By Kathy Mccormack and Lisa Rathke
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Here are the latest developments regarding the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic:
New HampshireA judge dismissed a request to stop enforcing a mask-wearing policy at a number of school districts in New Hampshire’s Rockingham County.
Parents of children in the districts alleged in a lawsuit filed in August that wearing masks causes their children to have difficulty breathing, develop facial acne and rashes, suffer anxiety and experience headaches.
The parents challenged the legality of mask mandates on the grounds that they violate a state law prohibiting the use of “dangerous restraint techniques” in schools; that the school districts lack the authority to issue mask mandates and that the state Health Department’s authority under regulations concerning communicable diseases conflicts with the mandates.
Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Marguerite Wageling ruled on Saturday that the plaintiffs haven’t established a likelihood of success on their arguments.
The parents sued school districts in Exeter, Brentwood, Kensington, and Stratham.
Request to withdraw federal funding ask: New Hampshire’s health and human services commissioner asked a legislative fiscal committee to withdraw her requests for the acceptance of $27 million in federal COVID-19 vaccination funding that was rejected by the Executive Council.
Both the council and the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee needed to approve the funding for the state to accept and use funding that would have created 13 new positions to facilitate vaccination efforts.
The Department of Health and Human Services expects to bring alternative federal funding requests to both groups, a department spokesperson told WMUR-TV.
Both items – one for $22.5 million and the other for $4.5 million – had been tabled by the council and committee after Republican members expressed deep concern that accepting the funds would have bound the state to follow federal directives and mandates related to COVID-19, including “quarantine and isolation.”
Attorney General John Formella said that wasn’t the case.
The numbers: More than 128,000 people have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, including 588 cases announced Friday. Four new deaths were announced, bringing the total to 1,520.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has risen over the past two weeks from 473 new cases per day on Oct. 2 to 548 new cases per day on Saturday.
VermontGov. Phil Scott emphasized the personal responsibility of Vermonters to help keep those at greatest risk from COVID-19 out of the hospital at his weekly virus briefing Tuesday.
Getting vaccinated is key and those eligible for a booster shot should get theirs as soon as possible, he said during the news conference. He also urged Vermonters to think about how they can reduce exposure to the elderly by getting tested and avoiding high-risk situations before visiting them. Unvaccinated Vermonters should wear a mask around others or in a populated setting, he said.
“And I want to be very clear: if you’re one of the Vermonters who is never going to get vaccinated, it’s even more important that you do your part, to avoid spreading COVID to someone who is at risk or putting your children in a position where they’re out sick from school,” Scott said. “Because not getting vaccinated, taking no precautions at all, and carelessly exposing an elderly family member, neighbor, customer or patient is selfish and it’s dangerous.”
Vermont COVID-19 cases rose 10 percent over the last seven days and 39 percent over the last 14 days, according to Michael Pieciak, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, who is handling the data.
Half of the state’s current residents with the disease did not know where they contracted it, while many had been in a crowded indoor space where there was little mask wearing, Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said.
Hospital pressure: o relieve some of the pressure on Vermont hospitals caused by a combination of factors, including COVID-19, the state is opening 80 beds at long-term care and rehabilitation facilities, said Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith.
“It’s clear that our health care system as the governor mentioned and our health care workers are under stress,” Smith said during the Gov. Phil Scott’s weekly virus briefing on Tuesday.
It’s a result of a combination of factors, including people delaying care and arriving at hospitals or doctors’ offices with more acute conditions; people going to the emergency department with mental health needs; and a shortage of staffed beds available for patients to be discharged from hospitals, he said.
“The main point I really want to make here is that across the board our health care workforce is under stress,” Smith said. “With that said, day in and day out we see them going above and beyond to care for their fellow Vermonters. So I want to take a moment to thank them, to sincerely thank them for all that they do,” he said.
Homeless housing: While the governor’s administration has extended a motel voucher program for some of the most vulnerable homeless Vermonters to the end of December, advocates on Tuesday called for the program to last through the winter and include those who lost access to the state-paid motel rooms this summer.
In July, the state extended the motel voucher program for families with children, the disabled, pregnant women and other vulnerable people, and gave $2,500 checks to those no longer eligible. Scott later extended the program for those still eligible until Oct. 21, and now until Dec. 31.
“We are so glad that the administration is ceasing to ask Vermonters to trade their shelter for money. Also that there is a slightly longer reprieve before Vermonters ‘currently in the program’ in crisis will have to worry about where they go next yet again,” said a letter to the governor on Tuesday from advocates who said they have been sleeping outside on the Statehouse steps for the last five days in protest. “However, to not include the 1,000 plus Vermonters that you exited is unacceptable.”
Among other things, the administration has proposed moving those in the motel rooms to longer-term motel rentals also to be paid for with federal rescue funds with a goal of providing more permanent housing in the future. About 950 households are now in motels with the number of rooms at capacity as tourism has increased, said Department for Children and Families Commissioner Sean Brown.
“We were able to house over 2,000 households … during the pandemic because the economy essentially shut down and hotels were not serving travelers and tourism, tourists. That has now changed,” he said.
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