Updated at 4:29 p.m.
Vermont reported 219 new Covid-19 infections Friday, the third-highest daily total so far in the latest surge.
It also revised its record-shattering total for Thursday from 314 cases to 329. The Department of Health said Thursday that that day’s numbers were artificially high due to a computer glitch that delayed case reporting, but the department could not immediately say how many of those cases were new.
It was not immediately clear how many of the 219 cases reported Friday were also a result of the glitch, which could again paint a misleading picture of the state’s current Covid rates.
Andrea DeLaBruere, executive director of the Agency of Human Services, said in a statement Friday that officials had tracked the error to Ellkay, an IT vendor for the Broad Institute, a Massachusetts lab with which the state contracts.
During a meeting Friday morning with Ellkay representatives, state officials learned the error came from an added column in the company’s data, DeLaBruere said. The problem, which began Sept. 9, slowed the pace of reporting to state systems.
“They did not notice the problem because the higher volumes of tests masked the slowdown,” DeLaBruere said in the statement. Ellkay is putting new systems in place to monitor the program from now on.
Ellkay learned of the problem around the same time earlier this week from officials in Vermont, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The state is still trying to figure out how many of the tests from Thursday’s and Friday’s case totals came from the backlog, she said.
If most of the cases were within the past week, it would indicate that the weekly total is still high — a record-breaking 1406 cases, compared with 975 cases the week before.
But if the delayed cases were initially detected over a longer period of time, that would suggest that Vermont may not be reaching record rates.
September is already on track to exceed August in Covid deaths. Vermont reported 19 such deaths in August, according to the Department of Financial Regulation. Two deaths were added to the data on Friday, bringing September’s total to 18.
That’s still far fewer than the record-breaking 71 Covid deaths last December, when long-term care facilities were overwhelmed with outbreaks and holidays led to a statewide rise in cases. Overall, 296 people have died in the pandemic in Vermont.
Forty-one people are currently hospitalized with the virus, according to the Department of Health, including 12 who are in the ICU. That’s an uptick from 10 people in the ICU on Thursday.
Covid and non-Covid ICU patients have been straining Vermont's hospitals for weeks now. University of Vermont Medical Center spokesperson Annie Mackin said its ICU had reached 91% capacity as of Thursday, although she noted that this number fluctuates.
The state is on the verge of hitting 2 million tests conducted so far in the pandemic. The rate of testing has gone up in recent weeks as college students return and the Delta surge drives people to get tested.
Lola Duffort contributed reporting to this story.
