MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The state of Vermont is considering using electronic road signs to help promote the use of the vaccines against COVID-19 in remote Essex County, officials said.
The Caledonian-Record reports the county in northeastern Vermont that borders Canada and New Hampshire has the state’s lowest percentage of its population vaccinated against the virus.
As of Saturday, 31.2% of the state’s 16-and-up population had received at least their first dose of vaccine. In Essex County, the figure was 23.2%.
“It’s a big county, it’s a long county – north to south – and it’s a rural county,” said Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith. “People are pretty spread out.”
The mobile electronic signs would be used to inform residents when and where vaccination clinics are being held and how to sign up.
The signs will also let people know the vaccines are free.
“It doesn’t take that many more people to bring it up to the statewide average,” Smith said. “The population is fairly small in that county to bring it up.”
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PRISON CASES
On Monday, the Vermont Department of Corrections reported three new positive cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 at the Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport.
The cases were found in testing done March 18 and they were in the same unit as the past four rounds of positive results among inmates. No staff tested positive.
There are currently 33 cases among inmates and three among staff. The department says 145 inmates who had previously tested positive are no longer positive for COVID-19 and they have been cleared to leave isolation.
The entire facility is being tested again on Monday.
The outbreak began after one staff member and 21 inmates tested positive in sampling done on Feb. 23.
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NUMBERS
On Monday, the Vermont Department of Health reported 84 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to almost 17,840.
There are currently 25 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including five people in intensive care.
There have been a total of 219 fatalities since the pandemic began.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 126.43 new cases per day on March 6 to 121.43 new cases per day on March 20.
The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Vermont has risen over the past two weeks from 0.57 deaths per day on March 6 to 0.71 deaths per day on March 20.
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