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Explore our coverage of government and politics.

Gov., Health Commissioner Announce First Two Deaths Of Vt. Patients Testing Positive For COVID-19

Gov. Phil Scott, left, used his media briefing Friday to commemorate Juneteenth in Vermont. But Scott said the state continues to wrestle with the legacy of racism that slavery left on the nation.
Henry Epp
/
VPR file
Gov. Phil Scott and Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine called a last-minute press conference Thursday to announce two elderly Vermonters have died from COVID-19.

Two Vermonters who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. Gov. Phil Scott and Health Commissioner Mark Levine announced the first coronavirus-related deaths in the state at a hastily arranged press conference Thursday night.

Two elderly residents died on Thursday. One was a Windsor County man who was treated at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in White River Junction, and one was a woman who lived at the Burlington Health and Rehab nursing home.

Both were “very elderly" according to Levine. He also said the cases are not believed to be travel-related.

“There is no doubt this is sad for all of us, but it’s not unexpected news,” Scott said from the Department of Health offices in Burlington.

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The state's epidemiology team was conducting exams and tests of staff and other residents at Burlington Health and Rehab on Thursday, Levine said.

The news comes less than two weeks after the first diagnosed case was announced in Vermont. By today, the state had 22 cases after conducting 667 COVID-19 tests.

“I know some are feeling very scared, worried, overwhelmed,” Scott said. “I want you all to know we will get through this. At times like this, Vermonters rise to the occasion, we help our neighbors and we get creative. We will get through this and we will do it together.”

Connecticut is the only other New England state to register a death due to COVID-19. It has recorded three.

“These deaths — and I hope we will experience no more — highlight how extremely important it is for all of  us, young and old, to take extra care to protect those most vulnerable to serious illness,” Levine said.

Find a list of FAQs about the new coronavirus, plus resources, here.

Pressed about whether Vermont has enough hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment to deal with a possible surge in patients in the coming weeks, Levine said, “If there’s a scenario we're planning for, it’s a worst-case scenario.”

Scott said he will hold another press conference Friday to provide more details about the state’s response to the global pandemic.

Mark Davis has spent more than a decade working as a reporter in Vermont, focusing on both daily and long-form stories. Prior joining Vermont Public as assistant news director, he worked for five years at Seven Days, the alt-weekly in Burlington, where he won national awards for his criminal justice reporting. Before that, he spent nine years at the Valley News, where won state and national awards for his coverage of the criminal justice system, Topical Storm Irene, and other topics. He has also served as a producer and editor for the Rumblestrip podcast. He graduated from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Elodie is a reporter and producer for Vermont Public. She previously worked as a multimedia journalist at the Concord Monitor, the St. Albans Messenger and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, and she's freelanced for The Atlantic, the Christian Science Monitor, the Berkshire Eagle and the Bennington Banner. In 2019, she earned her MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Southern New Hampshire University.
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