The seven-day average Covid-19 case count in Vermont has fallen below 400 for the first time since Dec. 2. But the rate of testing also fell — giving a murkiness to the data that may take a while to straighten out.
The state Department of Health reported several days’ worth of case data on Monday. Vermont reported 641 cases Thursday, 304 Friday, 244 Saturday and 239 Sunday, contributing to a seven-day average of 399 cases per day.
But those results were gleaned from about 25,500 tests conducted over that four-day time span. By comparison, almost 36,000 tests were conducted on the same days the week before.
The seven-day average positivity rate ticked up to 5.1%, one of the few times it topped 5% since the beginning of the pandemic.
Although take-home antigen tests are in demand, those results don’t always count toward the state’s reported cases. The department asks Vermonters to self-report their positive antigen tests for data collection and contact tracing, whereas positive PCR tests — which are processed in a lab — are automatically logged into the state’s data.
The state’s positive results generally include a mix of “probable” cases from antigen tests and “confirmed” cases from PCR tests. About half of the state’s 239 cases reported on Monday were “probable” cases, suggesting at least some Vermonters using antigen tests are reaching out to the department.
The department distributed 30,000 tests on Dec. 23 and about 11,500 tests on Dec. 24, running out of at-home testing kits at many testing sites.
It has changed its test pickups for the coming week. The department has limited the number of sites available from an initial 26 to only eight locations, all opening at 8 a.m. on Dec. 28 and 29, according to the department website. It plans to distribute 11,500 rapid tests each day, spokesperson Ben Truman said via email.
The website says the testing sites will give out take-home antigen testing kits on a first-come, first-served basis until they run out. Each site has a limit of two kits per person or car.
How are hospitals faring?
The department reported that 62 people are currently hospitalized with the virus — an uptick from 53 on Thursday — and 15 people are in intensive care units, roughly in line with last week’s ICU numbers.
Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, said via text that ICU capacity has improved from a few weeks ago, when the state may have had 10 open ICU beds and 50 open medical surge beds at any given time.
The state has recently been averaging 20 to 25 open ICU beds, with 27 open ICU beds on Monday, he said. At the same time, 106 medical surge beds were open compared with a recent average of 125 beds.
Vermont may need all the capacity it can get going into the spread of the Omicron variant, Pieciak said in an interview.
“We’re bracing to see what the impact of Omicron’s going to be,” he said.
[Looking for data on breakthrough cases? See our reporting on the latest available statistics.]
New Hampshire and Maine have also struggled in the past few weeks under record-high hospitalizations, although numbers have declined in both states in the past week.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, located in the Upper Valley in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was caring for 34 Covid-19-positive patients as of Monday, spokesperson Cassidy Smith said via email. Only 4% of staffed adult ICU beds are available in that region, according to the New Hampshire Covid-19 data dashboard.
Vermont also reported one more death over the weekend, raising December’s total to 43, above the November total of 42. In total, 461 Vermonters have died over the course of the pandemic.
Mask mandate update
Few towns have voted recently to pass full mask mandates for indoor public spaces, according to a VTDigger review of town agendas and news reports.
Richmond passed a mask mandate in the past week, and at least 17 other municipalities have passed mandates in previous weeks.
In contrast, at least seven have voted mask mandates down, 10 have chosen not to vote and 14 have passed partial mandates, typically for town offices.
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