Updated at 2:10 p.m.
Vermont will begin vaccinating people 75 and older the week of Jan. 25, opening the second phase of the state’s vaccination strategy, officials said at a press conference Friday.
Vermonters who qualify will be able to register online or by phone. Registration details will be announced closer to Jan. 25, according to Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services. Call-ins could get backed up, officials said, so the website is the preferred method for making appointments. If older residents need assistance, Smith asked younger Vermonters to help their loved ones register online.
A bit of a bottleneck is expected in the beginning, which is why the state is urging people to register online, Smith said. About 200 people will be staffing the phones for call-in registrations, with plans to scale up to about 400.
Most of the vaccinations will be handled through state-run clinics and partnerships with health care providers and pharmacies, Smith said. There will also be mobile EMS clinics for homebound Vermonters.
At the current rate of federal distribution of vaccine doses, the state expects it will take six weeks to immunize the first group of 49,000 Vermonters 75 and older, Smith said.
“What we really need is greater quantities of vaccine in the weeks ahead so that we can speed up our efforts,” Smith said. “But we want to set appropriate expectations and communicate clearly where we are and what we expect to avoid the frustration and disappointment we’ve seen in other states.”
The Washington Post reported today that the federal vaccine reserve was already exhausted when the Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded access. The Post said states were anticipating a windfall after federal officials said they would stop holding back second doses. But the approach had already changed, and no stockpile exists.
After people 75 and older, the state will expand eligibility to people 70 and older, then 65 and older, then younger Vermonters with underlying conditions.
Smith said everyone in the 65-and-older population will be vaccinated by the end of winter.
Vermont’s strategy is different from federal guidelines that have urged states to open vaccine eligibility to everyone over 65 and older immediately. Vermont officials believe their “age-banding” approach, starting with the state’s oldest residents, will prevent confusion and chaos.
The goal, Smith said, is to save lives. “The older you are, the greater risk you are at of serious illness and death from coronavirus,” he said.
Age is a big factor
State officials unveiled a chart that showed that death rates are highest among individuals between 75 and 100.
“The older you are, the more vulnerable you are to severe complications and death due to the virus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, about 92% of Vermont’s Covid hospitalizations have been people over the age of 60, and over 80% of deaths have been those over 70,” Gov. Phil Scott said.
The governor said the state continues to struggle with “an incredibly limited supply.”
“We must focus on these populations first,” Scott said. “This will not only reduce the number of deaths, but it will also ease the pressure on our hospitals and health care systems. We believe this is the simplest and easiest to understand, as well as the most efficient and effective way to vaccinate vaccinate Vermonters more quickly.”
People who register for vaccination appointments are urged to keep them. No -shows could cause vaccine spoilage and hurt the state’s effort to immunize as many people as possible.
Vermonters should plan to get their second dose of the vaccine at the same place they got their first dose, Smith said. There will be clinics in every part of the state, with consideration toward reaching rural communities and people of color.
Dr. Mark Levine, the state health commissioner, said education and communication efforts will be targeted toward communities of color.
“[We want to] make sure that we’re engaging the members of their community who are eligible,” he said. Under discussion are locating vaccine clinics within walking distance of neighborhoods and interacting with family members to make sure all members of large households are vaccinated.
High-risk younger people
For the first time, the state announced Friday the conditions that will qualify high-risk younger Vermonters to be vaccinated after the 65-and -over population is finished.
Levine said the following would qualify: Current cancer cases, and people with chronic kidney disease, COPD, a variety of heart conditions, any immunocompromised condition, severe obesity, Type 2 diabetes, Down syndrome, sickle cell disease and pregnancy.
Those are almost all of the conditions the CDC considers high risk, except for people who smoke, which Levine said was excluded because it’s “not really a condition.”
Also excluded are a broader category of conditions that the CDC says might be at increased risk but are not confirmed to be, including asthma and high blood pressure.
People will have to prove Vermont residency to qualify for the vaccine, Smith said, with one exception: If your primary provider is in Vermont. “So if someone lives in the Upper Valley, but their doctor’s in New Hampshire, they should still seek to get a vaccine in Vermont,” he said. Many Vermonters see doctors at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
So far, the state has administered about 35,000 doses to nearly 30,000 people, Smith said.
The plan is to vaccinate all residents of assisted living and residential living facilities for the elderly by the end of January. Health care workers, emergency responders, hospice workers and home health care staff are also on track to be vaccinated by that deadline.
The state has had the capacity to immunize 9,000 people per week.
State approaches 10,000 cases
The state’s test positivity rate is now at about 2.7%. The total number of deaths has risen to 163. About 44 people are now hospitalized and six are in intensive care.
Levine said the state is following 42 Covid outbreaks and the total number of cases is likely to surpass 10,000 next week. Only 11% of cases, however, are associated with outbreaks, he said. Most of the infections are from community transmission.
The highest positivity rate is in Addison County from an outbreak caused by a Christmas gathering at Victory Baptist Church in Vergennes, Levine said.
The state has received a number of complaints about Covid at ski areas, but Levine said that, while there have been “sporadic cases among employees,” no outbreaks have been associated with a resort.
“We are not seeing cases of transmission from skiing itself, or from social activities related to skiing,” he said.
• Correction: An earlier version of this report had an incorrect number for how many people are hospitalized.
