Vermont reported 377 new Covid-19 cases Friday — far fewer than Thursday’s record-setting total, but far higher than the average from the past week.
The state retroactively revised Thursday’s total up from 487 cases to 498 cases, the highest one-day total during the pandemic. Friday’s case count is the second-highest total. Together, they raised the seven-day average to 265 cases per day.
Health officials on Thursday noted the increased case count corresponded with an increased rate of testing, and Gov. Phil Scott issued a statement noting that the “test positivity rate of 2.7% is about what we’ve been seeing on average.”
Still, he cautioned that “if we stayed at this level of cases, based on our current hospitalization rate, there is potential to see the number of people currently hospitalized increase to over 80, which would be a significant strain on the system.”
Forty-five people are also currently in the hospital with the virus, including 16 people in intensive care units. The department disclosed three new deaths in its data, for a total of 383 deaths during the pandemic.
Department releases breakthrough data
In his statement issued on Thursday, Scott responded to record-setting case numbers with a plea: “We need Vermonters to think about what they can do to protect those at risk of hospitalization and deaths.”
First on his list to combat the virus, written in bold, was a recommendation that Vermonters get vaccinated. “This pandemic is being driven by the unvaccinated,” he said in the statement.
The state doesn’t release day-to-day data on how many people getting sick are unvaccinated, so it’s not possible to find out the vaccination status of Thursday and Friday’s cases.
But the latest department report, based on the last two weeks of October, shows that unvaccinated people continue to account for the majority of Covid cases and hospitalizations — although vaccinated people are still reporting some cases.
That data shows that not-fully-vaccinated Vermonters have been about four times more likely to get sick, four times more likely to be hospitalized and twice as likely to die of the virus than fully vaccinated people in recent weeks.
In total, vaccinated Vermonters had about 1,100 cases of Covid, 29 hospitalizations and 13 deaths in the past two weeks, out of a vaccinated population of nearly 470,000 people.
By comparison, the 176,000 unvaccinated Vermonters reported nearly 1,800 cases, 48 hospitalizations and nine deaths. (Although they had fewer deaths this week than vaccinated Vermonters, unvaccinated Vermonters still had a higher chance of dying based on how many of them there are. Vermont has 2.6 times as many vaccinated people as unvaccinated.)
Data released earlier this week from the Department of Financial Regulation also suggests that breakthrough cases — that is, Covid cases in vaccinated people — have slightly different demographics than cases in unvaccinated Vermonters.
The average age of a person being hospitalized with a breakthrough case is just over 70 years old, while unvaccinated patients are on average 55 years old. Covid infections and fatalities also tend to be older for vaccinated Vermonters.
It’s hard to say how much of that difference is influenced by the fact that older Vermonters have a higher vaccination rate. However, Department of Financial Regulation Commissioner Mike Pieciak said Tuesday that it suggests unvaccinated Vermonters are more vulnerable at a younger age.
He said it also suggested that older and high-risk Vermonters should get a booster shot if they haven’t already.
Vermonters 18 and older are eligible for a booster now, based on how long it’s been since their last shot. Children ages 5 to 11 are also newly eligible for the vaccine. Both can register for a shot through the Department of Health website.
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