Vermont reported 96 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, a smaller number than previous days’ totals, according to the state Department of Health.
At the same time, the state revised its case count for Thursday to 210, up from the 145 cases initially reported when the dashboard went live Thursday morning. Those 210 cases are the highest one-day total so far this summer.
It’s fairly common for the health department to retroactively update case data and deaths. For example, on Wednesday, the state revised its Tuesday total to 184 new cases.
Deaths are often added to the totals reported for previous days because of the time it takes to process death certificates and add the death to the data. On Friday, Vermont added one new death to its data for August, bringing the total number of deaths that month to 18.
Thirty-one people are currently hospitalized with the virus, up from 29 the day before. That includes 11 people in the intensive care unit.
The week ended with at least three school closures because of Covid: Pownal Elementary School, East Montpelier Elementary and Twinfield Union in Plainfield.
Multiple other school districts have reported Covid cases that did not close entire schools or grades, but still affected close contacts of the individual who tested positive. Folsom Educational Center in South Hero, for example, a K-8 public school, had only one positive case but had to send 15% of its student body home, according to the superintendent’s office.
It’s unclear how many cases there were overall in schools, since the health department is not yet releasing school-by-school Covid totals.
