After Thanksgiving, officials and residents held their breath, awaiting two possible outcomes: Either Covid-19 cases would rise exponentially as the result of family gatherings, or cases would remain stable because Vermonters largely abided by the governor’s no-mixing-households mandate.
For Chittenden County, the latter appears to be true.
“It looks like Vermonters did a pretty good job for Thanksgiving,” Stephen Leffler, president of UVM Medical Center, said at a press conference held Wednesday by Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger.
Covid increases were isolated, not community-wide, Leffler said.
“We did see a bump in cases, but really most of the cases were driven by some nursing home outbreaks. In our community members, we haven’t seen huge increases,” he said. “And those numbers are starting to look good. And you know, we’re two weeks out from Thanksgiving tomorrow.”
Chittenden County had its highest one-day case count yet on Dec. 3, with 85. But as of Dec. 9, the one-day case count had dropped to 29. Statewide, cases have remained consistently in the low 100s.
However, at the governor’s press conference on Tuesday, state officials warned that Covid-19 is still very active in Vermont — more than 2,000 active cases have been recorded — and virus spread in the community has led to a sharp increase in cases at long-term care facilities.
Weinberger praised residents for following the state guidelines.
“I think we want a little bit of caution on this to see how the numbers continue to evolve from here,” Weinberger said. “But it is really encouraging to see that once again this community has come together and taken action to mitigate and limit the worst impacts of the spread of this virus.”
While Burlington had detected high levels of Covid-19 RNA in its sewer system after Thanksgiving, more recent readings have shown those levels are beginning to drop off.
“The second or third readings that we saw, they’re not continuing that kind of exponential growth trajectory. They’re at a stable reading,” said Brian Lowe, the city’s chief innovation officer.
Weinberger said the first doses of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine are coming to the state soon and will be distributed first to health care workers and long-term care residents.
Vaccinating residents and staff at Burlington’s 10 long-term care facilities is the city’s first priority, he said. State Health Commissioner Mark Levine told the mayor the vaccine will likely be available on Dec. 21.
Leffler is also optimistic about when the vaccine will be available for people who are not considered to be high-risk.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if most Vermonters who want a dose would have it within — I don’t know this for sure — but between three to four months. I think there’s going to be enough vaccines in Vermont for most of us who want to be vaccinated,” Leffler said.
He said some are questioning the effectiveness of a vaccine that was developed in less that a year. Leffler said the vaccine is a result of modern medicine — it’s been tested on a large number of people and side effects have been minimal. He said the science behind the vaccine is safe.
“The end is in sight,” Leffler said. “If we can get through the holidays, get through what’s going to be a tough winter in terms of staying physically distant, doing our masking, being careful and very thoughtful about what we do, the end is in sight.”
Weinberger also announced the opening of another pop-up testing site in nearby Winooski. Testing will be available this week and next at the O’Brien Community Center, where translation services will also be available.
Testing is continuing daily at 405 Pine St. in Burlington through December and at the North End Studio in Burlington’s North End this Friday and next Friday.
