The Vermont Department of Health reported 235 new Covid-19 cases on Monday. It’s a relative low compared to recent days — but the highest number ever reported on a Monday, which tends to have lower case counts because of reduced testing on the weekend.
Looking at the rolling seven-day case average shows a different picture: Vermont has had an average of 369 cases per day over the last seven days, tying with Nov. 12 for the highest seven-day case average during the pandemic.
The department also disclosed four new deaths over the weekend, raising November’s total to 29 deaths. In total, 405 people have died in Vermont since the beginning of the pandemic.
Fifty-three people are currently hospitalized for the virus, down from a recent peak of 62 people late last week. Fifteen people are in intensive care units.
The coming holiday weekend may throw off data reporting in the coming days. For previous holidays, the department has delayed updating Covid data and vaccine dashboards on holidays and sometimes skips regularly scheduled reports.
Lower testing over the holiday weekend may also affect case counts in the coming days. The state is offering a limited number of special testing sites in advance of Thanksgiving that offer one-hour results to encourage Vermonters to get tested.
Limited contact tracing means less data
Another change has already come to the Department of Health’s Covid data reports: The department has stopped publishing a vast swath of data in its twice-monthly data summary.
The report, which once included detailed data on the demographics and outcomes of Covid cases in Vermont, is now limited to a few pages on monthly case data and breakthrough cases.
The department last week pulled back on contact tracing efforts that had underlain the data.
“As of November 13, 2021, due to the large number of Covid-19 cases the Health Department began prioritizing contact tracing to people at higher risk,” the department said on its website. “Because of this, ongoing data collection and reporting is limited and the data summary will be reported in a limited format.”
Department spokesperson Katie Warchut said that the department still interviews a limited number of Covid patients, but that means their data is also limited.
“The data that is not included this week do not change frequently, and you can refer to previous summaries for past data,” she said.
Anne Sosin, a Dartmouth College health policy researcher, said contact tracing data helps the state to understand how the virus is spreading in Vermont communities and is essential for data-driven policymaking.
Speaking last week, Sosin expressed concern about the department choosing to only interview high-risk Vermonters.
“The purpose of contact tracing is to disrupt onward transmission to people who are at high risk,” she said. “Identifying high-risk cases doesn't enable us to do that. We need to contact trace to identify people who are either at high risk themselves, or in contact with high-risk people.”
She said the state’s contact tracing capacity being overwhelmed was a “clear indicator that (the state has) lost control of their epidemic.”
“Contact tracing is how we get ahead of the epidemic,” she said. “And when we outstrip our contact tracing capacity, like we've done, we know that we're at a really dangerous point.”
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