Despite new federal limits on who can get a Covid-19 vaccine and the arrival of the cold and flu season, many Vermonters can still get a booster, though details surrounding Medicare reimbursement and federal recommendations remain uncertain.

In a late August post on X, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the Food and Drug Administration approved Covid-19 booster shots, but only for those 65 and above or with existing health risks. 

Vermont state officials are now awaiting a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which typically guides public health directives and insurers’ coverage, for those who want to get a fall booster shot.  

“Really the best thing that I can recommend is either to go online and see if you can set up an online appointment (for a vaccine), or call pharmacies in your area to see if they’re available,” said Julie Arel, the state’s interim commissioner of health.

In Vermont, pharmacies are moving forward with administering the vaccine. Kinney Drugs and CVS have the updated Covid vaccines in stock. Pharmacies order directly from the manufacturer. Providers — doctors’ offices and other clinics — often get vaccines through the state, which is not yet able to order the vaccines from the CDC. 

Kinney Drugs’ spokesperson Alice Maggiore confirmed that the stores can administer the 2025-26 vaccines to people above 65 and individuals between 12 and 64 who attest to having one of the qualifying conditions, as outlined by the CDC. 

CVS is able to vaccinate anyone over 5 years old, who attests to eligibility under the same CDC’s preexisting conditions list, or anyone older than 65, according to a company executive, Amy Thibault. 

The underlying risks outlined by the CDC range from asthma or a smoking history to mental health disorders, like depression obesity, or physical inactivity. Patients do not need a doctor’s prescription to confirm the underlying condition at Kinney or CVS, both spokespeople said.

Typically, insurers cover vaccines received in a pharmacy. Whether some private and government insurers will be able to cover the vaccines remains uncertain. Even if people can get the vaccine by walking into a pharmacy, it’s unclear if they will have to pay for it:  “It’s a little bit mind boggling,” Arel said. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, the state’s largest private insurer, plans to continue to cover the vaccine for any member, at no cost and with no prior approval, said Andrew Garland, a vice president and spokesperson for the insurer. Blue Cross Blue Shield of VT intends to do so through 2026, as well. MVP, the state’s other private insurer selling plans on the marketplace, also does not anticipate changes in its vaccine coverage policy, said Elizabeth Boody, a spokesperson for the company. 

What employer-sponsored insurers and providers like Tricare, the military health system, might be able to cover, is still unclear.

Since the FDA has already approved the vaccine for those over 65, it is likely that Medicare, which covers the same age group, will cover the vaccines. Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law, San Francisco, told NBC News that once the FDA approves a vaccine, Medicare has the authority to cover it.

Generally a Covid vaccine undergoes three steps for approval: First the FDA authorizes the new vaccines — which it did in August. Then a panel within the CDC called ACIP (short for Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) issues a recommendation on the vaccine. It is scheduled to meet Sept. 18-19, to do so. This year many are holding their breath ahead of ACIP’s announcement, since Kennedy gutted the panel and replaced it with many vaccine skeptics. 

The state is weighing whether and how it will need to break from that typical process, and is currently exploring what Vermont statute allows for breaking with that process.

While it is quite common for providers to prescribe a drug outside of what the FDA has authorized them for, it’s not typical, however, for that to happen with vaccines. The FDA’s lack of formal guidance on what qualifies as an underlying condition leaves room for interpretation surrounding who qualifies for the vaccine.

“There’s some flexibility in there, but because it’s not as clear as usual, there is going to be hesitancy, in all likelihood,” said Arel. “And anytime there’s hesitancy, anytime there’s confusion, it’s going to lead to lower immunization rates. We really want to try to avoid that.”

The Department of Health is also looking to Vermont’s neighbors in the Northeast for direction, Arel said. In August, the department joined with other state health departments in the region to build a coalition ready to respond to shifts in federal guidance. Though the group has no unified recommendation, she says it’s something they are considering to help mediate the current disjunctive state of vaccine recommendations and approvals. 

“If as a region, we can become more aligned, it helps people across the whole Northeast region to feel a level of confidence in their state public health department’s decisions and how we’re moving forward,” she said.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healy required in-state insurance carriers to cover the vaccines recommended by the state’s Department of Public Health, even if they are outside of the federal recommendations. The state’s commissioner of public health also issued a standing order that allows pharmacists to issue Covid shots to anyone over the age of 5. 

In response, Arel said Vermont is watching its neighbors and looking into where state statute might allow for potential action. 

“Getting clarity and having a message be clear and simple, is going to be the most important thing we do,” Arel said. “Unfortunately, we are still working through all of that, but we are committed to finding our way through it and making it as simple and easy as possible.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: As feds tighten Covid vaccine rules, Vermont works to maintain access .

The federal government authorized new Covid-19 boosters on Sept. 11, paving the way for millions of Americans to get updated protection tailored toward recent strains of the disease.

Two weeks later, the vaccine has slowly started making its way to Vermont pharmacies and health care providers — but many Vermonters report that appointments are difficult to find. 

Katherine McDonald, a Maryland resident who lives part time in Barre, told VTDigger she scoured the pharmacies in Barre and Berlin and found no available appointments into October. She even visited the pharmacies in person to double-check that they wouldn’t take a walk-in, only to be told that they could only schedule slots online.

Ultimately, she found an appointment for this weekend in Morrisville, a lengthy drive away for the 77-year-old McDonald. 

“There’s so much controversy among folks about whether to get the shot for a lot of different reasons,” she said. “If you have trouble making an appointment, a lot of people may not persevere.”

A search of major pharmacy chain websites appears to back her experience. CVS, Hannaford, Walgreens and Kinney Drugs had no appointments listed in central Vermont as of Tuesday, and few appointments listed elsewhere in the state in places like the Northeast Kingdom. 

Vermont is not the only place with limited Covid vaccine appointments available. National news outlets have reported a limited supply of doses at national pharmacy chains as Moderna and Pfizer begin to ship out the latest booster. 

Katie Warchut, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health, said the supply of Covid boosters is limited, but the vaccines would be more broadly available in coming weeks. 

“We appreciate Vermonters’ patience,” Warchut said in an email.

Matthew Blanchette, a spokesperson for CVS Health, said the pharmacy chain was receiving doses on a rolling basis and advised Vermonters to continue to check its website for new appointments.

John Marraffa Jr., president of Kinney Drugs, said in a statement that the company had not experienced a “shortage” of the Covid vaccine, but that it planned to “open appointments only when we have enough vaccine to take care of those patients.”

The limited supply comes amid changes in how Covid vaccination campaigns are being handled at a state and federal level. Covid vaccines are now commercialized, meaning the federal government is no longer taking an active role in supplying doses to the states. Instead, each pharmacy or pharmacy chain is responsible for arranging its shipments, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. 

Warchut said the commercialization has also led to issues with various insurers nationwide in covering their members’ vaccinations, as reports arise of insurance denials and delays. She said the federal government had contacted insurers to help resolve them. 

This is also the first year since the vaccine became broadly available in 2021 that the health department does not plan to host any mass vaccination clinics, Health Commissioner Mark Levine told Vermont Edition on Tuesday. 

Some Vermonters have complained that the system for finding Covid vaccines is overly complicated. Burlington resident Kate Van Wagner said the vaccines.gov website, which was created to help Americans find vaccines, is “useless.”

“(It) shows a bunch of availability, but when you click through to individual pharmacies, they don’t have any appointments for adults,” she said via email. She also couldn’t find any appointments for her 5-year-old child within 100 miles of Burlington. 

She wrote that she was experiencing “deja vu” to the time period when young children were not yet eligible for any Covid vaccine. 

“Covid (is) raging all around us,” she wrote. “We supposedly have this additional layer of protection available, but functionally it is absolutely not available.”

Warchut said she could not yet say how many Vermonters have been vaccinated with the latest booster. The health department plans to begin providing data in late October, after the numbers become high enough to avoid privacy concerns. 

As of April 2023, the last time the department published data, 35% of Vermonters 5 and older had received an updated Covid booster dose. That’s compared with 80% of the total Vermont population who had completed the primary series of the Covid vaccine.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermonters face limited appointments and insurance mixups with new Covid vaccines.

Correction: Due to inaccurate information previously published on the federal Department of Health and Human Services website, an earlier version of this story wrongly indicated that there was a test-to-treat location in Richford. As of April 19, Health and Human Services has corrected its website to reflect there are no test-to-treat locations in Vermont.  

In his State of the Union address in January, President Joe Biden promised a new strategy for defeating Covid-19. One key element was a new “test-to-treat” program, where Americans could take an antigen test and immediately receive antiviral therapy if they qualified for it.

But Vermont pharmacies soon learned that none of them had the infrastructure needed to participate in the program, which required in-pharmacy clinics. One month later, doctor’s offices, too, have mostly failed to join the program. 

There are no test-to-treat locations in Vermont, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

However, getting antiviral treatment in Vermont is still an option for high-risk individuals. Research shows that antiviral therapy can lower the risk of hospitalization and death, particularly if taken early in the course of the disease.

Here are more details about getting antiviral treatment.

What antiviral medications are out there?

Antiviral therapies work by targeting viral activity within the body, according to the National Institutes of Health. They work best when taken early in the disease because they limit viral replication, which happens early in the course of the disease.

One antiviral therapy for Covid, remdesivir, has been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but it is administered only through injection, typically in hospitals or clinical settings.

Two oral medications — Paxlovid and molnupiravir — have Emergency Use Authorizations from the FDA, and both are available in Vermont. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported it distributed 220 units of Paxlovid and 72 units of molnupiravir to Vermont in the week ending April 17.

Of the two medications, Paxlovid is considered the more effective, with an estimated 88% reduction in hospitalization and death for patients who take it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Molnupiravir reduces severe outcomes by about 30%.

Another treatment option is monoclonal antibodies, which target specific spike proteins on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Because their effectiveness depends on the viral strain, right now only bebtelovimab is distributed to Vermont. The health services agency reported it gave Vermont 140 doses of it last week.

Primary care providers are often the people who decide which medication to prescribe, or whether to direct someone to the hospital for treatment, said Georgia Maheras, vice president of policy at the Bi-State Primary Care Association. Which drug you get may depend on your demographics or the latest research.

“It feels like every day there’s new information about these therapeutics. It’s a pretty fluid scenario,” she said.

I tested positive for Covid. How do I get antiviral therapy?

The best way to find out if you qualify for antiviral treatment is to call your health care provider, Maheras said. “They know about all the other things that are going on in your body,” she said.

You can also find out if you’re in a high-risk category for Covid by going to the CDC website. Everyone over age 65 is considered high-risk, along with people who have chronic medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, lung disease or kidney disease. Smokers and people who are overweight are also at higher risk of Covid complications.

Once you’ve learned that you qualify and receive a prescription for antiviral medication, the next step is finding a pharmacy that carries the drug. That can be complicated, Maheras said. 

“It’s not like there’s tens of thousands of these therapeutics just pouring into the state,” she said. “A challenge that we’re all managing through is trying to make sure it gets to other parts of the state when there’s not an overabundance of supply.”

The U.S. health agency website has a list of places that carry antiviral pills.

According to Vermont Department of Health spokesperson Katie Warchut, the state works to make sure “select Kinney Drug locations, hospital emergency departments and a few independent pharmacies have a supply of antivirals on hand. Some other locations, like CVS, receive a separate federal supply,” she said via email.

What if I don’t have a doctor? Or insurance?

Maheras said that even if you don’t have a go-to primary care provider such as a family physician, you may be able to get treatment through a couple of different places. 

You can call one of Vermont’s nine free and referral clinics, which provide free services to Vermonters who need help obtaining health care. The state also has federally qualified health centers that provide primary care services on a sliding-scale payment system. The health department recommends calling 2-1-1 for more information.

Urgent care clinics in your community might also be an option, Maheras said. You can also go to the emergency department of your local hospital, but she said that should be a last resort unless you have symptoms that need immediate treatment, such as difficulty breathing or a high fever.

Antiviral treatment should be free even if you are uninsured, Maheras said. Although Congress allowed funding for free Covid treatment to expire last month, other resources have gone directly to providers or to the state.

“There’s a few different layers that provide some level … of assurance that the individual should not be the one bearing the burden,” she said. “Eventually that could be problematic, but in the moment, I think folks should not let financial concerns be a barrier to getting this specific care.”

Still, she recommended making it “very clear” to explain that you’re someone with insurance. 

She admitted it may be difficult for one particular population to obtain this therapy: People who are homebound or have another disability that makes it difficult for them to reach a pharmacy in person.

“I would hope that whoever you talk to … is also able to provide information around that, ‘oh, you know, a courier can deliver it’ or we can figure out (how to) tap into the transit system, or  whatever those specific solutions are,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont doesn’t offer test-to-treat, but Covid-19 antivirals are still available. Here’s how to get them..

Lynne Vezina did not have any over-the-counter Covid tests available at Vermont Family Pharmacy on Thursday and her supplier had not told her when she would get a shipment. 

“I have them on a back order and I check three times a day, but it hasn’t been available for, I would say, 10 days,” Vezina said.

The tests can indicate within 15 minutes whether a person is infected with Covid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends taking the tests again at least 24 hours later as the tests do not immediately pick up whether a person is infected. The quick turnaround makes the tests a practical way for people to figure out whether they should get together with others. 

But as the Omicron variant causes case numbers to multiply and Vermonters head into celebrations of the new year, supply of the tests is haphazard.

Vezina said decisions by the federal government and the Vermont Department of Health to hand out take-home Covid tests have dried up the supply to pharmacies. 

She recognized that government distribution of free tests may mean that more people are getting them. 

“But I just think that before, the state wasn’t getting any tests to give to anybody (and) the federal government wasn’t getting any tests to anybody, and so we could get them, but when they put in all these orders for them, I think it took it out of the supply chain,” Vezina said.

Lakeside Pharmacy in Burlington did have rapid antigen tests for sale on Thursday. 

“We just managed to get some in,” staff pharmacist Ryan Quinn said.

Quinn said the order the pharmacy got on Wednesday and another it received last week mark the first time he has been able to obtain take-home tests from any distributor since around Halloween.

“Since these have been available for the average person, there has been kind of a steady demand for them,” Quinn said.

The pharmacist said until October, he would only be able to order two boxes of a test, enough for two people. 

“I limited them to a box a person and most of the time, I would order those tests and I would end up selling those tests within the hour of my stocking them,” Quinn said. 

Walgreens did not respond to an emailed question about whether the drug store chain has any over-the-counter Covid tests at any of its stores in Vermont. 

Instead, Zoe Crey, manager of retail and merchandising communications, emailed a statement. 

“Due to the incredible demand for at-home rapid testing, we put in effect a four item purchase limit on at-home COVID-19 testing products in our stores and digital properties in an effort to help improve inventory while we continue to work diligently with our supplier partners to best meet customer demands,” Crey said.

She said some stores may experience a temporary shortage in rapid over-the-counter tests and referred customers to Walgreens.com for updates on the latest available store inventory information.

It is a cumbersome process. You have to locate a particular store, then type in “Covid,” upon which a list of all the over-the-counter tests Walgreens sells drops down. You then have to pick an individual test to see if the store has it in stock.

VTDigger did searches for every over-the-counter Covid test Walgreens sells at the 158 Cherry St. store in Burlington. None were available on Thursday.

A spokesperson for CVS did not directly respond to an emailed question on whether tests are available at Vermont stores either. 

“We continue to work around the clock to provide stores with inventory of the five over-the-counter at-home COVID-19 tests we offer,” spokesperson Tara Burke said in an email. 

Burke said CVS has imposed a limit of six test kits per purchase. 

“We’re committed to providing families with protection and peace of mind during the holiday season, and we continue to offer access to lab-based testing with results available in 1-2 days or rapid COVID-19 testing at more than 4,800 CVS Pharmacy locations (nationwide),” Burke said. 

Shaws and Albertsons, owners of Hannaford, did not respond to phone calls or emails requesting information. 

Andy Miller, owner of Brattleboro Pharmacy, did respond, but said in an email he was “really busy” on Thursday.

Kinnney Drugs President John Marraffa said the company has just shipped 60,000 antigen tests to stores in New York and Vermont. 

“It’s really hard to say where we have them or don’t have them in stock because they’re selling as fast as we can put them on the shelf,” Marraffa said.

Marraffa said the stores open between 8:30 and 9 a.m., and by 9 a.m. Thursday 400 test kits had already sold. 

“I would say that in certain pockets of Vermont there’s probably a few tests remaining,” Marraffa said. 

He hopes to get more supply in stock by Monday. He said the federal and Vermont governments are making test kits available to Kinney in certain areas.

“When you think about Kinney drugs, think about how rural our markets are, so in some areas, we’re able to (get) support from the feds and from the state level as well,” Marraffa said.

Kinney has 21 stores in Vermont.

“Our goal is to distribute these kits within our communities to help keep everyone safe and get us back to normal,” Marraffa said.

The tests are extremely difficult to get from suppliers, said Jeff Hochberg, one of the owners of Smilin’ Steve, a chain of six Vermont pharmacies.

“Usually they’re battling with (the) federal government (and) state governments alike,” said Hochberg, the president of the Vermont Retail Drug Association. 

That battle is for supplies of drug test kits, said Hochberg, and the biggest customers get the biggest allocations. This makes it especially hard for a small chain like his or for independent pharmacies to get supplies.

Hochberg said four big distributors, McKessen, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and Smith Drug, control most of the supply. He said test kits are very difficult to get through those four distributors.  

He is now turning to alternative distributors that have some supply, he said. 

“I’m working with one of them trying to obtain a large quantity for my stores,” Hochberg said. 

But then, he said, another challenge arises: Whether the test kits distributed through those smaller distributors are covered by insurance companies. 

He said he has been able to get one test kit that is not accepted by insurance companies, and so customers cannot get reimbursed. 

“It falls short of being a good substitute for the initiative here to get products free of charge to every Vermonter,” Hochberg said.

Clarification: This story has been clarified to better reflect how Covid tests work.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Finding a take-home Covid test at a Vermont pharmacy is hit or miss.

Weeks after Gov. Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Health drew sharp criticism for barring out-of-state college students from Vermont’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout, the state is preparing to open vaccine appointments to those very students.

Part-time Vermont residents — including college students who usually live in other states — will be allowed to register for vaccine appointments as of April 29, the health department said Wednesday. To date, only college students who are also full-time Vermont residents, or who plan to remain in the state during the summer, have been eligible to sign up for shots.

In a press release, the health department said the new guidelines are based on the state’s vaccine supply from the federal government. 

The April 29 date could be moved up, depending on the availability of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was suspended last week, according to Jason Maulucci, Scott’s press secretary. 

Based on conversations with federal officials and other governors, Scott believes it is “quite likely” that Johnson & Johnson shots will be in use again soon, Maulucci said in an email Wednesday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control will deliver an update on the vaccine’s viability this Friday. 

After Vermont opened its vaccine rollout to all residents over age 16 last weekend, out-of-state college students and other part-time Vermont residents were among the last adults in the state ineligible to receive shots.

Before Wednesday, Scott and health department officials maintained that allocating shots to college students from other states who will not be staying in Vermont could limit the number of doses available to full-time residents. 

Sixty percent of Vermont’s 38,000 college students were from outside the state in 2019, according to data gathered by the Vermont Higher Education Council.

Scott at one point credited the decision to a need to “take care of Vermonters first.”

The move left out-of-state students — especially students of color, who were briefly eligible to get the vaccine after the state opened its rollout to all people of color on March 30 — confused and disheartened. Experts questioned the public health strategy of barring a large portion of the state’s young population from the rollout. 

As officials have cautioned that Covid-19 variants are to blame for high rates of viral spread through the spring, young people have driven Vermont’s steady, high case numbers. But case numbers, including among young people, are beginning to slow, officials said at Scott’s regularly scheduled press conference Tuesday.

Meanwhile, some Vermont colleges are considering vaccine mandates for students — provided that the vaccine supply can handle such rules.

Maulucci said opening vaccines to all adult residents of the state will mark an important milestone.

“Now that supply allows for eligibility to be broadly expanded, the end of this difficult period is truly in sight,” Maulucci said. “And if Vermonters continue to do their part and sign up [for vaccines] — which they’ve done so far — we are on pace for a much more normal and great summer.”

Vermonters may schedule vaccine appointments through four websites: The health department, Kinney Drugs, CVS and Walgreens.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont to open vaccine eligibility for out-of-state college students, temporary residents.

Updated at 8:30 p.m.

A flood of Covid vaccine signups by Vermonters 70 and older has caused long wait times and glitches in the state’s website. 

Registration opened at 8:15 Tuesday morning. Within 15 minutes, the Vermont Department of Health received 7,000 calls to sign up. By late Tuesday afternoon, nearly 19,000 Vermonters, close to 60% of eligible people in that age group, had signed up for an appointment.

The health department warned of long wait times “as the call center works full bore to schedule appointments.” 

“I urge you to remain patient,” said Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, noting that average caller wait times hovered around five minutes, though the wait was somewhat longer when the system was jammed. 

The state has offered three ways to sign up: Through the Department of Health, Walgreens and Kinney Drugs. By noon, Kinney Drugs was scheduling appointments more than five weeks out.

Some Vermonters reported technical glitches in online sign-ups; health department spokesperson Ben Truman said the state’s IT staff was working on the “complications.”

“Everyone will get scheduled, and there are enough appointments for all,” Health Commissioner Mark Levine assured people. 

So far, about 78,000 Vermonters have received the vaccine, and about half of them have received both doses, Smith said. Half of Vermonters 75 and older have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, including 850 homebound Vermonters who are vaccinated through home health agencies and emergency medical services.

On Tuesday, the University of Vermont Medical Center canceled its vaccination clinic at the Champlain Valley Exposition because of bad weather. State officials vowed that those appointments would be rescheduled within a week. All other Vermont vaccine sites remain open.

Gov. Phil Scott said Vermont’s federal allocation of vaccine doses will continue to rise in the coming weeks. 

The federal government will also increase the number of doses it provides to pharmacies, though some governors have expressed concern that the arrangement prevents states from managing the distribution process.

“The pharmacies are out of our control in some respects,” Scott said.

To register for a vaccine appointment or get information on walk-in clinics, visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine or call 855-722-7878. 

You will be asked to provide your name, date of birth, address, email (if available), phone number, and health insurance information (if available, but not required).

Cases sink among older Vermonters

While the number of overall cases has stagnated or slowly declined in recent weeks, the number of cases among Vermonters 75 and older has dropped significantly, which could be the reason the state is reporting a large drop in deaths, said Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation.

The state reported 814 cases in the past week, compared to 956 the week before, Pieciak said — an encouraging decline in cases, but not as dramatic as the falling number of cases regionally and nationally.

Throughout the country, cases have fallen below 100,000 a day, and regional cases are down from their latest peak, he said. 

“Every state and Quebec has seen improvement compared to last week,” Pieciak said. “This is the first time since November that our regional cases are fewer than 100,000 on a weekly basis. And you can see that we’re also reporting fewer cases than we did back during the spring peak as well.”

In all, regional cases are down 57% from their latest peak, while Vermont cases are down only 34%, according to Pieciak’s presentation.

Bennington and Rutland counties continue to recover from their latest surge, while cases are rising this week in Essex and Franklin counties, Pieciak said.

“Everyone in Vermont should be vigilant and take the public health guidelines seriously,” he said. “But certainly, these four counties where cases are more elevated and the rest of the state should certainly be following the guidance, very closely.”

Levine said there have been some school-related outbreaks in Franklin County, including one in Enosburg, but most cases were tied to community transmission.

“Outbreaks have not been a major feature of this case growth, and very few schools are involved,” he said. “However, one of the school outbreaks may have spawned two secondary small outbreaks on farms.”

‘We are now in a race’

The state reported 53 new Covid cases and one new death on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths to 191, Levine said. The state has 37 people currently hospitalized with the virus.

“It’s clear that we are now in a race, a race to continue to suppress the virus by adhering even more strictly to public health guidance,” he said. “The other participant in the race is the vaccine.”

Pieciak said the number of cases among Vermonters 75 and older has dropped from about 11 cases per day a month ago to about three per day now, coinciding with the beginning of the vaccination of that age group.

The number of deaths per week has also fallen, from a high of 20 in a single week in mid-December to just three per week in the past week.

The state hopes to issue more guidance as soon as Friday in light of the increasing vaccination rate and new CDC guidelines that loosen quarantine rules for vaccinated people, Scott said.

“We’ve been reviewing their recommendations and are working to update our state guidance to reflect these changes, including what it means for vaccinated Vermonters when they are close contact or traveling,” Scott said. “But there are still many details we’re trying to work out. And we know there will be a lot of what ifs that will come as a result.”

Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermonters age 70 and over rush to register for Covid vaccines.

Updated May 18.

To register for a vaccine appointment or get information on walk-in clinics, visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine or call 855-722-7878. 

You will be asked to provide your name, date of birth, address, email (if available), phone number, and health insurance information (if available, but not required).

All Vermonters 12 and older are now eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Also eligible are out-of-state college students, people living in Vermont part-time and people who live out-of-state and work in Vermont.

Vaccinations are available by appointment or at walk-in clinics.

Four entities are scheduling vaccine appointments: The Vermont Department of Health, Kinney Drugs, CVS and Walgreens.

Each has its own registration system. You may choose to schedule an appointment with whichever is most convenient. However, the Health Department has said you should not book an appointment on multiple sites — please pick one.

Other pharmacies are also providing vaccines in Vermont, including Walmart, Costco, Hannaford, Shaw’s, Rite Aid and Price Chopper. Appointments at these stores are available through the Health Department website or call center (855-722-7878). There is no separate system for appointments at these locations.

New Hampshire is now providing vaccine appointments regardless of residency — meaning Vermonters may cross the border to get a shot. All appointments in New Hampshire can be booked through the state’s vaccination website or by calling 866-444-4211.

Those age 12 to 17 must seek out the Pfizer vaccine. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are authorized for use only by those 18 and older.

Do I have to live in Vermont to get the vaccine in Vermont?

In most cases, yes — but there are exceptions. Patients will be asked to provide their Vermont address when registering for an appointment.

As of April 29, out-of-state college students and people who live in Vermont part-time are also eligible. As of May 7, people who work in Vermont and live out-of-state are eligible. The Health Department is also providing vaccines for people who recently moved to Vermont and haven’t yet established residency.

You’ll be able to provide that information when you register or arrive at a walk-in clinic.

What about Vermonters who are homebound or can’t get to a clinic?

These individuals will be contacted by their local hospital or primary care doctor to schedule an appointment. Vaccines are being administered in patients’ homes by emergency medical services.

What if I already had Covid?

The Health Department recommends that you still get the vaccine. However, if you’re currently sick with Covid-19, or in isolation following a recent Covid illness, you will not be allowed to get the vaccine until after your infection has cleared.

What if I’m allergic to other vaccines?

In most cases, you will not be eligible for the current Covid-19 vaccines. The Health Department recommends you contact your health care provider for more information.

Will I be charged?

No — the vaccine is free.

Does it hurt?

Medical workers who were among the first to receive the shots told VTDigger it felt comparable to an annual flu shot. One called it “painless.”

Patients are typically instructed to sit for 15-30 minutes after receiving the shot to make sure there are no adverse reactions. 

The most common reported side effects have been pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever and nausea. These side effects should go away in a few days, according to the Health Department. If they don’t, contact your doctor.

For more information, read the full vaccine FAQ from the Vermont Department of Health.

Read the story on VTDigger here: How to sign up for the Covid vaccine.

Vermont now has 6,450 child care slots available through state-created child care programs. The system will serve working parents whose kids are in hybrid learning programs that have them at school part time during the week.

The system, a program that uses $12 million in funding from Vermont’s share of the federal Covid-19 CARES Act, is temporary and can be dismantled after kids return to in-person instruction five days a week, said Mike Smith, secretary of the Agency of Human Services. The child care hub system was created as an addition to the existing child care system.

Speaking at Gov. Phil Scott’s regular Covid-19 press conference Tuesday, Smith said he ultimately expects the state to create 9,000 temporary child care spots. The biggest obstacle he anticipates is finding people to work in the child care centers. He put a call out to the estimated 40,000 people who have been left jobless by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We need you,” said Smith, asking job candidates to contact the Department for Children and Families for more information. “This is a herculean task to get this up and running.”   

Sept. 8 was the first day of school, in classrooms or at home, for thousands of Vermont children.

Scott, who has pressed in the past for more in-person instruction, said that health experts think the time spent away from school has been emotionally damaging for children.

“Reopening our schools allows us to reestablish the routines for relationships and activities of school life that are essential to the well-being and healthy development of our students,” he said. He added that for the first few weeks, the priority must be social and emotional needs, with an increased emphasis on academics in a few weeks.

The state will be able to lift some of the restrictions on in-person instruction this fall if Vermont’s Covid-19 infection rate remains low, he said.

New testing opportunities

The state has tested more than 146,000 people since the pandemic began, Health Commissioner Mark Levine said at the press conference. That is about a quarter of Vermont’s population.

Most of those tests have been carried out at sites operated by the Health Department and the Vermont National Guard, or through hospitals and health care providers. Walgreens also operates a drive-through testing site in Essex Junction.

Levine announced Tuesday that Kinney Drugs plans to begin offering Covid-19 tests at 11 sites around the state, starting the week of Sept. 8. The tests are free but patients may be asked for insurance information for the Kinney Drug tests.

The state has also improved its digital registration and results reporting system, Levine said, so that people can receive their test results through an email, not just a telephone call.

That said, Levine also asked the public not to overuse the testing system.

“We know many Vermonters want to do the right thing to protect their friends and family and for some people, the urge is to get tested,” said Levine. “But while anyone can get tested, not everyone needs to get tested. The best way to protect yourself from Covid-19 and keep our schools and economy open is to follow all of the key prevention practices” such as wearing a mask and staying at least 6 feet away from others, he said.

Vermont has seen 1,654 cases of Covid-19 and has had 58 deaths, the last one on July 28. Only one new case has been reported in connection with a recent outbreak in Killington, for a total of 18 cases. State officials are now waiting to see if there are any new cases connected to the Labor Day holiday, recent Burlington police protests, and school reopenings.

“I must say in the times I was out, I was very impressed with what I observed in the behavior of fellow Vermonters,” said Levine of mask use at the Burlington protests.

Retroactive unemployment supplement

The state has received $35.8 million from the federal government to pay a $300 supplement per week to unemployment insurance claimants. The money is intended to go part of the way in replacing the $600 federal unemployment insurance supplement that ended in late July. Lawmakers were considering an additional $100 to bring the supplement up to $400.

Mike Harrington, commissioner of the state Department of Labor, said Tuesday that checks could start going out as early as next week. But they will only cover the first three weeks of August.

The U.S. Senate returned to session Sept. 8, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., planned to address his colleagues on the topic of the supplement, said spokesman David Carle.

“Until Congress takes action, there won’t be an additional amount of money,” Scott said of additional federal Covid-19 emergency funding.

Public safety reform

On Friday, the governor’s office released an executive order on public safety reform that includes making data on complaints about police more publicly available, addressing racism, and taking another look at the presence of police officers in schools. Local and state officials are also talking about ending qualified immunity for law enforcement officers – a doctrine that shields government officials from being held personally liable for violating the constitution.

Scott declined to give details about his policy preferences, such as police in schools, saying he’d prefer to leave it up to the districts.

“But we need to have the conversation,” he said. “Ending racism in our country is literally in our hands; the government can’t do this. But we can individually. It’s about how we treat each other, and it’s about a mindset.”

Correction: There is no charge for Covid-19 tests at Kinney Drugs. The state will cover the cost for those not insured.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Child care expanded as schools reopen; more Covid testing offered.