Vermont's daily COVID case numbers have fallen significantly since a peak in January, and many schools and workplaces are rolling back safety restrictions like mask mandates. But now the state is seeing case numbers and hospitalization rates start to creep back up.
This hour, we speak with Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine for the latest on the pandemic. We'll also address some important questions from .
After months of decline, daily COVID case numbers in Vermont have starting going back up due to the new omicron subvariant BA.2.
The health department reported 370 more cases this week compared to last week.
Dr. Levine told Vermont Edition that BA.2 is highly transmissible, but less likely to cause severe illness.
"We're still not seeing a rapid uptick in the hospital rates to where we were with the peak of omicron." he said. "But these are the numbers we have to watch very carefully."
As the state's percent positivity rate rises鈥攏ow above 10%鈥擫evine said the positivity rate is less useful as a data point than it once was.
"It's going to represent mostly people who are symptomatic, and [who] are getting tested for that reason," he said, "and it doesn't include a lot of people who are negative, or going through a surveillance kind of testing."
Levine said getting vaccinated and boosted are still the best ways to protect yourself from serious illness.
Broadcast live at noon on Wednesday, April 13, 2022; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
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