BURLINGTON — Vermonters excited for Thanksgiving strolled down Church Street in the brisk Burlington weather Saturday, despite the recent uptick in Covid cases statewide.
The Vermont Department of Health had reported 461 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, lowering last week’s case average to 345 cases per day. But while cases have gradually decreased since the record peak of 595 new cases seen on Nov. 10, the average remains higher than what was recorded before that single-day spike.
In addition to the surge in cases, the state also reported 62 hospitalizations for the virus, marking the highest number of Covid-19 patients in Vermont hospitals since February when 65 hospitalizations were recorded.
The increase in both the number of cases and hospitalizations represents a steady uptick from the 58 people hospitalized as of Nov. 17, and 44 hospitalized as of Nov. 13. Fifteen patients were in intensive care units as of Friday.
But even with growing concerns over the recent Covid surge, Vermonters are still largely keeping their Thanksgiving plans, albeit with some precautions.
Ian Parker, 36, from Burlington, said he and his family in Vergennes are still planning on having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, just on a smaller scale than usual.
“Everyone is vaccinated and will be testing before going,” Parker said. ”Normally we’d have a big family thing and people would stay over but we’re just doing dinner as a smaller thing this year because of Covid.”
Like Parker and his family, Colleen Voner, 24, and Garrett Rockwell, 28, from Glover, still plan on celebrating as long as they follow a few preventive measures.
“I’m going over to my boyfriend’s family’s (house) for Thanksgiving in Burlington,” Voner said. “But we’re going to take rapid tests before we go, so that’s going to be one of the Covid protocols we follow.”
Rockwell shared that he’d be attending a “Friendsgiving” with just three or four people total instead of a larger party, with everyone planning to get tested ahead of time as well.
The Department of Financial Regulation released data last week on the demographics of recent Covid cases, showing that the median age for a breakthrough case so far in November is 45 while the median age of cases among those who are not fully vaccinated was only 23.
[Looking for data on breakthrough cases? See our reporting on the latest available statistics.]
Officials cited the breakthrough cases among older people as an example of the protective factor of the vaccines, as they prevent a majority of people from getting sick, leaving mostly older Vermonters as victims because of their increased susceptibility to severe illness.
The Department of Financial Regulation’s report also showed that unvaccinated Vermonters are 3.9 times more likely to get Covid-19 than vaccinated Vermonters, making vaccination an important step to take if Vermonters want to celebrate with loved ones.
While Burlington locals Lauren Link, 28, and Susanne Schiavoni, 59, are planning to head out of state to see Link’s in-laws, Mina Goeler, 48, and Art Henry, 51, of Boston, came to Vermont specifically for the holiday. Both pairs said their vaccination status — and in Henry and Goeler’s case, recent booster status — is keeping them from being too concerned about the surge in cases.
“We’re comfortable,” Henry said. “We’re probably just going to hang out downtown for some music and good food and great shopping. We’re really not concerned about it.”
But although most Vermonters appear to be working around the recent surge by getting vaccinated or testing beforehand in order to have as close to a pre-Covid Thanksgiving as possible, some still want to err on the side of caution this holiday season.
Grey Johnson, 38, of Burlington, and his partner said they were just going to stay home and relax.
“We’re just going to spend the day together around the house, which is different than usual and partially because of the way things are going with the pandemic,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to stay safe, to stay healthy.”
