The bulk of the diagnosed COVID-19 cases in Vermont are clustered in the Burlington area, home to some of the long-term care facilities that have seen outbreaks, but Hartford and Woodstock have also seen a notable number of cases.
The Vermont Department of Health on Monday released a town-by-town breakdown that showed Hartford had 10 COVID-19 cases and Woodstock 7.
Vermont has had 855 diagnosed cases as of Monday, and Burlington led the town-by-town breakdown, which was from weekend data, with 157 COVID-19 cases, followed by Essex, 47, Swanton, 44, Colchester, 38, and South Burlington, 37.
State officials said residents of a long-term care facility or inmates at a correctional facility are counted in the town where the facility is located when they were tested, which would account for the high number in Swanton.
Hartford is home to the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, but also has a sizable second-home population in Quechee, as does Woodstock.
Woodstock Fire Chief David Green, who has helped lead efforts to serve people who have to quarantine, said he has “no knowledge of whether these are residents or second home owners … The concern I have is that if these people that do have it is if they do not follow the guidelines for isolation and venture into town too early and infect more people.”
Similarly, Hartford Town Manager Brannon Godfrey said officials don’t have any way of knowing who the COVID-19 cases involve or where they might be in town.
“We are concerned with every positive case and the health of all of our residents. However, we are confident that the continued common sense approach directed by our Governor to ‘Stay Home and Stay Safe’ is having the desired effect of minimizing exposure among our population,” Godfrey said via email.
Several small Vermont towns near major ski areas also registered on the scale — Wilmington, near Mount Snow, had 10 cases; Stowe 8; Morristown 7; and Cambridge and Waterbury 6 apiece — suggesting that many of those cases could involve second-homeowners who have fled COVID-19 hotspots such as New York City and Boston.
In a news conference on Monday, Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said he did not want the town-by-town numbers to be used to “put a scarlet letter on people as we are looking at this virus.”
“We are not going to do that in this state,” he said. At the same time, state officials acknowledged that some of the cases involve second-homeowners, just as some cases involve Vermonters who were traveling overseas and returned to the state.
“We’re quite aware that there have been out-of-state people who have come into Vermont and been diagnosed shortly after they arrived in Vermont. That’s part of the reality of a virus knowing no borders,” said Health Commissioner Mark Levine. “What percentage of that number of cases is hard to tell.”
Even though the state breakdown showed most towns in the state had between 0 and 5 diagnosed cases, state officials said that precautions such as social distancing, masks and hand washing remain critically important.
“The map does not represent people with active infections, and no town is ‘safe’ from COVID-19,” the Vermont Department of Health said in its daily release. “We know the virus is in our communities and we should continue to follow stay home orders and health guidance to slow the spread of COVID-19 — no matter what town we live in.”
The New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is raising concerns about the state providing first responders with the names of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Working with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Health and Human Services and many dispatch centers have agreed to disclose such information to law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics and public health providers.
State officials say the release is permitted under a provision of the federal health privacy law that allows information to be disclosed for the greater benefit of protecting public health. The information is the minimum necessary to allow first responders to limit their potential exposure to the virus. The agreement requires the destruction of the information after 21 days.
Devon Chaffee, executive director of the state ACLU, said it is alarming that private medical information is being shared without people’s consent.
“As the ACLU has said during this pandemic and in the past, we must be extremely cautious about abandoning privacy rights during times of crises, particularly given that history says we may not regain those rights later,” she said.
The Vermont Department of Health is not releasing such information to public safety officials, according to spokesman Ben Truman.
Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos said via email that the information is provided to dispatch and can help protect first responders, and that his department is taking other precautions as well.
“In that we have had a number of calls with asymptomatic patients who have later tested positive, my personnel are wearing (personal protective equipment) on all EMS calls until we can determine the risk to be low. The short answer to this is I cannot afford to lose a crew and/or shift to quarantine without affecting our service delivery,” Christopoulos said.
New Hampshire is setting up a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in Claremont starting on Tuesday, according to a news release from city officials. The site will be operated by the National Guard, and tests will only be provided to people who are experiencing symptoms and have contacted their primary care provider to get an appointment.
The release did not say where the testing will take place, and anyone with questions should call the state Emergency Operations Center at 211.
A group of volunteer psychotherapists from the Twin States that launched a website earlier this month offering free appointments for health care workers is now offering the service to all workers in the Upper Valley, as well as those who have been furloughed or laid off as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the website uvcovidrelief.org, workers in search of support can schedule a 30-minute video or phone appointment.
Material from Nora Doyle-Burr and the Associated Press was used in this report.