Vermont has had a total of 38 positive cases of Covid among students returning to college, a rock-bottom positivity rate of 0.09% of the 42,000 tests administered, according to a presentation at Gov. Phil Scott’s press conference Friday.
Officials said they believe the final total of “Phase 1” of college reopening, the return to campus, is good news.
“We are the safest college place to go to school and also the safest place for our communities that are hosting colleges in America,” said Richard Schneider, former Norwich University president and the head of Vermont’s college reopening team.
It has now been roughly two weeks since college classes began in Vermont, past the two-week window for new Covid cases to appear among students coming from Vermont and out-of-state.
If Vermont is able to curb the spread of the virus in its college students, it may prove an outlier compared to campuses around the country with outbreaks and social distancing violations. National data from the New York Times has logged 88,000 cases at 1,190 colleges, although that total may be an undercount due to haphazard reporting systems.
There are also some early signs that cases are increasing in college towns where the flagship university has a large outbreak. USA Today reports that 19 of the 25 “hottest” outbreaks in the country are in college-student-heavy areas.
By contrast, the Vermont Department of Health reported 30 cases in the past week, another week of decline from the brief peak of 52 cases for the week of August 20. Not all college student cases would be counted in that total, since students also got tested in their home states before coming to campus.
Asked why there could be such a low positivity rate among students coming in, Department of Financial Regulation Commissioner Michael Pieciak said Vermont’s students mostly come from the Northeast, which has a lower case rate than the South or Midwest at the moment.
Officials wouldn’t break down the cases by college, saying they didn’t have the data on hand. But VTDigger has been tracking each college’s case count by visiting college websites and Covid dashboards.
VTDigger found 44 cases as of September 11. It’s not clear why that total is higher, but it could be due to a delay in the state’s data, a slightly different definition of a case, or the many different ways that colleges report the data to the public.
The University of Vermont has the highest case total so far, with 15 cases among students in Burlington and eight cases from tests in the students’ home states.
Schneider said that colleges in Vermont would look very different going into the fall: No large gatherings, which could hurt the local economy and college fundraising.
“There’s no parents’ weekend, there’s no homecomings,” he said. “There’s no large symposiums — we’re going to be doing a lot of that online — or sports.”
But he said in-person college experiences were invaluable for the students. He read a note from a student in Bennington who said for international, first-generation or low-income students, being in school was so much more than academics.
“‘It’s security,’” Schneider quoted. “‘It’s about having a safe place, having a room and having food. It’s a privilege to be here and to be in person. And that’s not something I or my friends want to risk in any way.’”
On Friday, Scott announced “it probably comes as no surprise” that he would extend the state of emergency again until Oct. 15. The declaration “allows us to manage and continue to suppress this virus, and make sure supports for workers and families remain available, things like unemployment benefits and the eviction moratorium.”
During the press conference, Dr. Mark Levine, commissioner of the Department of Health, said he was carefully considering the latest buzz about a Covid vaccine.
“The Vermont Health Department is keeping a close watch on the vaccine development process, to be sure that we can trust that politics do not trump science,” he said.
Levine said the state has a vaccine planning team that has been working to make sure the vaccine goes out to Vermonters “quickly and equitably.”
Pharmaceutical companies and FDA officials have recently come forward with pledges to make sure that vaccines are held to a process that respects science, he said.
Gov. Phil Scott ended the press conference with a mention of the 19th anniversary of September 11, calling for Americans to remember the way we came together during that time.
He teased a potential major guest for Tuesday’s press conference, saying that they would release more details about who and what once the details are finalized.
