A number of businesses in Dover have temporarily closed or altered operations after a recent spike in cases left the small town of around 1,100 residents worried about an outbreak.
In the past two weeks, Dover, home of ski resort Mount Snow, has seen 18 new cases of Covid-19, marking a 150% increase in the town’s case count and bringing the total number of cases to 30 since March 2020. Residents have speculated in social media posts and in communications with state officials that the cases have come from out-of-state visitors to the ski resort who haven’t quarantined or obeyed the state’s guidelines.
Dover and Burke, both towns that are home to ski resorts, have experienced increases in cases of Covid-19 in the past two weeks. Burke has seen an uptick from six to 18 cases, marking a 200% increase.
Mount Snow’s parking lot was busy with out-of-state license plates on Monday, but so far Vermont Department of Health officials say it doesn’t look like an outbreak originated at the ski resort. Ben Truman, spokesperson for the department, said most cases were identified as “a close contact to a known case” rather than a new or separate outbreak.
“It’s basically a snapshot of what’s going on everywhere in the state,” he said. “There doesn’t appear to be any common thread, per se, that’s driving those cases.”
There are no known outbreaks associated yet with any ski resorts in the state, Truman said. Resort employees could be testing positive for Covid-19, but so far, there isn’t evidence to suggest they’re contracting the virus at work.
“The equivalent would be, if there’s a student that’s sick, that doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the school,” he said.
Traveling northbound, Mount Snow is one of the first resorts off Interstate 91, making it one of most accessible mountains to skiers from metropolitan areas in Massachusetts and New York. That close proximity appeared to appeal to second and full-time homeowners during the pandemic — sales of single family homes surged in the town this spring, and school enrollment climbed in the fall.
Rep. Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, said she’s heard concern from constituents about both the uptick in cases and the number of out-of-state visitors in Dover.
“This has been a pretty intense issue here,” she said.
When constituents raised concerns about a potential outbreak at Mount Snow, Sibilia contacted the Department of Health and Gov. Phil Scott’s office. Based on her conversations with officials, she believes the cases are coming from community spread, not from the mountain.
“I cannot guarantee you that there’s nothing happening at the mountain,” she said. “But I can guarantee you that I am pressing hard and looking in all of the corners, and everything that I am hearing seems very credible to me, and thus far is not indicating that the mountains are the origin of where people are getting sick.”
Sibilia said she’s heard that some community members have gathered without masks.
Laurie Caplan, a restaurant owner in Dover, temporarily shut the business’s doors the week of Dec. 20 when her husband, Rich, tested positive for Covid-19. She said her family has been extraordinarily careful, and she isn’t sure how her husband could have contracted the virus. Hers and her husband’s symptoms were mild to moderate, she said — the real impact was on her business.
After case counts ticked up in town, Caplan decided to require employees to test negative before coming back to work, closing the restaurant as a result.
“It was a really hard decision,” she said. “This is the busiest two weeks for anybody in the hospitality industry in a resort town in the entire state. And this is when we all kind of bank our money, whether as a business owner or an employee, moving forward for the rest of the year.”
Testing centers booked up, causing a delay in testing results, and Caplan soon realized it would be impossible to open Christmas week. She opened Tuesday, Dec. 29, for takeout only. On New Year’s Eve, Caplan said the restaurant saw a tenth of the business it saw last year — a significant marker for her.
She isn’t sure where the Covid-19 cases are coming from, but not everyone visiting the restaurant has respected the guidelines, she said. She hopes residents and non-residents alike will take precautions as people contract Covid-19 and businesses shutter.
“We’re all hanging on by the skin of our teeth. Everybody has worked very hard to do the right thing in terms of ACCD guidelines. This is a big blow,” she said. “It’s not just being concerned about where Covid is going in the valley. It’s a concern about how we’re all going to make it through.”
