By Mike Donoghue
Correspondent
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Gov. Phil Scott said Thursday that the state of Vermont will investigate to see whether police and fire personnel that are on the front lines for medical emergencies can be moved up the list of people expected to get vaccine shots for COVID-19 shortly.
The comment came as the governor, along with his staff hosted his 100th press briefing about the deadly pandemic since March.
The promise came in the wake of an outbreak at the Bennington Police Department that the Vermont Health Department withheld from the public before Christmas and only became public this week when somebody with knowledge of the case reached out to the Bennington Banner. Police Chief Paul Doucette confirmed he was one of six BPD employees — five officers and one civilian — to have a positive COVID test.
Vermont Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said Thursday that Vermont State Police and municipal police across the state, along with county sheriffs have been bumped out of initial lineup for the vaccine shot.
Health care workers, including emergency medical technicians that often staff ambulances were placed in the top group — known as 1A — to get the vaccines. Police and firefighters were part of a group known as 1B, but the state of Vermont changed the vaccine release system and has eliminated 1B, 1C and other lower groups. Instead, the state is going to give preference to old-age categories starting with 75 years old and up. It will move to 70 years old and up, followed by 65 years old and up, Smith said.
Scott later added that he wanted the definition of emergency medical workers to be redefined. He noted that about 37% of the rescue personnel have received their shots and more are in line. Smith said that equates to 992 vaccines given to EMS.
Doucette, by going public with his positive test, has helped raise the level of awareness about COVID in the hard-hit community of 16,000 and in public safety. Bennington County has the second highest rate over the past two weeks in Vermont — behind Chittenden County.
Doucette warned people that anybody apparently can get infected. He said he has worn facial masks, kept social distance, washed hands and taken other safety precautions.
Bennington had one major outbreak involving 30 cases that the health department dated as Dec. 24. The Bennington Police case is among three instances about the same time.
While the health department finally acknowledged the Bennington Police outbreak after two days of news stories, it would not identify the other two sites, which each had fewer than 6 cases. It did announce that six other cases were uncovered late Wednesday afternoon at the Bennington Veterans Home.
Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd said the hope is that some of the employees will be cleared to return to work next week.
A spot check with law enforcement agencies across Vermont this week shows they are waiting for their vaccine shots.
Vermont State Police, the largest agency, is still awaiting word on when it will be getting vaccines for its rank-and-file personnel. Department spokesman Adam Silverman confirmed none of the nearly 300 sworn state troopers have been vaccinated.
Winhall Police & Rescue may be the only Vermont law enforcement agency because of its structure to be able to provide adequate vaccinations to their police. The agency has 10 paid certified police officers, who are certified EMTs as well to go along with 14 rescue volunteers. The police respond to all fire and rescue emergency calls in the resort town.
Police & Rescue Chief Derrick Tienken said all 24 Winhall members were authorized to get vaccine shots at the Grace Cottage Hospital in nearby Townshend.
Tienken, who has been with the department for 15 years and recently became chief, said he received a vaccination. As far as the rest of the town police, the chief said he left it up to each officer to make the decision and has not asked them.
Vermont police have said they are interested in getting the vaccine because they have considerable contact with the public. Police are often called on for life-saving efforts, serious accidents with injuries and sometimes providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation or other first aid.
Firefighters face some of the same concerns. Fire department members frequently are called out to assist local rescue squads working with patients and especially for heavy lifting of patients or carrying them to ambulances.
Dr. Mark Levine, the state’s health commissioner, said some of the public safety people that have been bumped will be able to get the vaccines because of their ages or medical conditions.
Scott said he was concerned about reports that some hospitals were providing vaccine shots to some of their work-at-home employees.
“We’ve been made aware. That’s not what we had in mind,” Scott said. He said front-line workers should be getting the shots, while “back of the house” including management were not considered essential for getting shots.
He said Mike Smith, who was delegated to speak with the hospitals about the issue, made contact with the chief executive officers before the news conference.
The UVM Medical Center was among those reportedly alerting employees that they were working with managers to develop a list that would provide shots to all employees. By late Thursday afternoon, UVM Medical Center issued a statement that said it would not distribute the vaccine to employees who are fully remote or who work in buildings that patients do not enter. The hospital said it “will continue to work with the state to determine the timing for those groups.”
UVM Medical Center had vaccinated 3,096 employees and 1,169 community health care workers as of Wednesday, spokeswoman Annie Mackin said.
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