The Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Committee approved a Scott administration plan Friday to direct $8.5 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to an expanded testing program, including new pop-up sites and more regular testing for teachers and school staff.
The money comes from unused funds returned by state agencies that didn’t need the money or were constrained by federal guidelines from using it.
The Agency of Human Services told the panel it would offer more on-demand testing for Vermonters and would do more surveillance testing, where people are tested regularly to assess the spread of Covid-19.
Vermont’s Covid-19 case count is rising rapidly. The state Department of Health reported 146 new cases of the virus on Friday with one new death, bringing the total death count to 62. There have been 3,459 cases of the virus in the state, the Health Department said.
Covid cases in Barre City and Barre Town doubled in just a week, a sign of Washington County’s outsized rise in the latest wave of the pandemic, state data shows.
The increase began in October and was linked to an outbreak from an ice rink in Montpelier. That outbreak hit numerous schools, workplaces and St. Michael’s College before topping out at about 124 cases, state officials said at a press conference Friday.
But Washington County continued to have the highest number of new cases among Vermont’s 14 counties in recent weeks. Washington County has had 351 cases in the past 14 days, compared to 245 in the state’s most populous county, Chittenden County. And the number of Covid cases in Vermont is expected to rise about 50% in the next six weeks, officials said Tuesday.
Jenny Samuelson, deputy secretary at AHS, told the Joint Fiscal Committee Friday that the $8.5 million would help make testing available seven days a week, and would enable the testing of all teachers and school staff members across Vermont, and then to test 25% of them every week through December. The goal is to use the money to test 30,000 people.
“Currently we know we are in a situation where we are seeing a significant increase in the total number of cases we have,” she said. “Testing is an important component of that response.”
Samuelson also said the use of a new contractor would reduce turnaround time for the tests to a relatively short 24 to 48 hours. Some of the other testing available in the state doesn’t yield results for as long as three to five days.
“So far we are seeing those as accurate and often faster,” she said. “Current turnaround time delays we’ve seen has to do with sending to alternative out-of-state labs that have significant other pressures.”
The tests will cost about $50 each, significantly less than the tests provided by the Mayo Clinic, which are $150 each, said Samuelson. “$50 is the least expensive we’ve found around the PCR test so far.”
“I am a little surprised there is no volume discount for tests,” said Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden. “I guess that’s what happens in a pandemic with limited sellers.”
The money for the tests is part of Vermont’s $1.25 billion share of federal CARES Act money. It was originally allocated to Vermont agencies through more than 100 programs set up since the Covid-19 pandemic closed down businesses in March. Leftover money is now being reallocated in a process that will continue into December.
