MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont received the first installment of a COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, which will be distributed to hospitals through the state.
Vermont received 1,950 doses, the first part of a weekly 5,850-dose shipment expected through December.
The University of Vermont Medical Center and the state each received 975 doses Monday. On Tuesday, the Health Department will receive an additional 1,950 doses, and another 1,950 doses will ship later this week directly to pharmacies that have contracted with the federal government to administer vaccines at long-term care facilities.
“This is an important milestone and an essential step toward defeating a virus that’s devastated families and businesses throughout Vermont and around the globe,” Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement. “There is no better, safer or faster way to defeat this virus and work to rebuild our economy than a successful effort to make vaccines available to every single Vermonter.”
Those receiving the doses include high-risk health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.
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THE NUMBERS
On Monday, the Vermont Health Department reported 104 new cases across the state of the virus, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to just under 5,860.
There are currently 26 people hospitalized across the state with four of those being treated in intensive care units.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont has risen over the past two weeks from 71.14 new cases per day on Nov. 29 to 105.43 new cases per day on Dec. 13.
The latest average positivity rate in Vermont is 2.18%. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Vermont the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test specimens using data from The COVID Tracking Project.
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