HARDWICK, Vt. (AP) - The COVID-19 vaccination program for Vermonters who are 75 or older began Wednesday at a number of locations across the state.
Registration opened on Monday for people in the 75 and older age group and by Wednesday morning more than 29,000 people had signed up. Wednesday was when the actual vaccinations began.
A clinic held in the gymnasium at Hazen Union High School in Hardwick gave its first inoculation around 9 a.m. There were three vaccination stations and they hope to vaccinate 150 people the first day, said Valerie Valcour, the public health nurse running the clinic.
“We are working through some of the little kinks, but I think it’s working smoothly overall,” she said.
There are an estimated 49,000 people in Vermont who are over 75. Officials estimate it will take about five weeks to give everyone in the category both the first and second shots.
Then the focus will turn to people aged 70 and over and then 65 and over.
“I believe the start of spring is a good projection for this,” Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said when asked how quickly he felt those groups could be vaccinated.
Once those two categories have been met, the state will focus on vaccinating people who are 18 to 64 who are at higher risk for complications or death from COVID-19.
Officials are still working out the details of what would happen after that group is vaccinated.
State officials are encouraging people to sign up online if they are able, even urging friends and relatives to help them. There is a call center where people can call to make a reservation, but officials warn the wait times could be long.
The first phase of the vaccination program was for health care providers and people in long-term care facilities.
The Vermont Health Department says more than 44,000 people, just under 8% of the state population over age 16, have received the first dose of the vaccine. Both vaccines in use require two shots to be fully effective.
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OFFICIALS ENCOURAGED
Vermont officials say they are encouraged by a steady decline in the number of new cases of the virus that are being detected across the state.
Statistics released Wednesday showed that the number of new cases are continuing to decline, the seven-day average is declining and the number of cases in people over age 65, those at highest risk of complications or death, are also continuing to decline.
There have also been fewer deaths and fewer deaths in long-term care facilities.
“Though our progress with vaccinations has been quite good, it has not been a factor in the trends that I just talked about,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said during the briefing. “In fact, our data shows we still have a long road ahead of us.”
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DOSES POTENTIALLY SPOILED
Smith said that as he was walking into the press briefing with the governor, he learned that 860 doses of the Moderna vaccine were stored at the Springfield Hospital at an incorrect temperature: 9 degrees, rather than 8 degrees.
Smith initially said that after checking with the manufacturer, they were told the doses had to be “wasted” to prevent concerns about the viability of the vaccine. But later Wednesday, Health Department spokesperson Ben Truman said officials were still working with the manufacturer to determine if the doses were viable.
“At this time, we’re still seeking final guidance from the manufacturer on the potential loss of doses due to a temperature excursion,” he said in a statement.
“This is unfortunate because we’ve had minimal, I mean minimal, wasted doses in this state,” Smith said.
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NUMBERS
On Wednesday, the Vermont Department of Health reported 78 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to almost 11,400.
There were 46 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including eight in intensive care.
The state saw one additional fatality, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to 172.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 172.71 new cases per day on Jan. 12 to 137.71 new cases per day on Jan. 26.
The latest average positivity rate in Vermont is 2.12%. 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.
The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 2.54% on Jan. 12 to 2.12% on Jan. 26.
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