BURLINGTON — At a Friday afternoon press conference, Mayor Miro Weinberger warned residents that Chittenden County’s Covid-19 case count is heading in the wrong direction.
Over the past week, there have been 62 new Covid-19 cases reported in Chittenden County, with 28 in the last two days. The county currently has the highest number of cases in the state.
“What this says to me, very clearly, is that we are in one of the highest risk moments that we’ve been in since the start of the pandemic in March,” Weinberger said.
The county is averaging 13 new cases a day, well above the average for most of the pandemic. Vermont has been lauded as one of the most successful states in the nation for Covid-19 containment. But Weinberger warned that could change quickly if residents don’t continue social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large groups.
“We know that this virus is opportunistic,” Weinberger said. “It will seize any gap that we give it, and it will grow very rapidly if we let it.”
Officials have been able to identify through contact tracing that some of the new cases are stemming from out-of-state travel and personal gatherings, Weinberger said. He reminded residents of the mandatory quarantine that Vermonters must undergo if they travel to another state with case counts above the required threshold case.
The state Department of Health on Friday asked Vermonters to limit gatherings to no more than 10 people. Travel restrictions have tightened dramatically as well. Only six counties — one in Pennsylvania, one in New York, and four in Maine — have case counts low enough to allow free travel. Everywhere else in the Northeast is off-limits without a two week quarantine.
Weinberger encouraged Burlington residents to get tested or quarantine if they recently attended a large social gathering over Halloween weekend. He reminded Burlingtonians that the city has restricted social gatherings. No more than 25 people can gather outside and no more than 10 can gather indoors.
Those restrictions were passed by the City Council in August, and Weinberger said he will ask the city council this Monday to extend the restrictions through March.
The University of Vermont has also seen six new cases over the past week. Thirty students have been isolated in quarantine, as first reported by the Vermont Cynic. Weinberger said the UVM outbreak has not substantially affected the overall cases Chittenden County is currently seeing.
As a result of the new cases, Wendy Keonig, UVM’s director of federal and state relations, said the university has suspended its guest policy. Only roommates are now allowed in personal spaces on campus.
Koenig said she did not know how the positive cases originated at UVM. The university is using contact tracing to determine the source of the cases.
