Throughout the pandemic, Chittenden County, the most populous region in the state, has seen major spikes in Covid-19 infections. But on Wednesday, officials had good news to share.
Chittenden County, like much of the state, is seeing a downward trend in Covid-19 infections as more residents are vaccinated.
At an afternoon press conference, Mayor Miro Weinberger said a single dose has been administered to 92% of county residents age 75 and up, 91% in the 60-74 age group, 64% age 50-59, 51% age 35-49 and 29% age 18-34.
At the beginning of April, Chittenden County saw an all-time pandemic high of 106 new cases in one day. One-day case rates have steeply declined since then. Wednesday, 23 new cases were identified, and the current seven-day average is 28.9 cases per day.
“Over the last two to three weeks, we have seen that picture change significantly, and there’s been a fairly steep downward trend,” Weinberger said. “The general direction seems to be very, very positive.”
Weinberger said last week’s crowded gathering on North Beach, primarily of young people, did not seem to raise cases as much as some initially feared.
The city’s Covid-19 wastewater detection system is also mirroring these downward cases trends, said Chief Innovation Officer Brian Lowe.
The city’s north and east wastewater plants are both measuring low levels of detection, Lowe said. However, the main wastewater plant is remaining steady at a relatively high level of Covid-19 detection.
And while cases are overall trending downward, Lowe added that the wastewater system has also determined that the more contagious B.117 Covid-19 variant originally found in England now makes up a majority of the cases the system is identifying — about 75%.
The mayor also announced that he has appointed a new Human Resources director for the city. Kerin Durfee, who serves on the citizen oversight Police Commission, has been appointed to the position, which the City Council also needs to approve. Durfee is currently employed at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain as the director of earned revenues.
