Vermont reporters provide a roundup of top news takeaways about new coronavirus cases detected in correctional facilities, nearly a fifth of Vermont’s organic dairy farms learning they’ll lose their contracts next year and more for Wednesday, Aug. 25.
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While Vermont's pandemic state of emergency has ended, the delta variant is now circulating around the state. Click here for the latest on new cases, and find the latest vaccination data online any time.
1. State officials report 120 new COVID cases, 271st death
Health officials reported 120 new COVID-19 infections Wednesday.
The state has now reported 100 or more cases a day for six of the last seven days.
One more person has also died from the virus, the 271st death of the pandemic.
Some 35 people are now hospitalized, including nine in the ICU.
The rate of vaccination in Vermont, among those eligible for at least one dose, is 85.7%.
The CDC recommends masking in areas of the country with high or substantial spread of the virus. As of midday, all 14 Vermont counties fall under that recommendation to mask up, even if fully vaccinated.
- Matthew Smith
Three incarcerated people test positive for COVID-19
Three people incarcerated in two different Vermont prisons have tested positive for COVID-19.
WCAX reports the Department of Corrections had two positive tests among people incarcerated at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans.
A third person tested positive at the Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury.
All three people have been quarantined.
Earlier this week, corrections officials reported two unvaccinated employees at Newport's Northern State Correctional Facility also tested positive for COVID-19.
- Matthew Smith
Delta COVID case rates dropping in Vermont
The delta variant’s effect on COVID case counts in Vermont appears to be diminishing.
The rate of increase in new infections has dropped for the third consecutive week. And Commissioner of Financial Regulation Michael Pieciak says new modeling predicts even sharper reductions in COVID cases in the coming weeks.
“So the next week, we really want to look at the data closely in anticipation of the case rate not just slowing down, but cases actually starting to decline,” Pieciak said.
The pace at which new COVID infections are rising has slowed across the Northeast. And Pieciak says the entire region is forecast to see cases decline starting next month.
- Peter Hirschfeld
Gov: Pfizer weeks away from seeking authorization for using COVID vaccine with younger kids
Members of the White House COVID response team told governors across the country on Tuesday that Pfizer is just weeks away from seeking authorization for a COVID vaccine for children younger than 12.
Gov. Phil Scott briefed reporters on the call at his weekly press conference yesterday.
“Dr. Fauci reported that clinical trials for vaccines for those 11 and under are going well,” Scott said.
The governor says Pfizer could seek emergency use authorization for the vaccine as soon as early September, and that the state is prepared to administer the lower-dosage vaccine as soon as the FDA issues authorization.
- Peter Hirschfeld
Data show nearly 90% Vermont college students fully vaccinated
Nearly 25,000 college students have returned to Vermont for the beginning of the fall semester.
And according to data compiled by colleges and universities, the vast majority of them are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Commissioner of Financial Regulation Michael Pieciak says that of the 13 colleges and universities reporting to the Department of Health, the vaccination rate among students is nearly 90%
“You can see higher education in a really good position to start the fall semester as it relates to vaccination status,” Pieciak said.
Students at Vermont state colleges and the University of Vermont are required to be vaccinated if they want to return to campus.
- Peter Hirschfeld
2. House Speaker calls on Gov. to create mandatory reopening plan for all Vermont schools
House Speaker Jill Krowinski is calling on Gov. Phil Scott to issue a mandatory reopening plan for all Vermont schools.
Scott has recommended that school districts adopt a masking requirement for students and staff, regardless of vaccination status. But he says he doesn’t have the authority to issue a mandate.
Krowinski says the lack of a universal directive has created confusion and tension for local districts.
“And I think if there was a universal policy, it would really help to reduce some of the confusion and anxiety, especially that Vermonters, especially parents and teachers, are feeling right now,” she said.
Scott says he’d have to reinstate a state of emergency in Vermont in order to tell school districts what to do, and that Vermont’s COVID numbers don’t constitute an emergency.
- Peter Hirschfeld
3. Nearly fifth of Vermont organic dairy farms learn they'll lose contracts by next year
Nearly a fifth of Vermont’s organic dairy farms have learned they will lose their contracts by next year, with few options for recourse.
Danone, which owns the Horizon Organic company, sent letters to 28 organic farms in Vermont stating that their contracts would be up by August 2022.
That’s according to Ed Maltby with the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance. He noted that the organic milk market is already tight, and it'll be hard to find another company to purchase from these farms.
“What is unusual about this is the number of farms that have been affected with no opportunity to remedy the situation,” Maltby said.
The producers alliance is reaching out to Danone to try and discuss the decision. Vermont’s Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said the agency is setting up a task force that will “work day and night” to try and save the farms from closure.
Danone North America said in a statement that the company “did not make this decision lightly” and that “growing transportation and operational challenges in the dairy industry, particularly in the northeast, led to this difficult decision.”
- Elodie Reed
Vermont dairy farmers say Northeast needs more processing facilities
Vermont dairy farmers say regional milk production limits set by cooperatives are harming the industry, and more processing facilities would help.
In 2020, cooperatives like Dairy Farmers of America capped the amount of milk for which they would pay full price in order to address excess supply.
But during testimony to a legislative task force Tuesday, Troy dairy farmer Reg Chaput says that cap is regional and not federal. Combined with less processing capacity in the Northeast, farmers are forced to produce less milk -- and less revenue.
“There's no options left on the table for dairy operations anymore,” Chaput said. “I don’t mean to be dramatic here, but the only exit strategy we have is bankruptcy or death.”
Chaput says it feels like farmers are trapped in business with no growth potential, and the state should step in.
- Elodie Reed
4. State releases preliminary results showing low PFAS concentrations in Lake Memphremagog
The state on Tuesday announced preliminary results from ongoing PFAS monitoring on Lake Memphremagog. The so-called "forever chemicals" were discovered there last fall.
Preliminary findings showed concentrations well below Vermont’s safe drinking water standard of 20 parts per trillion.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is looking for 36 types of PFAS, in surface water and fish tissue in the lake, and in its tributaries on the Vermont side of the border.
Rick Levey is with the DEC. At a forum in Newport, he said researchers detected just two types of PFAS in the lake, and in amounts deemed safe by federal and state regulators.
“These are very low concentrations, and they’re actually concentrations consistent with what you would find even in very remote areas around the world,” Levey said.
This was the first of three rounds of sampling. A final report is expected in October.
- Abagael Giles
Coventry landfill water treatment moratorium likely to be extended
A four-year moratorium on treating landfill water at Newport's wastewater plant is likely to be extended for another three years, the state announced Tuesday.
In the past, leachate from the Coventry landfill was treated in Newport and released into Lake Memphremagog. But the plant – like others across the state – does not remove PFAS, so-called "forever chemicals" associated with household waste.
The extension comes as regulators in Vermont and Quebec are investigating the presence of PFAS chemicals in the lake.
Pete LaFlamme is with the Agency of Natural Resources. He says the moratorium is part of a new pre-treatment permit for the landfill, which is owned by Casella.
"We're going to continue the moratorium on discharging of that leachate to the Newport facility,” LaFlamme said.
He says the new permit will require Casella to remove PFAS from leachate onsite, the first such facility in Vermont. A draft will be made public in September.
- Abagael Giles
5. Vt. health care system to add 15 inpatient psychiatric beds
Vermont’s health care system is expanding the number of inpatient beds available for psychiatric patients.
Secretary of Human Services Mike Smith says nine beds will come online at the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital in Berlin next month.
He says the Brattleboro Retreat will open up an additional six beds at its facility.
“Mental health capacity has been an issue pre-pandemic, and it continues to ebb and flow throughout the year,” Smith said.
Psychiatric patients have been enduring long waits in emergency rooms due to a lack of inpatient beds elsewhere.
Smith says staffing shortages had prevented the Vermont Psychiatric Hospital and Brattleboro Retreat from using the beds they’ll be opening up in September.
- Peter Hirschfeld
6. Lincoln voters decide to withdraw from school district
Residents of the Addison County town of Lincoln have voted to withdraw from the Mount Abraham Unified School District.
A proposal from the district would "repurpose" the town's small elementary school, and send students to school in neighboring towns. But some of Lincoln's residents proposed leaving the district in order to preserve the school.
Resident Louella Bryant voted in favor of withdrawing.
“It's a very strong community,” Bryant said. “Without the school, I'm just afraid Lincoln will die.”
The town can now begin the process of withdrawing from the Mount Abe district. The neighboring town of Ripton pulled out of its district, Addison Central, after a similar vote last year.
- Anna Van Dine
7. Apportionment Board head hopes preliminary district map is available by October
The head of the legislative board that guides the state's redistricting efforts hopes his group will have a preliminary map of new House and Senate districts by mid-October.
The new map will reflect the changes in Vermont's population over the last 10 years based on a new census report.
Apportionment Board chairman Tom Little says one of the major challenges the board faces is finding ways to reflect that Vermont's population is continuing to shift from the southern part of the state to the northwest corner.
"That involves the Apportionment Board coming to an agreement among its members on how to do that, and there’ll be some negotiations around that as you imagine there always would be,” Little said.
Little says the map will also continue to shift political power away from the rural parts of the state to the more urban and suburban areas.
- Bob Kinzel
8. U.S. House passes bill restoring Voting Rights Act, Welch says it would have "huge impact"
The U.S. House has given its approval to what Rep. Peter Welch calls quote “one of the most important" bills of the session.
The House voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that restores the Voting Rights Act named after the late civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis.
Welch says the bill restores the federal government's authority to combat a wave of restrictive new elections laws from Republican-controlled state legislatures.
"They're implementing laws that are going to make it much more difficult for people to vote, particularly people in low-income communities, and they're taking power away from the secretaries of state and putting it into legislatures, so it's very ominous,” Welch said. “It's really going to have a huge impact on people who have a right to vote.”
The bill faces an uncertain future in the U.S. Senate.
- Bob Kinzel
Elodie Reed compiled and edited this post.
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