Updated at 8:30 p.m.
A flood of Covid vaccine signups by Vermonters 70 and older has caused long wait times and glitches in the state’s website.
Registration opened at 8:15 Tuesday morning. Within 15 minutes, the Vermont Department of Health received 7,000 calls to sign up. By late Tuesday afternoon, nearly 19,000 Vermonters, close to 60% of eligible people in that age group, had signed up for an appointment.
The health department warned of long wait times “as the call center works full bore to schedule appointments.”
“I urge you to remain patient,” said Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, noting that average caller wait times hovered around five minutes, though the wait was somewhat longer when the system was jammed.
The state has offered three ways to sign up: Through the Department of Health, Walgreens and Kinney Drugs. By noon, Kinney Drugs was scheduling appointments more than five weeks out.
Some Vermonters reported technical glitches in online sign-ups; health department spokesperson Ben Truman said the state’s IT staff was working on the “complications.”
“Everyone will get scheduled, and there are enough appointments for all,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine assured people.
So far, about 78,000 Vermonters have received the vaccine, and about half of them have received both doses, Smith said. Half of Vermonters 75 and older have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, including 850 homebound Vermonters who are vaccinated through home health agencies and emergency medical services.
On Tuesday, the University of Vermont Medical Center canceled its vaccination clinic at the Champlain Valley Exposition because of bad weather. State officials vowed that those appointments would be rescheduled within a week. All other Vermont vaccine sites remain open.
Gov. Phil Scott said Vermont’s federal allocation of vaccine doses will continue to rise in the coming weeks.
The federal government will also increase the number of doses it provides to pharmacies, though some governors have expressed concern that the arrangement prevents states from managing the distribution process.
“The pharmacies are out of our control in some respects,” Scott said.
To register for a vaccine appointment or get information on walk-in clinics, visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine or call 855-722-7878.
You will be asked to provide your name, date of birth, address, email (if available), phone number, and health insurance information (if available, but not required).
Cases sink among older Vermonters
While the number of overall cases has stagnated or slowly declined in recent weeks, the number of cases among Vermonters 75 and older has dropped significantly, which could be the reason the state is reporting a large drop in deaths, said Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation.
The state reported 814 cases in the past week, compared to 956 the week before, Pieciak said — an encouraging decline in cases, but not as dramatic as the falling number of cases regionally and nationally.
Throughout the country, cases have fallen below 100,000 a day, and regional cases are down from their latest peak, he said.
“Every state and Quebec has seen improvement compared to last week,” Pieciak said. “This is the first time since November that our regional cases are fewer than 100,000 on a weekly basis. And you can see that we’re also reporting fewer cases than we did back during the spring peak as well.”
In all, regional cases are down 57% from their latest peak, while Vermont cases are down only 34%, according to Pieciak’s presentation.
Bennington and Rutland counties continue to recover from their latest surge, while cases are rising this week in Essex and Franklin counties, Pieciak said.
“Everyone in Vermont should be vigilant and take the public health guidelines seriously,” he said. “But certainly, these four counties where cases are more elevated and the rest of the state should certainly be following the guidance, very closely.”
Levine said there have been some school-related outbreaks in Franklin County, including one in Enosburg, but most cases were tied to community transmission.
“Outbreaks have not been a major feature of this case growth, and very few schools are involved,” he said. “However, one of the school outbreaks may have spawned two secondary small outbreaks on farms.”
‘We are now in a race’
The state reported 53 new Covid cases and one new death on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths to 191, Levine said. The state has 37 people currently hospitalized with the virus.
“It’s clear that we are now in a race, a race to continue to suppress the virus by adhering even more strictly to public health guidance,” he said. “The other participant in the race is the vaccine.”
Pieciak said the number of cases among Vermonters 75 and older has dropped from about 11 cases per day a month ago to about three per day now, coinciding with the beginning of the vaccination of that age group.
The number of deaths per week has also fallen, from a high of 20 in a single week in mid-December to just three per week in the past week.
The state hopes to issue more guidance as soon as Friday in light of the increasing vaccination rate and new CDC guidelines that loosen quarantine rules for vaccinated people, Scott said.
“We’ve been reviewing their recommendations and are working to update our state guidance to reflect these changes, including what it means for vaccinated Vermonters when they are close contact or traveling,” Scott said. “But there are still many details we’re trying to work out. And we know there will be a lot of what ifs that will come as a result.”