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Nine of Vermont’s 14 counties now fall under federal recommendations for universal indoor hiding, with five reporting the highest category of Covid-19 spread by standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC recommends that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks in indoor public places in all nine counties.
State officials, however, stopped before making the same call.
“I still think it’s a personal choice,” Gov. Phil Scott said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. “I think you have to make decisions based on your risk, who is part of your family, who is part of your household, so to speak, and whether you should attend any events inside where you could pick up the variant. Again, I think you need to do your own risk assessment and then make your own decision at this point. “
Unvaccinated people should always wear masks indoors, Health Commissioner Mark Levine said. But if those vaccinated choose to mask themselves “as an extra layer of protection on the inside, especially if it’s crowded or you’re traveling, that’s fine, too,” Levine said. “Do what makes sense to you and your personal comfort level, and do it knowing that you shouldn’t be judged for it. “
The conflicting recommendations come as cases continue to rise due to the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, the counties of Chittenden, Essex, Franklin, Orleans and Washington reported “high” spread of Covid, which the CDC defines as more than 100 cases per 100,000 population over the past week.
Bennington, Caledonia, Lamoille and Windham counties showed “substantial” spread, defined as more than 50 cases per 100,000 population.
The health department on Wednesday reported 85 new cases, putting the state’s seven-day average at its highest level since April 21. Hospitalizations remain high: 23 people are currently hospitalized with Covid, and seven of them are in intensive care.
The average seven-day test positive rate is 3.2%.
Scott said on Tuesday he intended to make vaccination mandatory for employees of certain state institutions, but no further statewide mandates are expected. In order to force private institutions to impose vaccination or testing, Scott said, “we will have to reactivate the state of emergency, and we are not prepared to do so at the moment. A state of emergency is not necessary.
Scott and Levine have also expressed confidence in the state’s recent guidelines for K-12 schools. The two-page memo released last week does not address the vaccination of school employees. It enforces universal masking for the first two weeks of school, then allows for the abandonment of mask rules for ages 12 and over when 80% of the vaccine-eligible population in a school has received both injections.
Experts said the guidelines did not protect students and staff.
Liz Winterbauer, a consulting epidemiologist and health services researcher, said on Wednesday she was “puzzled” by the state’s decision to deviate from the CDC’s recommendations.
Children under 12, who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated, constitute a large population of vulnerable Vermonters, said Winterbauer, who also teaches health classes at UVM and St. Michael’s College.
“We are putting these children at risk by not hiding inside, not giving schools more advice and more encouragement to take all the mitigation measures that we have seen succeed in the past, in no way. ‘not encouraging testing on people who have been vaccinated so that we get more data on breakthrough infections that can help us make public health decisions, ”she said.
More caution is needed as questions remain about breakthrough infections and the risks of the Delta variant to children, Winterbauer said.
“We basically have to throw whatever we can – take whatever mitigation we have – on this virus until we know more about it. Because the risks are too high, especially for children, ”she said.
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