The Vermont Department of Health reported 242 Covid-19 cases on Monday. Following a weekend of slightly lower case counts — 443 on Saturday, 463 on Sunday — the seven-day average has ticked down to 407 cases per day, compared with more than 470 cases per day two weeks ago.
But two holidays are coming in the next two weeks have officials concerned. Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, said Tuesday that the state forecast showed cases would either remain level or increase after Christmas and New Year’s, just as they did last year.
The Department of Health also confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant detected in Vermont on Saturday. The variant, which had previously been found in all neighboring states and provinces, is more contagious than the currently dominant Delta strain.
Health Commissioner Mark Levine said in a press release Saturday that Vermont was likely to see more Omicron cases identified in the coming days.
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 have been dropping in Vermont, although the number of critical care patients has remained flat, department data shows. Fifty-five people are in the hospital for the virus, including 19 in intensive care units.
That’s compared with more than 90 hospitalized earlier this month. Though the number of ICU patients has declined from a peak of 31, it has remained between 17 and 21 patients for the past 10 days.
The department disclosed four more deaths over the weekend. In total, 455 people have died during the pandemic, 37 of them in December.
How have town mask mandates fared?
In late November, the Vermont Legislature and Gov. Phil Scott agreed on a measure to allow Vermont communities to set their own mask mandates upon approval by town leadership.
Since then, at least 17 municipalities have passed full mask mandates for public indoor spaces, but at least as many have declined to do so after public debate. Governing bodies in some of those locales have voted against such mandates, opted not to vote or passed masking recommendations, rather than mandates.
No centralized database exists for tracking town-by-town mask rules, but VTDigger has compiled its own data based on news reports and town meeting minutes. (Editor’s note: To add a town to this list, email erin@vtdigger.org.)
Among the largest municipalities that have confirmed mask mandates are Burlington, Brattleboro, Essex, Williston, Montpelier and Norwich. At the same time, communities all over the state — including Bennington, Stowe and Vergennes — have opted against them.
Rutland Town passed a mask mandate, but Rutland City’s vote failed. Hartford’s vote on mask mandates initially failed, only to be reversed by the Selectboard at a subsequent meeting.
Berlin and Richmond plan to discuss mask mandates at their December 20 town meetings.
