By Stephen Mills
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MONTPELIER — While still in the early stages, Gov. Phil Scott and other state officials Friday outlined steps being taken to ramp up the response to the COVID-19 virus and its impact in Vermont.
At a news conference, Scott said he was not considering an order to shelter in place, but said “everything was on the table” going forward to deal with the pandemic.
“The measures we’re implementing, while disruptive, are based on the best science we have from experts, and we’re committed to doing all we can to help people weather the storm,” Scott said.
Elsewhere in the country, California announced Thursday it would require its 40 million residents, except for essential workers, to shelter in place to prevent community spread of the virus, beginning Friday evening. New York also ordered nonessential people to shelter in place Friday.
As of Thursday, California had 675 confirmed coronavirus cases; New York had more than 7,000 cases by Friday. Also, officials in Connecticut and Illinois asked residents to stay home.
On Friday morning, Vermont’s Health Department reported 28 confirmed cases in the state.
Last week, Scott ordered the closure of schools, child care centers, and bars and restaurants until April 6. On Friday, Scott said it is likely the mandatory closure period will be extended.
“We’re still increasing the number of positives we’re seeing, the exponential threat is still there, and I would expect we Vermonters need to prepare for a much longer period of time,” Scott said. “But I’m not ready to declare that … certainly it looks as though we’re going to have to move that date further forward.”
Health Commissioner Mark Levine said the testing capability of suspected cases had increased.
“We’re now having access to commercial lab capacity out-of-state, which will allow us to test a majority of what we term low-priority test specimens, hopefully within a 48-hour turn-around time,” Levine said. We continue to do all the high-priority testing in-state, with a 24-hour turn-around time.”
Officials said there are a total of 500 available hospital beds in Vermont. The number of ICU beds has increased to 49, surgical beds have increased to 204 and isolation beds have climbed, as well.
Scott said state officials were working with insurance companies to make sure no one loses health benefits during the emergency, and he said the premiums for the Dr. Dinasaur child health care program would be waived.
Also, Scott said, the state would pay for the child care costs of essential workers. Health insurers would also be asked to allow a 30-day supply of prescription medication for patients.
On unemployment benefits for workers laid off, or having to stay home with children after schools were closed this week, Scott said the state had streamlined the process and added more staff to deal with a jump in claims.
“We’ve made unemployment (benefits) available to all Vermonters who can’t work because of coronavirus,” Scott said. “We also waived the work search requirement for those who were laid off or had their hours reduced during this emergency.”
For businesses ordered closed, Scott said the state would work to ensure that people who were laid off would not face eviction. Similarly, financial institutions would be asked to allow grace periods for individuals and businesses having difficulty meeting mortgage payments.
“To further protect workers, I’ll also ask the legislature to expand and extend job protections for those employees of small businesses who cannot work due to family and medical reasons,” Scott said.
“We’ve also requested a disaster declaration from the Small Business Administration which would make emergency loans to Vermont’s small businesses,” he added. “To supplement this, we’ll be working with the legislature to create a business loan program through (Vermont Economic Development Authority), similar to what we did in the immediate response to Tropical Storm Irene.”
Scott said the Agency of Commerce and Community Development also is providing resources to support businesses with technical assistance and regulatory guidance.
Scott said the state utility companies also had pledged not to disconnect services for people unable to work and pay bills.
To assist vehicle owners, Scott said the Department of Motor Vehicles had shifted to online, phone and mail services only and he had directed staff to grant a 90-day extension for all license and registration renewals.
State officials are closely monitoring the prison population for contagion and testing any inmates before they enter prisons. No furloughs are anticipated at this time and video-conferencing would be used to assist visitations with prisoners.
Levine said state health officials continue to monitor the Burlington Health and Rehab facility, where a woman in her 80s died of the virus on Thursday and where four other four other residents have also tested positive for the virus.
“We have been rigorously working with the facility regarding their infection control procedures,” Levine said
Levine said the state had also requested the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assist in the investigation at the facility.
“The CDC is probably as overwhelmed as everyone in every state is feeling at this time, so I don’t know how feasible or realistic that is,” Levine said.
State officials said they were still working on projected numbers of people potentially infected in the state before releasing any information.
“We have those initial estimates internally, but we’re working on getting them with more accuracy before disseminating (more broadly),” said Commissioner of Financial Regulation Michael Pieciak. He said the state has said it is already monitoring hundreds of cases.
Scott said he expected that Vermonters would rally to the current challenge facing the state and the nation.
“We’ve been through multiple challenges in our history,” he said. “If you take the 1927 flood here in Vermont or you take the Depression in the ’30s, certainly, we’ve seen this in (Tropical Storm) Irene, and we got through it, and we’ll get through this as well.”
Scott said he expected to have another update on Monday.
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