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A pop-up testing site will be open all week after a cluster of Covid-19 cases was identified in Winooski. It was the first cluster in weeks in Vermont, where cases have remained low and stable.
According to Department of Health Commissioner Mark Levine, the small city has been hit with seven recent cases.
“This is not the first cluster of Covid-19 in Vermont. And as we’ve stated up here, we expect it will not be the last,” he said Monday.
“The nature of this virus in any highly communicable disease is, of course, its ability to spread easily from person to person, especially in our more populated areas,” Levine said.
While the state had previously reported fewer than five cases connected with the outbreak, Levine said it took some time for test results to come in.
“They’re all included in our updates over the last number of days, but not at one fell swoop,” he said.
The Department of Health declined to provide any more details about the individuals with positive tests. On Friday, Levine acknowledged Winooski has a higher rate of immigrants and a more diverse population than most Vermont communities and that some of those groups nationwide have had higher rates of infection. But he said he couldn’t discuss the cases because of privacy issues and concerns about retraumatizing anyone.
To respond to the outbreak, the health department coordinated with community partners to set up a pop-up testing site at the O’Brien Community Center in Winooski that will run all week.
“The testing that we’re providing, on a larger basis, is really an extension of what we’re doing statewide. Clearly, when you’ve found a cluster, it’s best to make it convenient at that moment,” Levine said.
The health department has also done contact tracing to identify others at risk, he said. That helped them to assess how big the outbreak could be.
“If we thought this was very, very large, we would obviously be alerted to it,” Levine said.
Clusters of cases, particularly at nursing homes, have been responsible for a disproportionate number of cases and fatalities. More than half of all Covid-19 deaths have occurred in outbreak settings.
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