Vermont’s top public health official said Friday the state will continue with its procedures to test people for the coronavirus even if they are not showing symptoms, but have been exposed to someone who has been.
Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said he was responding to a change in policy announced early this week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said it was not necessary to test people who have been in close contact with infected people, but don’t feel sick.
Levine said testing people who may have been exposed to the virus, but aren’t showing symptoms, is needed to help contain outbreaks because people who have been infected can sometimes transmit it to others before showing symptoms. People who have been infected, but aren’t sick, can be quarantined to lessen the chance they can infect others.
“The whole strategy of containment, testing, isolating, contact tracing and quarantine has been fundamental to our success in Vermont and needs to continue,” Levine said during the twice-weekly virus briefing with Gov. Phil Scott and other top administration officials. “Underpinning its success has been testing.”
The new federal guidance was posted earlier this week on the CDC’s website. The agency previously had advised local health departments to test people who have been within 6 feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes.
Across the country, public health experts questioned the change, saying that testing contacts of infected people is a core element of public health efforts to keep outbreaks in check, and that a large percentage of infected people — the CDC has said as many as 40% — exhibit no symptoms.
Vermont officials say the state’s effort to contain the virus, including rigorous testing, is working.
Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, who is managing Vermont’s COVID-19 data, said Friday that since the start of the pandemic, Vermont has maintained the lowest per-capita infection rate and the state has maintained the lowest infection rate and rate of positive tests for the last seven days.
“Against almost any metric that you can measure, Vermont, by whether throughout the entire pandemic or more recently, Vermont continues to be the best in the nation,” Pieciak said.
The state of Vermont is considering a plan to help the state’s ski resorts during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Bennington Banner reported the plan proposed by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development would come from a $133 million economic development proposal being developed for sole proprietor-owned firms and businesses that didn’t meet requirements for grant funding in earlier spending bills.
Deputy Commerce Secretary Ted Brady said the industry will need help in dealing with restrictions that will limit lodging capacity and mandate social distancing. Most ski resort businesses in the state were shut out of previous rounds of CARES Act business aid, he said.
“When we look at winter coming forward, we know we have to put restrictions on ski areas that we haven’t published yet,” Brady told the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development on Wednesday. “We’re anticipating having to tell them they’re going to be capacity-restricted on their lodges and capacity-restricted or travel-restricted on their hotels.”
— Staff and wire reports
The ski industry brings about 4 million visitors to Vermont each year.
“They cannot survive unless we give them some resources to do things differently, for instance getting winter tents with heaters established for day lodge operations, to put in place new ticket and new line systems so you can maintain social distancing,” he said.
On Friday, the Vermont Health Department reported three new positive tests for the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to just under 1,590.
The number of deaths remains at 58.