Vermont records new Covid high, another death

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Vermont reached two more grim milestones on Thursday with the highest number of new infections in a day and another Covid-19 death.

The Department of Health’s daily report showed 148 new Covid-19 positives – the highest number of the pandemic  so far. As it has in recent days, Washington County had the most cases with 50, followed by Chittenden County with 36, Lamoille with 12 and Franklin with 11.  Locally, Bennington and Rutland saw three new cases each while Windham and Windsor each jumped to six cases.

According to Health Department totals, there have been 1,009 new cases in the past two weeks with the seven-day positivity rate rising to 2.1 percent. Vermont’s positivity rate has been one of the lowest in the nation and as recently as Nov. 5 was 0.5 percent. According to the daily report, the total number of infections stood at 3,310 which means that nearly one third of state’s total has come in the past two weeks.

Currently there are 17 people who are hospitalized with the virus and one of those is in intensive care.

For the second day in a row, the state recorded the death of another patient, bringing the total number deaths to 61 since the beginning of the pandemic in March. Based on analysis of the state’s dashboard it appears it was a woman over the age of 80 who died.

Last Friday, as infections continued to climb, Gov. Phil Scott imposed several new restrictions including closure of bars and social clubs and limiting restaurant service to one household per table.

The full details of the Scott’s executive order from Friday Nov. 13 can be seen here.