WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The Vermont Department of Health began allowing people 75 and older to schedule appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday morning.
People in this age group can sign up online at healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine, which has links both to sign up for vaccinations at health department clinics and for those being run by Kinney Drugs. At noon on Monday, the state also opened a phone line, 855-722-7878, for those who cannot register online or who need to speak with someone in a language other than English.
More than 21,100 appointments had been scheduled for the coming weeks by Monday evening, according to a news release from the Vermont Department of Health.
Going forward, the call center hours will be Monday to Friday 8:15 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday to Sunday 10 a.m.-3 p.m., according to a news release from the department.
The vaccinations for this phase of the rollout, using either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, will begin on Wednesday at Health Department clinics and other locations around the state. Appointments are required.
Most people will be asked to wait 15 minutes after their injection in case of side effects. Clinic staff will help those who receive their first dose to schedule a second.
Vermont is the first state in the country to have a higher percentage of its population vaccinated than the percentage of residents who have been infected with the virus, the release said. As of Saturday, 7.3% of Vermonters over the age of 16 had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
More than 11,000 Vermonters have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. There are about 624,000 people in Vermont.
NEW LONDON — Three people died earlier this month in a COVID-19 outbreak at Woodcrest Village Assisted Living, according to the facility’s executive director.
The outbreak at the facility on New London’s Main Street includes a total of 19 residents and 17 workers as of Monday, said Bethany Brenner, Woodcrest’s executive director, in a Monday email.
The facility had its first case on Dec. 6, Brenner said. Current cases include one resident and seven workers, who are all asymptomatic, she said.
WOODSVILLE — Cottage Hospital is not providing COVID-19 vaccines to the public in Phase 1b of the state’s vaccination effort, according to an alert the hospital posted to its website and social media pages on Saturday.
The hospital issued the alert after it appeared as a location for community members in the Phase 1b category to receive their vaccines on the state’s website vaccines.nh.gov. Phase 1b in New Hampshire, which began registration on Friday, includes people age 65 and older, those who are between 16 and 65 and medically vulnerable, residents and workers at residential care homes for people with developmental disabilities, corrections workers, first responders, and health workers.
Cottage Hospital, like other hospitals in New Hampshire, has been vaccinating health care workers during the first phase of the state’s vaccine rollout, Phase 1a, but is not able to vaccinate community members at this time due to vaccine availability and logistics of storage, according to the hospital’s website.
“Due to a miscommunication, some hospitals accidentally offered appointments that were scheduled for health care workers during Phase 1a to people eligible for Phase 1b,” Jake Leon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a Monday email.
As a result, some people in Phase 1b received notices that their appointments were canceled because they weren’t open to people in that category, he said. DHHS is working with hospitals that experienced this issue to contact the affected people and reschedule their appointments “as close as possible to the date, time and location they initially chose,” Leon said.
People in Phase 1b who had their appointment canceled should expect to hear from DHHS by the end of the day on Tuesday, Leon said. If they don’t, they should call 211, he said.
CLAREMONT — The Stevens High School Alumni Association has moved its annual alumni weekend from June to October this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Facebook post.
The association canceled its event last June due to the pandemic. This year’s event, which includes a parade and had been scheduled for June 12, is now scheduled to take place on Oct. 2.
The event is slated to include all 5-year classes, as well as the classes of 2020 and 2021.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
