Covid Delta Variant Infections Still Climbing

While much of the nation is seeing a 10% decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases, Vermont’s incidence of infection rose 10% in the last week, and 39% over the last two weeks.

At the same time, 89.5% of eligible Vermonters are currently vaccinated; 88.1% in Washington County.

As of publication of this story, updated caseloads per town have not been posted online, but for the period October 5–13, Montpelier (pop. 7,248) had the largest number of new cases for comparable periods of time: 38. That brings the total of positive tests for the city since the pandemic began to 336, meaning that just over 11 percent of all cases reported for Montpelier have occurred in this recent, brief period. For comparison, the weekly average for the city over the 18 months of the pandemic has been 4.4 cases. 

In contrast, Barre City (pop. 8,378) had 176 new cases and a total of 1,149 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Barre Town (pop. 7,602) is closer in size to Montpelier but has had only 192 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the same period, the smaller Washington County communities of Worcester and Roxbury were reported to have the highest rates of infections per capita in the county October 5–13, but because the populations of those towns are much smaller, the total count of infections since the beginning of the pandemic is comparatively small for both: Worcester, 29; Roxbury, 20.

In schools, Gov. Scott’s administration is no longer recommending contact tracing in outdoor settings, like playgrounds, and is reducing the social distance standard from 6 feet to 3 feet in classrooms where students are wearing masks. 

Data source: Vermont Health Department; Population stats vermont.gov/towns-and-Cities