Five days after a record-setting one-day total of nearly 600 Covid-19 cases, Vermont’s case rate is now among the highest in the nation.
The state Department of Health reported 222 cases Monday, which may appear low compared to the seven-day average of 357 cases per day. But Mondays tend to have lower case totals because of lower testing numbers. For this Monday, only 3,500 tests were reported, and the seven-day test positivity rate remains elevated at 4.3%.
With that recent average of 357 cases per day, or 57 per 100,000 people, Vermont is now the fifth-highest in the nation for its Covid case rate, according to New York Times data.
Cases nationwide have risen 11% in the past two weeks, The Times reported. Nine of the top 10 states with the highest case rates are cold-weather states, such as Minnesota, North Dakota and Alaska.
Still, Covid hospitalization rates — which generally lag behind case growth — have remained stable in Vermont thus far. On Monday, the state reported 52 people were in Vermont hospitals with the virus, including 11 in intensive care units, in line with the previous weeks’ averages.
Vermont has the eighth-lowest hospitalization rate in the nation, according to The Times. Hospital stays tend to lag behind case metrics as they rise or fall, but Vermont officials have also cited the power of the vaccine at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
The department disclosed one new death in its data over the weekend. In total in Vermont, 18 people have died of the virus so far in November and 394 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic.
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