When is VT Opening

[hillbangin]

Not soon ........Looks like he does not want anyone skiing Memorial Day Weekend

Accordingly, Scott hinted that some restrictions would be lifted on Friday. Last Friday, while Scott extended his “stay home/stay safe” order to May 15, he very slightly lifted one restriction, allowing inns and other lodgings to start booking stays after June 15.

VTDigger is posting regular updates on the coronavirus in Vermont on this page. You can also subscribe here for regular email updates on the coronavirus. If you have any questions, thoughts or updates on how Vermont is responding to Covid-19, contact us at coronavirus@vtdigger.org

Vermont is going to join a multi-state regional effort to coordinate responses to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Scott said Wednesday. The governor also hinted that he will ease some business restrictions Friday.

Loosely organized groups of cooperating states have formed over the last few days on both U.S. coasts as governors have sought a path forward to reopening their economies. Scott said he got a call Tuesday night from an official in New York about that group, which includes seven continguous states. At his regularly scheduled news conference about the coronavirus emergency on Wednesday, Scott described the group as “more of a formal recognition of what we are already doing.”

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The purpose of the coordination is not to have all the states open the same sectors at the same times, Scott emphasized. Rather, it’s to keep officials informed regionally of plans to reopen, so that they can be coordinated. He used golf courses as an example where this could prevent a ripple effect.

“In Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, if one of those states were to open up their golf courses, there would be a lot of people traveling to their state to play golf,” said Scott. “Those are the types of things where we want to make sure we’re strategic and really pay attention.”

Scott and other officials sounded a positive note at the news conference. The governor said he was encouraged by the latest numbers from the Vermont Health Department, which show the number of new infections is now doubling at a rate of only once every two weeks. Health Commissioner Mark Levine said he was hopeful that the infection rate is reaching a plateau.

Accordingly, Scott hinted that some restrictions would be lifted on Friday. Last Friday, while Scott extended his “stay home/stay safe” order to May 15, he very slightly lifted one restriction, allowing inns and other lodgings to start booking stays after June 15.

In response to a question about reopening farmers markets this spring, Scott indicated more announcements are on their way.

“We want to put this on the front of the list,” he said of farmers markets. He added he’s been working with Anson Tebbetts, the secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, but declined to go into more detail.

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“But suffice it to say if we can do this safely, we want to make sure people understand they can still sell their goods, they can do it from home, being safe, but to put everyone together at this point in time in the traditional fashion is just not something that would be beneficial to many,” he said.

It has been more than three weeks since Scott signed an order March 24 in response to the mounting crisis of the spreading coronavirus, calling for all non-essential businesses and not-for-profit businesses to cease all in-person operations and for individual Vermonters to stay home when possible. There are increasing calls from some businesses and some members of the public for the governor to start loosening those restrictions.

Scott reiterated that the pace at which businesses reopen depends on how the coronavirus infection rate continues in Vermont.

“We’ve had a strategy in place that I think has been beneficial to many, and we just want to make sure as we plateau and go down the down side that we’re doing this in a very, very methodical way,” he said. He noted that Vermont lies within 300 miles of big cities like New York City and Boston. “This virus knows no state boundaries. That’s why we’re being very cautious, being careful. If we continue to do this in a strategic way, we’ll be fine.”

Even when businesses and public places to start to reopen, said Levine, new measures will be needed to prevent infections, particularly in the period of time before a vaccine is developed and distributed.

“As we look into the future, we’ll definitely need to have very robust data on the rate of exposure,” Levine said, expressing hope that serology testing — which measures the amount of antibodies or proteins present in the blood after an infection — might be used to prove who is immune and who isn’t.

“It won’t be an end to social distancing, to limitations on large gatherings, perhaps, to facial coverings or all the public hygiene things,” Levine said. “We’ll still have to maintain a very aggressive testing strategy.”

Vermont still doesn’t have the testing capacity it needs, but Levine said the tests are going to states with a higher rate of infection than Vermont. More than 12,000 Vermonters have been tested so far, he said – meaning Vermont is in the top five states nationally for testing per capita.

“This is a national issue,” Levine said.

The governor used his three-times-a-week press conference to give a shoutout to some of the dozens of Vermont companies that sprung into action in the early days of the emergency to help. Burlington-based Burton Snowboards worked to get half a million N95 masks into the hands of health care workers in Vermont and neighboring states.

“I never thought I’d be sitting here talking about Burton sourcing medical masks,” said Donna Carpenter, Burton’s owner and board chair, who like most of the press conference attendees participated remotely. “It’s kind of insane when you think about private companies stepping in when it really should be the federal government.”

Scott also thanked Martti Matheson of JV Air for helping organize the flight of 4,000 Covid-19 testing samples to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota in the early days of the pandemic.

“We truly could not do this without you,” Scott said to the Vermont companies at large.

The governor has also gotten an earful from Vermonters about the slow processing of claims at the state Department of Labor. Overwhelmed for weeks, the department has brought on dozens of extra workers to answer phones and is now moving to a third-party processor, said interim Commissioner Michael Harrington. Both Harrington and Scott apologized for the delay and the worry that the backlog has caused people who are trying to file claims.

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“I accept responsibility for this,” Scott said. “This is an area we didn’t foresee. No excuses, but we need to do better, and we’re going to do better, and if this doesn’t prove to be enough, we’ll initiate further methods.”

Asked if Vermont will follow federal guidance on reopening businesses, Scott said he’d continue to base his decisions on data and science. Earlier in the week, he rejected President Donald Trump’s claim the federal government held the power to reopen the economy.

“We didn’t have their input in some respects when we got into this, and we don’t need their perspective … while we’ll take their advice, we don’t need them telling us how to get ourselves out of this either,” Scott said. “I believe history will show we did the right thing.”

[SnoBrdr]

How can any place or anyone seriously suggest that the country be open without a vaccine in place.

Won't it just revert back to what we have now?

[ME2VTSkier]

How can any place or anyone seriously suggest that the country be open without a vaccine in place.

Won't it just revert back to what we have now?

Of course. Open everything back up, and start stacking bodies like cord-wood.

[hillbangin]

How can any place or anyone seriously suggest that the country be open without a vaccine in place.

Won't it just revert back to what we have now?

Nobody is going to force anyone to go out. Nobody has forced anybody to go out.

Butt it would be nice to have the option to go out.

[brownman]

The Absolute Total Supreme Authority has assured us ..
Feb. 27: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” —

VT is open .. one just needs to pick from a range of daily options. Many already have their yards in great shape .. now need warmer weather. White water kayaking is our normal pastime this time of year. No distancing issues whatsoever. No population density issues in Stockbridge.

Thing I miss most is TD Garden loge seating

[DES]

Thing I miss most is TD Garden loge seating

Obviously I miss skiing, but it is really strange to not have hockey playoffs going on, nor a Stanley Cup winner after a season of regular play. Playoff hockey is by far my favorite thing to watch on TV (actually, I'd be certain my TV isn't even turned on the rest of a year in total, as much as it's on during the NHL playoffs).

[throbster]

Scott is a RINO. He doesn't seem too concerned about destroying Vermont's economy over the flu.

[SnoBrdr]

Both VRBO and AirBnB have set June 15th as the day to start accepting reservations agin.

Seems very optemistic.

[doofus]

for those who still think this is the flu- look at the data. As of today with >677,000 confirmed cases the fatality Rate is 5.1%. That is 50 times the typical flu fatality rate.

[madhatter]

for those who still think this is the flu- look at the data. As of today with >677,000 confirmed cases the fatality Rate is 5.1%. That is 50 times the typical flu fatality rate.

New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States, has recorded 10,056 deaths out of 195,031 cases, a fatality rate of 5.1 percent.


Other states near the top of the list have large numbers of residents who suffer from the underlying conditions that seem to exacerbate the coronavirus. Kentucky, Oklahoma and Indiana all have relatively high case fatality rates, even though their number of confirmed cases is lower than in other states; they are among the states with higher-than-average obesity, diabetes and smoking rates.

“If you're having a large number of elderly or people with underlying conditions getting infected, then you're going to have a higher case fatality rate,” Roess said.

On the other end of the spectrum are smaller rural states that have seen relatively few cases so far, and where geography or population density have created a sort of built-in social distancing.

Wyoming on Monday became the last state in the union to report a death from the coronavirus. It has only reported 275 confirmed cases. Utah and South Dakota both have case fatality rates under 1 percent, though the number of cases in South Dakota has risen rapidly for such a small state in recent weeks.

West Virginia, Montana, Hawaii and Idaho all have case counts under 2 percent. So does North Carolina, a larger state but one with a substantial rural population.

The United States is trending better than the global average case fatality rate, according to data compiled by the European Centers for Disease Control. Worldwide, COVID-19 has killed a little more than 6 percent of confirmed cases. The rates are much higher in places like Italy and Spain, where health systems were overwhelmed by a huge explosion of cases in early March and where fatality rates stand north of 10 percent.

Comparison with Swine Flu
The overall case fatality rate as of 16 July 2009 (10 weeks after the first international alert) with pandemic H1N1 influenza varied from 0.1% to 5.1% depending on the country. The WHO reported that swine flu ended up with a fatality rate of 0.02%.

[newpylong1]

How can any place or anyone seriously suggest that the country be open without a vaccine in place.

Won't it just revert back to what we have now?

Nobody is going to force anyone to go out. Nobody has forced anybody to go out.

Butt it would be nice to have the option to go out.

No, because then every clown starts travelling again and adding new exposure vectors. You can't set a timeline on a virus.

[DrJeff]

How can any place or anyone seriously suggest that the country be open without a vaccine in place.

Won't it just revert back to what we have now?

Nobody is going to force anyone to go out. Nobody has forced anybody to go out.

Butt it would be nice to have the option to go out.

No, because then every clown starts travelling again and adding new exposure vectors. You can't set a timeline on a virus.

The other thing is that there is a much greater grasp of how to lessen the spread of the virus now, than there was when it all started. An opening back up, won't be like things were before (that may never happen, even once a vaccine with widespread immunizations has happened) but some public gathering in smaller numbers, with social distancing and use of a face mask, and in the additional levels of awareness for groups with other significant risk factors such as advanced age, smoking, obesity, etc

Beyond that, the X factor will be what each individuals level of comfort with the situation and there personal protective steps they're taking will be.

It's going to be tough to justify having a large festival or a major sporting event with fans in attendance for a while for sure. The risk reduction strategies were seeing in place are working, as well as the simple fact that as each day passes were learning more scientifically about how the virus spreads, who has greater risk factors, and steps we can do to reduce those risks. Add in the fact that as more and more testing is done, we'll likely see that a fair amount of the population has already been exposed to the virus, but never had significant effects, and likely have some immunity towards it.

[madhatter]

How can any place or anyone seriously suggest that the country be open without a vaccine in place.

Won't it just revert back to what we have now?

Nobody is going to force anyone to go out. Nobody has forced anybody to go out.

Butt it would be nice to have the option to go out.

No, because then every clown starts travelling again and adding new exposure vectors. You can't set a timeline on a virus.

The other thing is that there is a much greater grasp of how to lessen the spread of the virus now, than there was when it all started. An opening back up, won't be like things were before (that may never happen, even once a vaccine with widespread immunizations has happened) but some public gathering in smaller numbers, with social distancing and use of a face mask, and in the additional levels of awareness for groups with other significant risk factors such as advanced age, smoking, obesity, etc

Beyond that, the X factor will be what each individuals level of comfort with the situation and there personal protective steps they're taking will be.

It's going to be tough to justify having a large festival or a major sporting event with fans in attendance for a while for sure. The risk reduction strategies were seeing in place are working, as well as the simple fact that as each day passes were learning more scientifically about how the virus spreads, who has greater risk factors, and steps we can do to reduce those risks. Add in the fact that as more and more testing is done, we'll likely see that a fair amount of the population has already been exposed to the virus, but never had significant effects, and likely have some immunity towards it.

yep NO ONE is advocating for full re-open everywhere with zero restrictions....what is being advocated for is determining what can be open while employing best safe practices and protocols and what cannot be open because best safe practices and protocols are not practical or possible...

I've long practiced these protocols as means of preventing illness and only when I've been lax w those protocols have I gotten ill ( ski bum happy hour is the worst and when I see posts here in regards to covid I see why)

last winter I went to almost every ski bum happy hour and quite a few random happy hours as well...I got sick 5 separate times....this past winter I went to only 2-3 of the happy hours and virtually zero others...never got a single cold or other malady the entire season...

but the catalyst for the boycott was the douchebag ambassador on the skyeship gondola who bragged about intentionally spreading the flu at his bartender job cuz "that's how he got it and if he has to be miserable then so does everyone else"

hopefully COVID will quell the number of people who share his attitude...

[throbster]

Governor Scott is a pussy. That is all.

[Sporte]

Don't know if this is news here...

Today Governor Scott outlined an approach for the phased restart of Vermont’s economy, emphasizing the state’s mod- eling indicates initial steps can be taken while the Stay Home, Stay Safe order remains in effect. The
new addendum to his executive order:
• Allows small crews for outside construction or other outdoor trade jobs, and single-worker low- or no-contact professional services
• Clarifies guidance for retailers to allow additional operations using delivery and curbside service
• Outlines safety requirements for these entities and others already operating to ensure continued social distancing, hygiene and disinfection