By Liora Engel-Smith/VTDigger The state is moving away from third-party contact tracing as Omicron cases continue to drop in Vermont. Last spring, the Vermont Department of Health outsourced the bulk of Covid-19 contact tracing to AM Trace, a contractor in Leesburg, […]
Category: Covid-19 updates
Vermont plans policy for Covid’s endemic phase
By Erin Petenko/VTDigger Vermont’s seven-day Covid-19 average hit its lowest point since last fall, one of several indicators that the Omicron variant surge is trending down. Health department Commissioner Mark Levine said the numbers “continue to reinforce the improving picture […]
American Academy of Pediatrics offers new masking recommendations for families following updated CDC guidance
In the wake of updated Covid-19 guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on how communities can approach public health measures to reduce the risk of illness, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offered considerations for families to […]
Student resiliency: Recovering from a two-year pandemic
Schools attempt to fill academic, social and emotional cracks By Victoria Gaither Who would have ever imagined on March 18, 2020, when Governor Phil Scott ordered all Vermont schools to shut down, that two years later educators would still be […]
School district’s respond to new guidance, many are ready to ditch masks, mandates
By Peter D’Auria/VTDigger and Polly Mikula When Vermont Gov. Phil Scott announced that the state would no longer recommend that students wear masks in schools after March 14, a variety of responses flooded through school districts and communities. Among about 50 […]
Most towns with mask mandates now choosing to end them
By Erin Petenko/VTDigger At least 20 Vermont communities have repealed their local mask mandates or allowed them to expire in recent weeks. Only a handful of communities — including Waitsfield, Williston and Winooski — still have mask mandates in […]
Pandemic far from over at hospitals, including RRMC
By Katy Savage While Covid restrictions are easing and a sense of normalcy is returning, hospitals are far away from “normal.” “We still have patients in the hospital, we still have patients in the ICU that have Covid,” said Rick […]
Covid-19: Two years later — Key dates in the pandemic’s past
Two years of major milestones can become a blur. All the executive orders, mandates and guidance — which at times felt like rapid fire — gone now, in the past. For those who care to remember, here are a few […]
CDC rolls out new formula for mapping Covid-19 risk
Hospitalizations and capacity now main factors, CDC focuses on preventing worst outcomes By Polly Mikula The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) rolled out new guidance qualifying nearly 70% of the nation to unmask, on Feb. 25. Prior to […]
State reflects on two-year pandemic
By Polly Mikula “If we look back two years to March 13, when I signed the emergency declaration here in Vermont, I never expected that it would last two years, not just the state of emergency, but I didn’t think […]