Coronavirus cases at Vermont’s long-term facilities are once again on the rise, data from the Department of Health shows.
Those cases have resulted in “a handful” of hospitalizations, Health Commissioner Mark Levine said at a press conference Tuesday.
The 120 infections reported across Vermont’s long-term facilities this week are far fewer than the peak of 1,200 cases the department documented in March.
Although most residents in these facilities have received at least one dose of the vaccine and many attained full immunity, 80 infections involved residents, Levine said.
Levine previously attributed long-term care facility cases to the highly contagious Delta variant and to waning vaccine immunity among seniors and health care workers, the first two groups to receive the vaccine. The vaccines remain effective in averting hospitalizations, he added.
The Cedar Hill Skilled Nursing Facility in Windsor reported the most cases, with 29. Two facilities — Maple Lane Nursing Home in Barton and Ethan Allen Residence in Burlington — reported 24 cases each. The health department listed Harbor Village at Burlington and Mansfield Place at Essex as having active infections but did not specify the number of cases to protect people’s privacy.
An additional 16 cases are scattered in facilities that have not reported outbreaks. (The health department defines an outbreak as three or more related cases involving residents or staff in a 14-day period.)
The outbreak data comes as federal regulators work to develop a policy that would require universal staff vaccinations for more than 15,000 nursing homes nationwide.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have encouraged health care workers in these facilities to get vaccinated immediately. Some Vermont facilities — including Genesis Health’s four nursing homes in the state — have said they have already implemented universal vaccination.
Gov. Phil Scott said Tuesday that his administration will impose universal vaccination requirements in state prisons, effective Sept. 1. A similar policy is under discussion at the state psychiatric hospital in Berlin and at the Vermont Veterans’ Home.
