Vermont reported 101 new Covid cases Wednesday, an increase of more than 30 over the day before, according to Department of Health data.
Two more deaths were also added to the data Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths to 74. Twenty-three people were hospitalized with the virus, including four in the ICU.
The rate of new cases in the state declined in the past week, but that may be the result of low testing over Thanksgiving weekend or other delays in cases appearing in the data. The state performed 3,900 tests on Tuesday, down from more than 10,000 a day in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving, when testing included school staff members and college students.
State officials said Tuesday that they were projecting an increase in cases across the Northeast in the coming weeks, but at a lower rate of increase than in previous predictions. Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, said the data indicated that Vermonters were following Gov. Phil Scott’s ban on multi-household gatherings and similar restrictions.
For the first time, Wednesday’s data also included presumptive positives from antigen testing and contact tracing, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 4,461. The numbers were added retroactively, meaning that the cases were added to previous data when they were tested or uncovered.
That added about 121 presumptive positives to the data, defined as either people with a positive antigen test and symptoms of the virus, or people with a known connection to a case and symptoms of the virus, according to a Department of Health press release.
Despite the statewide rise in cases, the numbers are dropping in Washington County, site of the state’s largest outbreak in November. The county reported only three new cases. The outbreak was triggered in part by activities associated with the Montpelier ice rink.
Chittenden County, the state’s most populous county, reported 55 new cases, more than half of the total. Caledonia and Franklin counties each reported 11 cases.
