a second dose at least six months ago.
“Even though COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States are highly effective, a booster dose gives your body extra protection,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine said in the statement. “Getting vaccinated – and receiving a booster shot when you are eligible – is especially important as the world continues to face the Delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.”
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Thursday, September 23, 2021
But less than a month into this school year, the two pre-K-6 North Country Supervisory Union schools are facing a different reality. Amid mounting COVID-19 cases, Derby Elementary School, which has more than 450 students, shifted to fully remote learning for all students on September 16. Nearby Newport City Elementary, with around 325 students, made the decision on Wednesday to go remote as well.
In an email Thursday, Vermont Health Department spokesperson Katie Warchut said the cases in Newport have been classified as an outbreak, which means there are three or more cases with known connections in the educational setting. The Derby situation, which involves more cases and is more complex, is still under investigation, "but there appear to be multiple clusters of cases that are linked at this time," Warchut wrote.
Derby Elementary principal Stacey Urbin said that since the beginning of the school year, there have been 35 cases of COVID-19 in students and staff who were infectious while in school, and nine cases in people who were not infectious while in school. The overwhelming majority of those cases were in children, Urbin said.
RoseAnna Cyr, Derby Elementary’s school counselor and a parent of two children at the school, described the situation as “a rude reminder” that after a year and a half of keeping coronavirus under control in their community, things are not back to normal quite yet.
Tags: Orleans County , Newport , Derby Line , Dan French , Vermont Agency of Education , North Country Supervisory Union , Web Only , Image