Vermonters need to prepare for what could be a bleak time over the next several weeks as the state continues its efforts to control the outbreak of COVID-19, but there are glimmers of hope, Gov. Phil Scott said Monday.
Scott reiterated that Vermonters need to stay home and stay isolated from others as most effective tool to stop the spread of the virus.
“This is a once-in-a-century challenge, but with each of us sacrificing for the greater good, with neighbors helping neighbors and using Vermont common sense and ingenuity, and by uniting around the common cause of protecting one another, we will beat this.”
Twenty-three Vermonters have died from COVID-19, and projections for the number of people expected to die range from about 40 to 100, Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said.
One projection estimates the effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 could save 1,700 lives, Levine said.
“I’d like us to focus on that ideal, because we can’t really say how this is going to play out,” Levine said.
As of Sunday, more than 500 cases have been confirmed in Vermont.
For most people, the virus that leads to COVID-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
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SUPPLIES
Statistics released Sunday showed that in a worst-case scenario, the state of Vermont will run out of supplies of some types of personal protective equipment such as N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves and body protection between April 14 and May 5. But under what are now considered the best and most likely cases, the state’s supply of that equipment will be adequate to cope with the demand.
There are more than 200 ventilators in the state that would be used to help treat the sickest COVID-19 patients, Vermont officials said.
The state is asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for 600 ventilators. No deliveries have occurred or been promised.
FEMA has asked states to advise when they see a 72-hour critical need that will outstrip state capacity. Vermont planners are monitoring for that period.
Meanwhile, the state, working with hospitals and staff, is in the process of buying 452 ventilators from eight separate suppliers. About 50 have begun arriving or are in transit.
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PRISON
The Vermont Corrections Department says the state prison in Swanton is operating in a modified lockdown due to a possible coronavirus exposure.
The department says a staff member at the Northwest State Correctional Facility is sick with COVID-19-like symptoms. A preliminary test came back negative, but given the symptoms a second test was ordered.
The staff member was last at the prison March 26 and began to show symptoms March 28.
Staff and inmates will be issued face masks and have their temperatures checked at the end of every shift. The inmates will be fed in their cells and allowed out for recreation in small numbers in accordance with social distancing practices.
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