The Vermont Department of Health reported Friday that there have been 52 Covid-19 deaths so far in January, making it the third-deadliest month for Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
The death total was only exceeded by December 2021, which reported 62 deaths, and December 2020, which reported 71 deaths, many of which occurred in long-term care facilities.
In total, 532 people have died of Covid-19 during the course of the pandemic.
Vermont has also reported skyrocketing long-term care facility cases this month, but the death rate in most outbreaks has so far been lower than the previous winter, health department Commissioner Mark Levine said.
At the same time, statewide hospitalizations have been high for weeks. As of Friday, 106 people were in Vermont hospitals with Covid-19, including 25 in intensive care, according to the health department.
The Department of Financial Regulation’s forecast report has cautioned that as new Covid-19 infections wane, deaths from the virus are likely to linger into February.
“Declines in COVID-19 fatalities are expected to lag behind case improvements,” according to the Jan. 25 report.
The health department also reported that one day in January — Jan. 14 — had eight Covid-19 deaths, the highest one-day total since the beginning of the pandemic.
The department often changes fatality data retroactively as the medical examiner’s office and vital records office reviews and verifies Covid-19 death certificates. So it’s possible the one-day total may change in the coming weeks.
The state reported 882 new Covid-19 infections Friday, leading to a seven-day average of 919 cases per day — the first time the average has fallen below 1,000 since Jan. 4.
The average has fallen 51% from its high of 1,873 on Jan. 9. But it remains higher than pre-Omicron average of about 350 to 450 cases per day in early to mid-December.
The reported total also does not account for Vermonters who may have tested positive on an at-home antigen test or not gotten tested at all.
Less than 10% in the health department data are “probable cases” derived from antigen tests. Since the department relies on self-reporting of antigen test results, it’s unclear how many people have tested positive without reporting it.
[Looking for data on breakthrough cases? See our reporting on the latest available statistics.]
The number of untested and unreported infections may be 4 or 5 times the number of reported cases under the highly contagious Omicron, compared with about twice the number of reported cases for previous strains, Department of Financial Regulation Commissioner Mike Pieciak said Tuesday.
Combined with the more than 100,000 reported infections, “There’s at this point, quite a few people that have gotten Covid in Vermont now,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story overstated the decline in the seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases.
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