COVID-19 update: record cases; booster news; tests by mail; limiting school sports spectators
January 7, 2022 | By Lisa ScagliottiUPDATES:
This post was updated at 5:50 p.m. with a link to a letter from the Harwood Unified Union School District administration regarding significant changes in the school’s COVID-19 response ahead of new guidance expected from the state of Vermont next week.
This post was updated at 5 p.m. with new state Health Department case data from Friday, and more detail on proposed policy changes for schools coming soon from the state Agency of Education.
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News about the COVID-19 pandemic was plentiful this week with daily record-setting case counts reported by the state along with announcements of booster shots for adolescents, new testing for preschoolers, a federal pilot program to get home tests by mail, and new rules for spectators at local high school sporting events.
Additional information reported late Friday points to another round of state guidance for schools coming next week that will represent a significant revision in policies schools will be required to follow. The shift calls for ending contact tracing and weekly surveillance testing to instead rely on home tests for unvaccinated individuals. (more details below)
Here’s a breakdown on each of these developments this week.
Monday's sunset lights up the sky as people line up at the Waterbury Ambulance station on Guptil Road for COVID-19 tests. Photo by Lynne Cardozo
Statewide and local COVID-19 cases surge to new heights
After a four-day hiatus from reporting COVID-19 data over the New Year’s holiday, the Vermont Department of Health on Monday released information from Thursday, Dec. 30, through Sunday, Jan. 2.
In all since Dec. 30 through Jan. 6, more than 9,300 cases have been reported statewide with several eye-popping daily counts including Wednesday, Jan. 5, which set a record with 2,131 cases. Friday’s report of Thursday Jan. 6 data was down slightly at 1,917 cases. On Saturday, the Health Department released a new weekly high of 2,642 cases identified on Friday.
Along with the surge in cases, hospitalizations are up markedly since the holidays. On Friday, the state Health Department reported 84 Vermonters in the hospital, 14 of whom were in intensive care. Saturday’s report grew to 92 hospitalized and 17 in ICU. That compares to approximately 55 in the hospital in mid-December. Deaths now number 483 for the pandemic.
Locally, Waterbury’s new cases in the past week continued to remain high, clocking in as the second-highest week of the pandemic. The state reported 117 new cases for the seven days that ended Jan. 5. That came a week after Waterbury’s highest weekly report of 130 cases on Dec. 29. Both represent about triple the highest weekly counts prior to mid-December when a week with 41 new cases set a record. Waterbury’s total cases for the pandemic now stands at 781.
All of these case totals reflect testing done at state sites along with results individuals are reporting from home self-tests. State public health officials ask that people report their home test results but it’s not possible to know how many cases are unreported.
The past week’s data showed the most cases reported of the pandemic for the communities of the Harwood Unified Union School District with 200 total in the six towns combined. Waterbury led the pack, but each of the others logged new cases:
Waitsfield added 39 cases for a total of 183; Warren saw 21 new cases reported for a total of 110. Those counts were the highest for both of those towns for the pandemic.
Moretown recorded 13 new cases for a total of 140, the second-largest weekly total following the previous week’s high of 17.
State data reporting recently has broken out cases for Duxbury and this week added Fayston, which had presumably been included in neighboring town counts. Duxbury has 12 cases and Fayston 6.
The school district itself issued several announcements in the past week tracking cases among students and staff. In all the district has reported 22 new cases in the first week back in session after the holiday break. The cases were reported at five schools: 8 cases each at Harwood Union Middle/High School and Brookside Primary School, two each at Crossett Brook Middle School and Moretown Elementary School, one at Fayston Elementary School. One case also was reported Friday at the Central Office.
Among Waterbury’s neighboring towns, Stowe had a record weekly number of cases reported - 137 new cases for the week ending Jan. 5, bringing the town’s total to 549 for the pandemic. It was several times the earlier weekly record reports logged in December at 30 and 38, according to the Health Department data.
Bolton and Middlesex also saw small case increases in the past week of 7 and 9 cases respectively.
The town-by-town case numbers and rolling averages are online on the Health Department website in the COVID in Communities section.
Daily testing continues at the Waterbury Ambulance Service station at 1727 Guptil Road. Hours are: Mon., Tues., Fri. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Weds. 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thurs., Sat. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sun. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Ambulance Service Director Mark Podgwaite said appointments are highly recommended given the recent uptick in testing demand, but walk-ins would be accommodated.
Booster shots for 12-15-year-olds
This week federal approvals were finalized for the Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccine for 12-15-year-olds. Federal and state public health officials are emphasizing boosters to protect against the current highly contagious Omicron variant of the virus.
Many adolescents in this age group were vaccinated in early summer and are now eligible for the booster. New guidelines were issued regarding timing the booster with it now being recommended five months following the second shot in the series. The new five-month wait time for a booster shot also applies to anyone 18 and older who received the Pfizer vaccine.
Appointments for free boosters are available at most pharmacies (Costco, CVS, Hannaford, Kinney Drugs, Price Chopper/Market 32, Rite Aid, Shaw’s, Walgreens, and Walmart). State vaccine clinics such as the Berlin Mall location are offering boosters with numerous appointments available. To schedule at a state site if you did not use the state system for the initial doses, it is recommended that you call 855-722-7878. Primary care medical offices also can provide booster shots.
No school-based vaccine clinics have been announced yet. More information about vaccine appointments is online at healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine.
In a memo to families this week, Harwood Union COVID response coordinators Allison Conyers and Kaiya Korb encouraged parents to arrange for the additional vaccine for their adolescents.
"This booster not only offers greater COVID-19 protection, but also is one of the demarcations of who needs to quarantine, or not, if identified as a close contact,” the school memo said. “Getting the booster helps prevent serious illness and is a great way to help prevent interruption to learning. As with the initial vaccine, one is not considered fully protected until 2 weeks AFTER they receive their booster."
State launches ‘Tests for Tots’
State officials this week announced a COVID-19 testing program aimed at young children, dubbed “Tests for Tots.”
The effort will provide rapid antigen test kits to regulated child care providers who need to enroll in the program. The tests are meant to be used similarly as in K-12 schools when a student or staff member tests positive and close contacts need to quarantine and test.
The program will provide home tests for children ages 2-5 as well as for child care program staff. The tests are not approved for use in children under age 2.
More information for providers is online on the state Child Development Division website.
State officials said they would continue to monitor the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations and explore other rapid testing options that might become available for broader use at child care programs.
“As we gain access to greater supply, expanding our efforts to support more families and children is an important priority,” Gov. Phil Scott said in announcing the effort.
Government pilot program will mail home test kits
New steps were announced this week to bring Vermonters closer to receiving free home antigen testing kits through the mail.
The governor’s office announced that Vermont will work with the National Institutes of Health as part of a pilot program to roll out a new nationwide system to order home test kits online that will be delivered by mail. The pilot program has 500,000 rapid tests allocated for Vermont, Scott said.
The announcement said this program is similar to what President Joe Biden announced recently but it is separate from the national effort expected to be in place by later this month.
“Rapid tests are an important tool, but Americans need to be able to get them easily, quickly and far more affordably,” Gov. Scott said. “In the near future, we anticipate rapid tests will be readily available at every local pharmacy for lower prices. But we need to bridge the gap between where we are today and where things will be in the months ahead. That’s why we are partnering with the team at the National Institutes of Health to get these 500,000 tests into households throughout Vermont and ‘testing’ the effectiveness of this delivery model.”
Scott cautioned that this initial effort has a limited supply and it is considered a trial program.
“As with every new program, there are going to be unanticipated challenges, the number of kits each household can order will be limited, it could take up to a week for them to be delivered, and we expect that they will go very, very quickly,” he said.
This effort also is not intended to replace the rapid testing efforts in the Test to Stay programs in use in schools and childcare centers.
The initiative is a partnership with the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, test manufacturer Quidel, and healthcare technology company CareEvolution.
In order to receive the tests in the mail, Vermonters will need to provide their name and address. The state next week will announce additional details on how to order.
School update: Home antigen tests, contact tracing changes
Harwood Unified Union School District officials this week issued a number of updates to school COVID-19 protocols, all of which are listed on the district’s website home page at HUUSD.org.
Among the announcements were:
A shift to contact tracing via email rather than phone calls as staff are stretched given the rapidly increasing number of cases.
Schools also have received a supply of rapid home test kits for preK-12 students and staff who have tested positive or who have been identified as close contacts, are in isolation or quarantine, and need to test before returning to school. There will be an additional pick up time on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2-4 p.m., at Harwood Union Middle & High School for those in this group to obtain tests before school on Monday.
More guidance is expected from the state Agency of Education regarding testing and contact tracing next week. Late Friday, Seven Days reported first and VTDigger reported as well that the agency will be recommending ending contact tracing and surveillance testing immediately to instead rely on rapid tests that students and staff do at home.
A short update on the Agency of Education’s website alerts the public to the coming changes: “In 2022, the way testing for COVID-19 looks in Vermont schools will be different. These changes are necessary due to the speed at which the Omicron variant transmits,” it states. The notice goes on to describe the new approach:
“Vermont schools will be shifting gears from contact tracing and PCR surveillance tests to rapid antigen tests, which will be distributed to households so that families can test students at home. This program decreases the burden on schools while still allowing unvaccinated students who have been in close contact to someone with COVID-19 to continue to attend school as long as they test negative at home each day.
Vaccinated students who are close contacts will continue to be able to attend school without testing. Students are considered vaccinated if they have completed their initial two-dose series of vaccine.”
The latter statement and policy that calls for testing only unvaccinated individuals appears to contradict recent statements from Vermont’s Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine who has put a strong emphasis on booster shots, especially in recent weeks since the Omicron variant has emerged and has infected both the unvaccinated and vaccinated but not boosted individuals.
At the Dec. 21, 2021 COVID-19 response press briefing with Gov. Phil Scott and other cabinet members, Levine said: “So when it comes to variants of this virus like Delta and Omicron, we do need to do more and that means anyone age 16 or older, get your booster shot as soon as you can. I’ll repeat again, you are not fully protected against COVID or up to date on your vaccination until you get that booster shot.”
Levine made those comments before boosters were approved for 12-15-year-olds this week. He also reminded the public that it takes two weeks from receiving the booster for the vaccine’s immunity to be effective.
Later in the same briefing in answering a question, Levine took the chance to make the point again: “The individual Vermonter needs to know if they want to consider themselves really protected, they need to have the booster. Period.”
More details are expected from the Agency of Education on the new state policy next week. Harwood Union school officials late Saturday afternoon sent a letter to district staff and families in anticipation of the changes they expect in the coming week. Monday will be the final day for surveillance testing, they said. Read the letter here.
For sports fans
The school district announced several changes in its policy for home athletic events this week. At the start of the week, it said no spectators would be allowed starting Jan. 5. But that was amended later to say that school officials were working on a plan to allow limited attendance for family members of student athletes.
Starting Monday, the latest announcement said, student athletes would receive four tickets per game or competition for their family members to use.
Harwood Athletic Director Chris Langevin on Friday said details were still being worked out and a more specific communication would be made in a few days. He was able to clarify that tickets will be primarily for family (grandparents, parents, siblings, etc.), not for friends. He said it was not yet determined whether the rule would apply to both indoor and outdoor events.
Langevin reminds fans that some high school sporting events are available via livestream services.
Junior varsity and varsity home basketball games are streamed live on the NFHS Network ($10.99/month). Varsity hockey games are streamed live on LiveBarn ($18.95/month, and the Ice Center has a 10% discount code on its website). Mad River TV tries to staff some home games for occasional coverage as well.
Langevin said given the circumstances, he considers allowing spectators on a limited basis to be a privilege. “The reasoning for limiting fans is so there is room for people to space out more,” he explained. “So when you come to the games, remember to mask up, find a space for your family, cheer, be positive, and Go Highlanders!”