The next stage of Vermont’s age-banding vaccination strategy will open this Thursday to people 60 and older.
The state is also planning ahead, aiming to open vaccination registration to Vermont’s entire adult population by mid-April. Officials said at a press conference Tuesday that 179,600 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The state will receive an additional 5,000 allocation in the coming week from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson on top of the regularly rising number of doses, said Gov. Phil Scott, and the pace of Vermont vaccinations will hinge on how much the state receives from the federal government.
It’s also possible that by April, Vermonters may be able to choose which vaccine they can take, said Dr. Mark Levine, commissioner of the Department of Health.
“And if there are people that have a higher priority because they can’t get any other vaccine, we certainly need to take that into account,” he said. “And we’ve had discussions actually as recently as a few hours ago regarding that.”
Vaccinations seem to be having a positive effect on the state’s cases and hospitals among Vermonters 70 and older, most of whom have gotten the vaccine.
“We continue to see the favorable impact of vaccination, with our median age of Covid-19 infected Vermonters falling to 29 years old,” said Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation.
But the data for the rest of the state has some concerning trends. Vermont’s case rate ticked up again this week, according to the state’s weekly report.
“The first real warm weather in sunshine is always more than welcome after our long Vermont winter, but this feels especially energizing and hopeful after long months of, for some, isolation,” Levine said. “When paired with all the good news about our progress and vaccination, it’s easy to feel like the end of the pandemic is near. But I have to caution that, though we know changes are coming to life as we’ve known it in the past year, they’re not here quite yet.”
The Northeast region’s Covid cases also rose about 10% this week, compared to about 3% in the rest of the country.
But even as cases rise or remain steady in much of the state, the number of deaths and hospitalizations seem to be dropping, led by the case decline in Vermont’s older population.
Levine said now that the state’s oldest Vermonters have been vaccinated, leading to a 75% drop in Covid cases, one leading concern is the possibility of long-haul Covid among younger people.
The illness, which he said “we still have much more to learn about,” can lead to chronic feelings of fatigue and brain fog, among others. While the state has no numbers yet on long-haul Covid cases, it’s a major concern, Levine said, and it’s been called the largest mass disabling event in a long time.
He urged all Vermonters to continue following basic guidance, such as wearing masks, social distancing and getting tested.
“I want you to get outside and get exercise and enjoy moments together, but do so safely,” he said.
How effective are the vaccines? Levine said just 25 people among the nearly 180,000 who have received at least the first dose of the vaccines have come down with Covid, and none of those 25 were hospitalized or died.
Smith defends sharing comments
Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, said his comments last Friday on the possibility of inmate coronavirus transmission through illicit sharing of medication were based on his best assessment of breaking news at the time. The question involved a Covid-19 outbreak at the Northern State Correctional Facility that has produced more than 160 cases since Feb. 25.
On Tuesday, Smith said the Newport prison still has 33 cases among inmates, with one hospitalized.
On Friday, Smith had said that one route of Covid transmission could be that inmates were passing along medically assisted treatment pills from their mouth to others. Experts said there’s not a lot of evidence that’s happening.
“I said it was a theory, and a working theory; I said it could be incorrect,” he said. “Obviously there are people that feel very strongly that we shouldn’t be looking at that theory, and that they have their opinion. I was just expressing what we were doing, and looking at the various avenues out there, and again I cautioned everyone that this could be incorrect.”
He said there may never be confirmation of that theory, due to uncertainty around the transmission of Covid. He had also suggested another working theory Friday, that corrections officers could have carried the virus into the prison.
