Vermont reported 112 new Covid-19 cases and two new deaths on Friday.
According to the Vermont Department of Health, 26 people are hospitalized with the virus, up from 21 on Thursday. Twelve of those people are in intensive care, and three more are hospitalized with a suspected case.
Thursday’s case total was retroactively increased to 173, from 169 initially reported.
One death was reported Friday in the 70-79 age group and one in the 50-59 age group. The state has reported 10 deaths from Covid-19 in August, up from two in July. Total deaths in Vermont during the pandemic now number 270.
The seven-day average test positivity rate is 2.8%.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, community transmission is considered “substantial” or “high” in 11 of Vermont’s 14 counties: Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle, Orleans, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor. The agency recommends universal indoor masking, regardless of vaccination status, in these counties.
Six of them are in the most severe category, indicating more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days: Addison, Bennington, Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle and Orleans counties.
The state’s vaccine dashboard, also updated Friday, shows 85.2% of eligible Vermonters have received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine. The state reported 434,412 Vermonters, or 67.6% of the total population, are fully vaccinated.Daily updates from the health department do not include demographic data about hospitalizations, but health department spokesperson Ben Truman confirmed Friday that no children were hospitalized with Covid-19 in Vermont. The department does not provide information about the vaccination status of daily new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
