The seven-day average for Covid cases in Vermont fell 23% in the past week compared to the week before — the first time the average has dropped by more than 1% since the BA.2 surge began in mid-March, according to the latest weekly surveillance report from the Vermont Department of Health.
That report shows that Covid levels remain high overall, since new cases and hospital admissions remain elevated. But hospital admissions, too, are dropping, from a high of around 17 admissions per day to about nine per day in the past few weeks.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last Thursday that five of Vermont’s 14 counties have high Covid community levels and seven more have medium levels, a decline from eight counties with high levels the week before.
The Vermont Department of Health launched the weekly surveillance report earlier this month after announcing that daily updates to the state’s Covid dashboard would cease on May 18.
The department did not report daily case counts or hospitalizations for the past week, despite saying last week that it planned to do so every Wednesday. In an email, department spokesperson Ben Truman said there was an issue with the state’s databases that might be resolved by Thursday.
The delay means the state has also not reported the latest data on how many PCR tests have been performed and what percentage were positive, metrics that could provide context on the state’s declining case counts. The state recently announced it would phase out state-run testing sites in June.
Other indicators in the weekly report — all designed to show Vermont’s progress with the virus — show mixed results. Syndromic surveillance, a method of tracking the percentage of people arriving at emergency rooms with Covid-like illness, dropped slightly this week, according to the report.
For wastewater data, which measures viral levels at sewage treatment plants, Burlington appeared to show a slight drop in viral levels. But two other locations that started reporting data this week, Essex Junction and Troy/Jay, reported an increase in viral levels.
According to the report, the BA.2 subvariant was the only strain in Vermont through the week of May 1. But more recent data from the CDC suggests another strain is already taking over in the region.
The BA.2.12.1 subvariant is now the dominant strain in New England, according to the CDC, accounting for about 53% of recent cases. Early data suggests the subvariant is more transmissible than BA.2, but there’s no evidence that it’s more severe.