Vermont reported 72 cases of Covid Wednesday, breaking the previous record for the most Covid cases reported in a single day, according to data from the Department of Health.
Gov. Phil Scott has directed the State Emergency Operations Center to prepare for the coming surge, according to a statement released Wednesday. That includes re-deploying field hospital sites in case hospitals are filled to capacity with Covid patients.
“I understand that Vermonters feel fatigued from the pandemic, its impact on all of us and the sacrifices it has required,” Scott said in a statement.
The cases reported Wednesday were the highest daily number since April. They brought the state’s total case count to 2,535, with 59 deaths.
Scott said Vermonters must continue to follow state health guidelines like wearing masks and staying six feet apart.
“We also have to be smart about how many people we come in contact with and work together to limit that number, so we can slow the spread now, protect our neighbors, keep our kids in school and keep our economy open,” he said in the statement.
That record comes a day after officials announced a change in the state’s travel map, which means everyone coming to Vermont must quarantine for 14 days or get a negative test after seven days.
They also expressed concern about Covid-19 case totals in nearby states. On Friday, the state recommended limiting social gatherings to 10 people.
The latest wave of the virus began with an outbreak at an ice rink in Montpelier. That outbreak now stands at a least 125 cases, officials reported Tuesday.
That outbreak may be the reason Washington County reported the most cases, with 19. Rutland County, the site of a nursing home outbreak, was the source of 11 of the cases reported Wednesday.
At the Rutland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, which publicly reported an outbreak of nine cases Tuesday, officials said the number had risen to 12 Wednesday.
Nine residents and three staff members now have the coronavirus, the nursing home said, up from an initial figure of eight residents and one staff member.
The Rutland facility has scheduled building-wide testing for Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
At a press conference Tuesday, Dr. Mark Levine, head of the Department of Health, said Vermonters needed to be more cautious as the state faces another surge.
“The fact is our entire region is in danger from the surge of Covid cases happening right now; it’s very clear that things will not improve anytime soon,” Levine said.
But the state also has other areas of community spread. Levine said Tuesday that the department was monitoring 20 different outbreaks in 63 situations.
Vermont’s rising case levels are a reflection of the surrounding Northeast, which have reported a 34% increase in cases, according to numbers presented by state officials Tuesday. Mike Pieciak, head of the Department of Financial Regulation, said experts predicted cases to rise another 105% in the Northeast and 79% nationally in the next six weeks.
How Vermont is preparing its health care system
In March, the state set up surge sites as a way to prepare for a rise in cases that could overwhelm hospitals. But Vermont’s hospitalizations at their peak remained below the predicted worst-case scenarios, and the state reduced those sites in May.
At the time, officials said those operations could be set up again in 48 hours if needed.
Now Scott has directed the state’s emergency preparations team, in partnership with the National Guard, to reopen those sites.
The surge sites include a northern operation facility at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction with a 400-bed capacity, according to a press release. That site had 50 beds open this summer, but now will reopen 100 more beds.
Another 50-bed field hospital trailer near Rutland is also reopening, according to the release.
How does today compare to before?
The previous record for a single day of Covid cases was on April 3, when the state reported 70 cases in a single day.
In one sense, Vermont’s current surge in cases compares favorably: The state is testing far more people than it was then. The seven-day test positivity rate for the virus stands at 0.8%, compared to more than 10% around that time in the spring.
The state performed roughly 600 PCR tests on April 3, compared to more than 2,000 on Nov. 9. Most of those test results would come out a few days later.
That suggests today’s 72 cases are a far better measure of the true level of virus across the population than the 70 cases reported in April. Levine had said in previous months that it’s unknown how many people in Vermont have antibodies from the early stages of the virus, before the pandemic was well-tracked.
There’s another difference between November and April: where the virus is spreading. A higher percentage of the cases in early April were tied to facility outbreaks, particularly in long-term care and correctional facilities.
Some of today’s cases are likely tied to the Rutland nursing home outbreak, but officials have previously attributed higher numbers to community outbreaks, and organizations like schools and colleges.
Who contracts the virus could impact mortality. The majority of deaths attributed to the virus were in health settings in an outbreak, according to the Department of Health’s weekly analysis of the virus.
But the number of people hospitalized for the virus is rising. Right now, 14 people are hospitalized for the virus, while six are in the ICU.
That’s the highest number of hospitalizations since early May, although far below the peak of 35 hospitalizations in April, state health department data shows.
Kevin O’Connor contributed reporting to this story.
