In the few weeks since Vermont’s Covid-19 cases have surged from holiday gatherings and cooler weather, the state has hit a grim milestone: More cases have been reported during the Delta surge than across the entire pandemic before that point, according to Department of Health data.
Vermont has reported 29,800 cases during the five-month period from July 13 — when cases began to rise after a monthslong lull — through Dec. 9.
By comparison, there had been 24,500 cases from the first days of the pandemic in March 2020 up until that point, covering more than 13 months.
The milestone harks back to the early days of the pandemic, when the state’s “doubling rate” — the period of time it took for the total number of cases to double — was a major factor in Vermont officials’ decisions on shutting down schools and businesses.
Although the “doubling rate” has increased recently, it remains better than it was in the first days of the pandemic. Still, the fact that Vermont’s cases have doubled in less than six months, when they were already in the tens of thousands, shows how devastating the Delta variant has been.
At a recent press conference, Mark Levine, commissioner of the Department of Health, said “we are now dealing with a much more infectious virus.”
“Each person who tests positive with the original strain of the virus infected only one or a couple of people. Now the variant is infecting three, four or five people,” he said. “To add to this, we were starting out with a larger number of cases.”
Vermont also dropped all Covid-19 restrictions on June 14, when 80% of Vermonters 12 and older, or 71% of the full population, had at least one dose of the vaccine.
As of Tuesday, 90% of the eligible population — Vermonters 5 and older — have received at least one dose. But only 74% of the total population is fully vaccinated. That leaves about 50,000 adults and adolescents who are not fully vaccinated, and “this virus is very effective at finding them,” Levine said at a press conference in November.
Deaths during the Delta surge have not yet surpassed the pre-Delta total. There have been 166 deaths since mid-July, compared to 260 deaths before that point.
At least 77 of the pre-Delta deaths were linked to long-term care facilities, which the state prioritized early on in its vaccination strategy. It’s unclear how many deaths during the Delta have occurred among long-term care patients.
Vermont reported 467 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, slightly decreasing the seven-day average from 485 cases per day to 450. That’s still far higher than the average of 352 from just one week ago.
[Looking for data on breakthrough cases? See our reporting on the latest available statistics.]
Hospitalizations also ticked down slightly on Thursday but remain elevated. A total of 87 people are currently in Vermont hospitals for the virus, including 23 in intensive care units, down from 92 hospitalizations and 31 critical care patients in the past few days.
The department disclosed one new death in its data for Thursday, bringing the total to 426 victims of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. Ten of those deaths have occurred in December.
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