COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) - Three people underwent elective outpatient procedures at Vermont’s largest hospital, which is now ramping back up nonemergency services.
MyNBC5.com reports that the three procedures took place Wednesday at the University of Vermont Medical Center’s Fanny Allen campus in Colchester. Overnight stays will resume in the coming weeks.
“We have a lot of people who have been very patiently waiting to get procedures that they really need,” said UVM Medical Center President Dr. Stephen Leffler.
Leffler said the hospital’s goal is to get back to doing 60% of the procedures they were doing pre-COVID-19, which will allow for patients to be socially distant and for the cleaning of operating rooms between cases.
The hospital hopes to reach the 60% goal over the next four to six weeks, UVM hospital spokeswoman Annie Mackin said in an email. The hospital would stay at 60% until further notice to keep patients and staff safe and manage supplies of personal protective equipment.
The move comes after Vermont Gov. Phil Scott updated his executive order to allow for the resumption of certain medical procedures.
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CHILD CARE, SUMMER and AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM RULES
Staff and children over age 2 will be required to wear cloth facial coverings at day care centers and in after-school and summer programs after they reopen from the COVID-19 closing, according to new regulations issued by the state of Vermont.
Children under age 2 must not wear facial coverings. The only exception to facial coverings for older children is for those who have a medical reason for not wearing one. In narrow circumstances, providers and staff may remove facial coverings such as when communicating with a hearing impaired parent or caregiver who reads lips to communicate.
Those are some of the recommendations issued late Wednesday by the Department of Health and other agencies to the state’s child care operations, summer camps and after-school programs that are preparing to reopen after the COVID-19 induced closings.
The same guidelines, which take effect June 1, exclude children, staff, parents and guardians from child care sites if in the preceding 14 days they have been in contact with someone with COVID-19 or someone who is awaiting results of a COVID-19 test or if they are at high risk of complications due to underlying health conditions.
Separate guidelines for overnight camps will be issued at some point in the future.
THE NUMBERS
On Thursday, the Vermont Department of Health reported three new cases in which people tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the total to just over 930. Vermont has not reported a COVID-19 fatality in more than a week, keeping the total at 53.
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