Updated at 3:51 p.m.
Gov. Phil Scott and the Vermont Legislature worked together Monday to pass a bill allowing municipalities to enact mask mandates. But it appears that cooperation was short-lived.
At a press conference Tuesday, Scott criticized 17 Democratic senators for passing a resolution that called for Scott to impose stronger measures against the Covid-19 surge.
The resolution asked Scott to consider a mask mandate and all possible public health measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“As a reminder, ‘all measures’ means doing some of the things we did a year ago, like banning gatherings, closing businesses, requiring remote learning and more,” the governor said.
Vermont is the state with the highest vaccination and booster rates in the country, and among the lowest hospitalization and death rates, Scott said.
“And (with) all that data, 17 senators think we should go back to mandates that almost no other states have in place,” he said.
House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, has said in the past that she is not in support of lockdown measures.
“We are not talking about shutting down businesses or implementing travel restrictions,” she said in a Nov. 11 statement.
The text of the resolution focuses on the effectiveness of mask mandates at preventing disease.
The recommendations in the resolution include increasing testing capacity, strengthening guidance for schools and health care providers, providing daily town-by-town data, and declaring a state of emergency to impose a mask order.
Scott said he understands that legislators may feel overwhelmed, but they don’t have as many experts as he does. He said the White House recently put out a statement that suggests the Biden administration does not support any further lockdowns anywhere in the United States.
Boosters, vaccines and testing on verge of holiday weekend
Covid-19 cases in Vermont remained relatively steady this week, increasing just 4% over the past seven days, said Mike Pieciak, head of the Department of Financial Regulation.
But with the case counts elevated from the levels just weeks ago, and the uncertainty of how Thanksgiving gatherings could affect the forecast, Pieciak said officials are not predicting a decline in case counts in the next month — meaning they believe cases will either stay flat or increase.
Hospitalizations remain high. Vermont reported only 190 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, a relatively low number, but 68 Vermonters are hospitalized with the virus — a record for the pandemic. Sixteen of those people are in intensive care units.
Officials encouraged Vermonters to take steps to protect themselves during holiday gatherings. The state is ramping up testing this week and plans to offer LAMP tests with a one-hour turnaround time Wednesday, Nov. 24.
Mark Levine, commissioner of the Department of Health, said Vermonters also should consider using rapid at-home antigen test kits before and after the holidays.
[Looking for data on breakthrough cases? See our reporting on the latest available statistics.]
He said Vermonters should try to keep their gatherings small and consider taking measures to protect high-risk family members, such as wearing masks when they’re not eating.
Levine also said Vermonters 18 and older should consider getting a booster shot if they received the two-dose vaccine more than six months ago or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson more than two months ago.
About a third of fully vaccinated Vermonters 18 and older have received the booster, the highest in the nation, according to the state’s weekly report. That includes 61% of people 65 and older.
Meanwhile, about 30% of children ages 5 to 11 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, the report said.
The vaccine allows children “to interact safely with those older adults in their lives, something so many of us have sorely missed over the past two years and which may be occurring in the next couple of days,” Levine said.
About 84% of Vermont’s total population has started vaccination, and 73% are fully vaccinated.
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Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified House Speaker Jill Krowinski. Who got the booster has also been clarified.
