The Vermont Department of Health reported that 96 people were hospitalized for Covid-19 as of Monday, the first time since Jan. 13 that the state’s hospitals have reported fewer than 100 patients with the virus.
Hospitalizations for Covid have been dropping slowly in the past two weeks, despite several one-day spikes, such as the 115 patients reported on Jan. 26. Still, the daily average of 104 patients over the past week is far lower than the record of 122 patients set on Jan. 19.
New Covid infections have fallen faster than Covid hospitalizations. The health department reported 317 new Covid cases Monday, the lowest one-day total since Jan. 2. (Case counts tend to be lower on Mondays and pick up during the week due to patterns in testing.)
Combined with previous days — 494 cases on Saturday and 593 on Sunday — the state now reports a seven-day average of 681 people testing positive each day. That means the daily average has fallen by more than half over the past two weeks, while hospitalizations have fallen by 7%.
Intensive care usage has remained relatively flat. The health department reported 26 Covid patients in intensive care on Monday, for an average of 24 ICU patients over the past week. That’s slightly below the average of 27 ICU patients two weeks ago.
The health department also reported four more Covid deaths, for a total of 56 people who have died in Vermont so far in January. The total for January may continue to rise in the coming days, as the department sometimes adds deaths retroactively.
In total, 536 people have died of Covid in Vermont since the beginning of the pandemic.