 Good morning. I'm Mike Smith, Secretary of the Agency of Human Services. Governor Scott is currently on another call with fellow governors and White House officials, but he'll be joining us shortly. Today I'll start out with an update of our statewide vaccination program, but I want to take a moment and revisit the fact that COVID-19 has affected all of us. For example, for one year every Vermonter has needed to respond to the pandemic in one way or another by wearing a mask or staying six feet away from people we care about. We've come a long way in the past year. Today we have three life-saving vaccines available to us and perhaps more to be approved in the future. As I stand here today, more than one in four adult Vermonters have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and we are seeing a slow but steady increase in vaccine manufacturing and a decrease in deaths from the virus. This is remarkable and really speaks to how we have been able to really stick together and move toward overcoming the most devastating public health crisis in more than 100 years. Today I'll provide you with an update on our progress with the statewide vaccination program. In terms of the overall progress as of this morning, 152,800 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19. 70,100 have received their first dose of vaccine. 82,700 have received their first and last doses of the vaccine. And among those 16 and above with high risk conditions, 25,400 people have made appointments. I encourage those that are eligible to make an appointment to do so via the state website healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine or by calling the vaccine call center at 855-722-7878. Moving on, we continue to vaccinate teacher, school staff and regulated childcare programs and this week, this week we're in now, we'll vaccinate 7,000 individuals in this group through the state program. We are waiting on data from the federal pharmacy program, but we do know that they had nearly 5,000 doses available as well. This week we have added clinics in Essex County, Franklin and Orange counties. As a reminder, these groups can make an appointment through the state system when an educator's vaccination clinic has been scheduled or they can make an appointment at Walgreens, CVS or Kinney's and bring their confirmation email to their appointment. The state website is healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine, which also has a link of the pharmacies websites. Incarcerated individuals age 18 and over with eligible high risk conditions will be vaccinated starting this week. We anticipate completing this group of approximately 185 eligible individuals in the next two to three weeks. CVS pharmacy locations in Barry and Morrisville began vaccinating Vermonters over the weekend. This week the CVS in Bennington will begin vaccinating Vermonters. As you, you can make an appointment at CVS locations by visiting our healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine website or the CVS website at CVS.com. Other CVS pharmacy locations will begin to schedule clinics as additional vaccine allocations become available through the federal retail pharmacy program. In closing, I want to share that we have a community vaccination site in Beecher Falls on March 29th and appointments are still available at that vaccination community vaccination site. I would encourage you if you're living in that area to sign up by going to the state website one more time healthvermont.gov slash my vaccine or by calling the vaccine center at 855-722-7878. I'll now turn it over to Secretary Young for an overview of the American Rescue Plan. Good morning. Thank you, Secretary Smith. My name is Suzanne Young. I'm the secretary of administration and today I will provide an overview of some of the key provisions in the American Rescue Plan focusing on those that will be most immediately available to Vermonters. Just by way of background, the plan was signed into law by President Biden just five days ago on Thursday, March 11. I'd like to add my thank you to our congressional delegation for their strong advocacy for Vermont and Vermonters throughout the pandemic. The American Rescue Plan is expected to provide $2.7 billion in state aid. This is the third major piece of federal legislation that provides emergency, individual, and economic relief to the state. Vermont businesses and institutions, nonprofits, and individual Vermonters. The Rescue Plan brings the total federal relief to Vermont to approximately $7.5 billion since the first month of the pandemic. The American Rescue Plan is a package of aid. Some of it is appropriated to federal agencies to administer and some of it to state and local governments to administer. In other words, there is some aid that will be provided directly through federal programs and some that will be provided through state programs. There are many details we do not yet have with respect to implementation of some initiatives in the bill. We await additional plan details and federal guidance and rules that apply to a number of the programs funded in the plan. So for clarification, my comments are in no way intended to be a comprehensive or complete review of the American Rescue Plan. But I will begin by highlighting today the provisions of the bill that will bring assistance most quickly to individuals, businesses, nonprofits, and local government. So first let me focus on some assistance contained in the bill that will get immediate help to individual Vermonters. The most immediate assistance is another economic stimulus payment that eligible taxpayers will receive directly from the IRS. The state has no direct involvement in this payment. This is a $1,400 payment per adult and each dependent for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of less than $75,000 for single filers and $150,000 for joint filers. The payment will phase out for adjusted gross income above $80,000 for single filers and $160,000 for joint filers. The IRS will use your most recent tax return filed and processed. So if taxpayers haven't filed their 2020 returns, the IRS will or has already used your 2019 return to determine payments. When will this happen? Well, some direct deposits are already pending in Vermonters accounts. So check your bank balances to see if it has arrived. Checks or prepaid debit cards for others will be mailed by the IRS through the United States Postal Service in the coming weeks. We expect again further guidance to be issued by the IRS to address the expected what if questions. So continue to monitor the IRS website www.irs.gov. You can also track payment status and apply for a payment if you qualify but are not required to file a tax return. So again www.irs.gov slash coronavirus slash get hyphen my hyphen payment to track your payment and the status of any claim you may have filed. Second, there is tax exemption a tax exemption that anyone who received unemployment compensation in 2020 should be pursuing right now. The American Rescue Plan excludes from taxation the first $10,200 of unemployment compensation received in 2020 for all taxpayers who have less than $150,000 in adjusted gross income. This is an unprecedented retroactive exclusion and is a very valuable one and we want to make sure taxpayers are aware in our taking steps to claim the exclusion on this year's tax return. The $10,200 exclusion is a per person exclusion. So a qualifying married couple could exclude up to $20,400 but only if they each received at least $10,200 in unemployment compensation. Taxpayers will claim this exemption on their federal returns. One of the obvious questions here is what do I do if I filed my federal tax return before the exemption became effective in law last week. This past weekend the IRS issued guidance for taxpayers who did just that and advised that if you have already filed your 2020 return you should not file an amended return at this time but wait for further guidance from the IRS on how to claim this exemption. For those who have not filed you should check with the IRS or your tax preparer about how to claim the exemption when you file. There are answers to frequently asked questions about this exemption again on the IRS website www.irs.gov. For this exemption to follow through however and apply to Vermont tax filings the Vermont legislature will have to act and pass a corresponding exemption under the Vermont tax code. The administration is discussing the possibility of including this in a current legislation pending today. So again for further information you should check with the IRS about these two immediately available benefits. I'll now just turn briefly to the unemployment benefit payment expansion in the federal bill. The American Rescue Plan extends the $300 federal pandemic unemployment compensation benefit through September 6, 2021 and it extends the pandemic emergency unemployment compensation to that same date while increasing the total number of weeks of benefits available from 24 to 53. It also provides 100% subsidy of Cobra payments from April 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021 for individuals who lost their jobs and are eligible for Cobra. Now less immediate but as important there are a variety of additional tax credit expansions that will help individuals that will be available in next year's filing that is for the 2021 filing. And just briefly these credits include expansion of the earned income tax credit. The rescue plan raises the earned income tax credit for workers without children and lowers the age of eligibility for the credit. Again this will require the Vermont legislature to provide the exemption to Vermonters. The federal child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan was increased from $2,000 to $3,000 for every child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 for every child under the age of 6. The IRS will also pay out a portion of this credit throughout the latter part of 2021. So again you should check with the IRS. This is a pure federal tax with no Vermont impact. And then finally there's an expansion of the child and dependent care credit which is different than the child tax credit but is used to offset work related dependent care costs. This credit was expanded for tax year 2021 and is fully refundable. Again we will be working with the legislature to pass a corresponding tax credit to Vermont tax liability. So the Vermont tax department will keep Vermonters informed of any developments with these tax provisions as they become available and you should check their website frequently. Turning to some highlights in the housing and human services sections of the act, there's additional funding for many benefits. We expect individuals to benefit from a number of enhanced or extended programs. Most immediately the act includes an expansion of nutrition assistance through the SNAP program and expansion of the emergency provision of meals to school children for 90 days into this summer and increased grants for eligible childcare providers. For those individuals who are struggling to pay their rent, their mortgage and utility payments, the American Rescue Plan provides funding for emergency assistance to help with these challenges as well as an expansion of the LIHEAP fuel assistance program. These programs are all federally funded programs that are administered by the state so more information will be provided by the agencies and departments who administer those programs. For small businesses and nonprofits, there are several opportunities for assistance in the American Rescue Plan. Many of these will not be administered by the state but by the small business administration or other organizations such as banks, but they do include an expansion of eligibility for the Paycheck Protection Program for nonprofits, the addition of funding for targeted economic injury disaster loans, grant funds to restaurants and other food service industry businesses, and funds for the Shuttered Venue Operations Grant Program. Again, as program details become available from our federal partners, we will share these with you. Please pay attention to the website of the small business administration for updates as well as the website for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. Finally, there is much opportunity for continued economic recovery contained in an appropriation in the state and local government relief provisions of the American Rescue Plan. The appropriation for state and local government relief totals $1.36 billion and it is directed to state and local governments. This is similar to the relief provided in the CARES Act last year that created the $1.25 billion coronavirus relief fund that the state was required to spend in the original bill by the end of 2020. There are some significant differences, however, between this bill and the coronavirus relief fund. First, the appropriation includes a carve out of $191 million for cities, towns and villages. Because of its size, the City of Burlington will receive a direct payment from the U.S. Treasury of $19 million. The remaining money in Vermont's case will go to units of local government, meaning cities, towns and villages. The state is directed to distribute the money directly to these local governments. Because Vermont does not have county governance, the county share of funds will be divided between the local units of government within each county based on a population formula. This money will come to the state in two pieces. The first 50% is expected this spring and the second no less than a year from now or as early as 2022. We have not done the calculations yet as to how much each city, town and village will be awarded once the county share is allocated and the local units of government within its boundaries, but we will. We do not know when the state will receive this funding, but when we do, we will have 30 days to distribute it to the municipalities with the opportunity to request extensions if needed. But make no mistake, it will be our goal to distribute the funds as soon after its arrival as possible. And we look forward to working with our villages, cities, towns and the league of cities and towns to make this happen. The second notable difference between the money and prior Corona right virus relief funds are that the eligible uses of the money are expanded. Not only can the money be used by local governments to respond to the public health emergency. It's negative economic impacts in premium pay. The eligible uses were expanded to include revenue replacement for losses due to COVID and necessary investments in water sewer or broadband infrastructure. Another difference from the CRF money is that this time we have nearly four years from March 3rd to expend it until December 31, 2024. This means that with the exception for emergency and immediate needs to respond to the pandemic and its economic impacts, there's some time for local government to thoughtfully plan around the best uses of what we hope will be the bulk of this money pandemic providing. Finally, the state will receive $1.16 billion to spend on eligible uses. Again, the expanded uses mentioned previously also apply to the state. We expect all but $113 million to be delivered to the state in either one or two pieces. While we know with this, certainly from the language of the act that we will only receive 50% of the money for local governments this spring, the Secretary of Treasury has the discretion to send the state its entire amount or at one time or to hold some back for at least a year. We do not know yet what the decision will be for Vermont or when it will be made. The remaining $113 million has been set aside for critical capital projects. The state will have to apply for this money, and there's no guidance or application process stood up yet. What we do know is that the projects proposed must be critical to directly enabling work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options in response to the COVID emergency. Again, as with the local money, and after emergency immediate needs are taken care of, there's much opportunity to be thoughtful in our approach to spending this money in a way that benefits Vermont and its economy in the long run. This state and local money provides some meaningful, meaningful opportunities to continue to build out broadband in our state. The ability to use some of the state and local money for broadband infrastructure coupled with the governor's proposal to use one time surplus this year in the legislature pending in the legislature, plus federal money that may become available through the Emergency Connectivity Fund created in the American Rescue Plan will get us much closer to achieving our broadband expansion goals. So I'll conclude here with the acknowledgment again that I have just scratched the surface of the details of the $2.7 billion American Rescue Plan. There are many details still to learn, federal guidance and rules to be issued and conversations with the legislature to be had about the path forward to spend the relief money in the most strategic way to put all of Vermont on a solid economic foundation for the future. We will keep you informed every step of the way. I will now turn this over to Commissioner Peshack. Thank you very much, Secretary Young and good morning, everybody. Today I want to start with an overview of the single greatest item that's impacting our COVID-19 data and certainly impacting our outlook, which is the number of Vermonters who have been willing to be vaccinated to date. For the past year, we have all wondered when the pandemic might end. And quite simply, this chart here holds the key. The higher these percentages go, the faster and more normal our recovery will be. And so far, the uptake among our most vulnerable populations has been impressive. More than 84 percent of our 75 and older population has started or completed vaccination higher than the national average, which is closer to 71 percent. The percentage of the population 70 to 74 who have started or completed their vaccination increased 25 percent this week and now stands at over 80 percent as well. And the percentage of the 65 to 69 year olds nearly doubled this week and now stands at 50 percent who have either started or completed vaccination with thousands more scheduled to get the vaccine in the days ahead. And even though Vermont is one of the oldest states in terms of the percent of its population over 65, we are one of the leading states in terms of the vaccination percentage among this population. And we're seeing the direct impact in our data and these early uptake percentages indicate a strong performance and bode well for Vermont in the weeks and months ahead. Looking at Vermont's vaccination progress. This week we administered over 7000 vaccines on a single day, which was the highest that we've done since the start of the program. And our seven day average is now over 5000 daily vaccines administered a 20 percent increase compared to last week. This week will report 791 new COVID-19 cases, a reduction of over 100 cases when compared to last week. And also today, Vermont passes the 17000 total case threshold, which still represents the lowest aggregate number of cases in the country and the second lowest per capita numbers in the country since the start of the pandemic. You can see that the seven day average has been coming down from where it was last week, standing then at over 130 cases on a seven day average and is now back down to 108 cases on that average. Again, we can see that the COVID-19 outbreak at the Newport prison contributed to the rise in cases over the past two weeks. And without that outbreak, our seven day average would have been more stable. Looking beyond these top line case metrics, we continue to see encouraging signs in our data. First, over the past few months, we have seen a gradual and steady decline in the median age of an individual contracting COVID 19 in Vermont, down from 44 years old at the end of November to 32 years old today. Our median age is getting younger because fewer vulnerable Vermonters are contracting the virus. Looking at long term care facility residents, you can see that the increase in infections that we saw from November through January has now significantly decreased with our statewide numbers continuing to remain high. In fact, we've only reported six long term care facility cases in the last three weeks and have just two active outbreaks. And these active outbreaks are considerably smaller when compared to outbreaks we were experiencing long term care facilities earlier in the year and last December. Looking more broadly, the 70 year and older population continues to see fewer cases on a per capita basis compared to the under 70 crowd. And we anticipate that the 65 to 69 year old population since they're standing now at about 50% who have started or completed vaccination and that percentage is increasing quickly. We anticipate to see fewer cases among this age group also in the weeks to come. Turning to college cases, we see that we're reporting 59 new cases this week, which is pretty much in line with the weekly numbers that we've seen so far this spring semester. The Vermont case forecast continues to remain stable with the short term projection anticipating that cases will remain on average around 100 per day. But the longer term projection indicates that cases will start to decrease over time. And this longer term projection incorporates the increase in vaccination that we'll see over time and anticipates cases will start to fall toward the beginning of April and fall again more rapidly throughout that month. Turning to Vermont's hospitalization metrics, we continue to see fewer people on average in the ICU with COVID-19, which is certainly an encouraging sign. At the same time, however, we're seeing that hospitalizations generally have flattened out over the past week with us averaging between 25 and 30 individuals in the hospital statewide. Again, we do anticipate this number to fall as we make further progress, vaccinating those with underlying conditions and those in their 70s and 60s and younger. Looking at our COVID-19 death forecast, we are still fortunately seeing favorable indicators. As I mentioned, the number of cases at long term care facilities is down. Cases among the 70 and older population is also down. And we're trending down in ICU and ventilator usage as well. With these indicators still trending favorably, our most important metric, the number of deaths in Vermont is anticipated to continue to improve. Eight Vermonters have died so far this month, but we anticipate that this will end up being a step down in March compared to the numbers we have seen in previous recent months. Taking a quick look around the region in the country, we see that the Northeast is essentially reporting the same number of cases this week as it did last week with a very small decrease. Comparing the Northeast to the rest of the regions in the country, you can see that we are experiencing higher case counts over the past two weeks compared certainly to the south and to the west, and that we've also had basically flat growth during that period of time. However, our other regional metrics continue to improve, including the positivity rate, hospitalization rate, and most importantly, the fatality rate. Regional forecast indicates that cases are anticipated to continue to decline across the region as more and more people are vaccinated and as the weather continues to improve. Again, all of which is good news for Vermont. Finally, looking at our national numbers, we see that cases have continued to decrease, albeit slowly down 8% over the last 10 days. And national hospitalizations and deaths are also continuing their decrease with hospitalizations down 8% over the past 10 days, while deaths have decreased over 21% during that same period of time, again, indicating that the most vulnerable across the country are also getting that benefit of the protection of the vaccine. At this time, I would like to turn it over to Dr. Levine. Thank you, Commissioner Pichek. Our cases do indeed continue to be reported in a fairly steady range, anywhere from 50 to 80 to 130 to 175 cases a day. Today, we are reporting a slight downtick in the hospitalizations to 24, three patients in the ICU, and a positivity rate 1.3%. I'm focusing on the range of cases for a couple of reasons. One because we know that one day's report does not reflect the trend and two because this has been and is expected to be the reality over the next several weeks before we see that drop towards the end of the month. We've made great progress in vaccination so far with more than 26% of Vermonters vaccinated, but it will take some time to see an impact on COVID-19 cases as our vaccination program ramps up with more doses allocated and more Vermonters protected. What's important is that we are seeing fewer cases in our older age groups, as you just saw. Large portions of those groups have now been vaccinated, so there's far less risk of severe illness, hospitalizations, and death. Ultimately, we would hope to see the same benefits for those with high risk conditions and those in the next age bands as well. Now, one of the things I've been talking about with vaccine is that no matter what level we record the efficacy at anywhere from 66% to 95%, the greatest benefit you should be watching for is the vaccine's efficacy in preventing serious illness, hospitalizations, and death. Just what we're seeing in Vermont. Perhaps you might still get mild illness. This is how many vaccines work, including the flu vaccine. Well, recently published evidence shows there is much less likelihood of having an asymptomatic infection as well. For patients presenting for COVID testing through the PCR test and the nasal swab prior to a procedure, those who were vaccinated with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine had a 56% reduction in positive PCR results. And after two doses, the effect was even greater in 80% reduction. The authors stated that these results are consistent with previously published data showing a reduction in asymptomatic infection following vaccination with an mRNA vaccine, even after one dose. The other topic I'd like to talk about today is the variant strains. We've just received more results from last week's submitted specimens for whole genome sequencing, which is used to determine whether variant strains are circulating. From those results, we found four more positives for the B117 UK variant strain, giving us a total of five now in the state. Not unusual, I should add, when you look across the country. As we've said before, the discovery of these variants should really drive us all to more strongly adhere to the prevention steps we're already taking. Remember, masks on faces, six-foot spaces, uncrowded places. Perhaps take a look at your mask to see if you can get a better fit, or even double mask. The CDC website will show you how. Or if you're visiting somewhere with a lot of people, come back later when it's less crowded. And as always, if you don't feel well, stay at home. The choices that we make can make a big difference for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. The variants of concern we found here make the virus spread more easily from person to person, and we need to do everything we can to stop that spread, to reduce the chances for additional mutations and strains. Fortunately, these variants have not had serious impact on health outcomes, hospitalizations, or deaths at this time in the United States. However, there is now peer reviewed information published in England on the UK B117 variant, which does provide the first indication that this variant may be more deadly. But according to the study, only minimally so. Though the headline states a 64 percent increased risk of death, when one looks at the absolute risk of death, it only increased from 2.5 to 4.1 deaths per 1,000 cases. So while I want you to be cautious and follow all of the public health guidance, I also want you to put this information in perspective. In the US, even with variants being detected, we are seeing decreased hospitalizations, deaths, and no surges or reinfections. All of this is why we can take deliberate steps towards reopening. If we can limit the amount of virus that is circulating in our communities, stay ahead of community spread. Get tested if we have symptoms or think we might have been exposed. We can get through this critical stage together until we all have that chance we've been waiting for to protect ourselves and each other through vaccination. Since the governor is not yet completed with his call, we'll begin the media part of the conference now. Thanks, Dr. Levine. So probably a question for Secretary Smith, maybe yourself too, but you know, last week you mentioned that the state is soon going to be standing up clinics for BIPOC for monitors and their families. I'm wondering just first off, you know, what information you can share, you know, whether we have any details of when these will be, where these will be, and which vaccine will be given as well? Yes. So to start with, I believe we're having one today, actually. Perhaps if not today, it's within the next day or two in Burlington. There's another one being scheduled for next week in Addison County. And there are several others that are still in the planning stage, and I can't give you the exact date. The vaccine that's being used is the same vaccine most of us can all get, because it's the one that's available, which is the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna. And was that all your questions? And then, you know, so you mentioned that, you know, in the past, getting word out to a lot of BIPOC for monitors, you know, you reached out to community leaders and other people as well. I'm wondering, you know, how that's been and, you know, whether you think that the right people are hearing this messaging from the state? Yeah, good. So obviously, there's the one methodology which is just look at our website, because I promise people that there will be information on there in a timely way. The second, though, is through our community partner organizations who are helping us work with the BIPOC community itself to inform them of the opportunities that are available. So they're helping us in the beginning, provide those opportunities, if you will, and set up the clinics, and they will also be working to provide the community with a notion of where and when it is and make sure they get signed up. One just quick follow the governor possible. This one may be for Mike. On the housing for the homeless folks. Where are we at with that? We've had several instances of problems, especially up here. We hear mostly about the problems at the end at the top of the hill here in Berlin. Last week, getting a little bit more serious with with a fire and a woman being pretty critically injured. Frustrations or where where are we at with that? Well, as you know, Steve, at the start of the pandemic, we made a we made a commitment to sort of make sure that we house those that were homeless. And so we expanded our hotel motel program, and we're housing approximately 2500 individuals now. Those are adults and kids into hotel motels across the state. We have to transition as we come out of this emergency. We're going to have to transition to another program. And we're looking at that right now. We I had a meeting with with committee chairs of the money committees the other day. We're looking at forming a working group so that we can all come to consensus of what that's going to look like as we move out of out of the emergency. So I would say stay tuned for the details. I mean, we had a plan that we we had submitted. I think it ran into some opposition at the legislative level. We're trying to work this out now. But I think you're going to have to see three components out of this plan. You're going to have to see permanent housing. You're going to have to see more shelters. And you're going to have to see as as we started this program, we took off the limits to are the the various qualification eligibility limits that we had on the program. We're going to have to replace. We're going to have to bring those back in what they look like. We'll work out with the legislature on. But certainly we're going to have to have some sort of criteria as we move forward. So those are the three things we're working. We met yesterday. We said we'll form a working group and try to have something before the end of the session so that and the timing will work out to because about that time, you know, the vaccination program should be really rolling along. And we should be really starting to look at how we exit this and how we exit this program. Is there some sort of a law enforcement component that should be put into this thing as far as, you know, keeping other people in the buildings that you're housing them and say we have a security component that we spend quite a bit of money on at these facilities. We're looking at what happened in Berlin and seeing if we have to beef up something there in particular. It's been very discouraging of what happened there, and we just got to figure out where we move forward with that facility and where we move forward with the program in that area. Thanks. Good morning. I want to ask a question forwarded to me by a manufacturing facility in Franklin County who asked a pretty good question. They were saying they are diligently following the most recent return to work guidance, but that was provided last May and seems outdated given all of the changes that have occurred with the state's approach to COVID since then. So the question is, when can the manufacturing sector in Vermont expect an update on return to work guidance that they have been operating under since last spring? I'll turn to ACCD for that. Hi, this is Secretary Crowley. Thank you for the question. Yes, our teams have been, there's been many sectors actually that have been sort of in the same posture for a really long time. And our teams been busy working with the Department of Health and the Department of Public Safety to identify how we're going to come out of this crisis in the next few months. So you've probably heard the governor talk about mentioning a plan for exit and something that, you know, he hopes to roll out in the next few weeks. So they can expect to see more information, I would say, sometime in the next few weeks on a change of posture. OK, so in the works. Speaking of returning to work, will bartenders be returning to work or are you waiting, Secretary O. Smith, until after St. Patrick's Day? We're, again, you know, we're trying to, you know, as Dr. Levina said, conditions on the ground in March are still very concerning. And so we're just waiting until we have a little bit more time under our belt, but you're going to be, again, hearing more about bars in the very near future. All right, thank you very much. I'm sorry, Ms. Stewart's question. Good morning, everyone. I just got off from our eighth call with fellow governors in the White House, and we did hear some positive news. This is the first update we received since the President's speech last week, where he said that all Americans need to be eligible to register for vaccination by May 1st. As I said last week, we have a scheduled mapped out that not only meets this goal, but could exceed it. But this is 100% dependent on the supply from the federal government. It's one thing to say everyone is eligible. It's just it's quite another to have the supply to actually get shots in arms. And as I said, if we get the doses we need will exceed the goal. So here's what we heard today. First, we were updated on the supply. So this week and next week, Pfizer and Moderna will increase to 16 million nationwide for the state supplies, which will mean an increase of about 550 doses for Vermont. The federal pharmacy program, which is that's their direct supply to the to the pharmacies. We'll see a 100,000 dose increase of Pfizer and Moderna and 150,000 of Johnson Johnson, which means roughly another 250 doses for us. They also allocate 400,000 Johnson Johnson doses this week, which is good news because we didn't expect any last week. They had told us that it would we would not be receiving a supply of Johnson Johnson. So these increases means a total of about 800 additional doses for Vermont next week. And they said the following week that it would be flat. So the good news here is it won't be a decrease. But beginning the week of March 29th, Pfizer and Moderna that this what they expect will be in the 16 to 17 million range and will also get into a steady flow of Johnson and Johnson with four to six million a week by the end of April, six million by the end of April. So the start off around four million. So that equates to an increase of about four to 5000 doses for Vermont. So in April, we were told National allocation of all doses should continue to increase as time goes on. So this is the assurance we've been waiting for. And we'll use this information to update our projections. And on Friday, we'll announce when our next age band 60 plus will open. And with these assurances on supply, I'll also be able to outline the full schedule for all remaining age bands in order to accomplish making every Vermont are over the age of 16 eligible by the end of April or by the by the end of April. And again, I want to remind folks, this doesn't mean that everyone will be fully vaccinated by May 1st. It just means they can sign up. That's what the president had promised. And that's what we believe we can deliver on and possibly exceed. But as you'll see, if supply comes in as promised, we hope anyone who wants a vaccine will have the opportunity to be fully vaccinated by the summer, which will allow us to get back to normal. I believe back to normal by the 4th of July. In the meantime, as you've heard from Dr Levine as well, while we make progress through vaccinations, it's as important as ever to continue following basic health guidance. We need to get through this as we vaccinate others, which means wearing masks, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds and also getting tested, which is still a really important tool for us here in the state. So with that, we'll get back to questions. I thought he was set. Thank you, Governor. Some UVM students have complained about conditions on campus related to COVID rules and excessive suspension and monitoring of student behavior. I know UVM is now reviewing some of those suspensions. And do you have a comment about that? What's happening there? Well, I think we have to go back and look. Remember where we were back last fall? And we weren't sure and the college and universities were asking whether we were going to allow them to come back at all. We were skeptical in some respects because we knew that cases were going to continue to rise. We had no vaccination on the horizon and at least at that point. And we wanted to make sure that we were protecting Vermonters. I think Burlington in particular had a lot of concern about all the students coming back. So we worked with all the colleges and universities with the former President Rich Snyder, and they got together with all of the university and college presidents. And we came up with a plan and we asked them to put together some sort of contract that they could impose on the students that were coming back in. So students came in with their eyes wide open. They knew what the contract was and I don't know the particulars. But it was stringent and that was necessary to give us comfort for them to come back. As a result, I think they were successful over the last couple of, you know, few months. And we've seen, you know, relative to others across the country. They've done very, very well. So these were contracts that were signed and agreed upon by students. So it was nothing that they didn't know about. So, you know, I'm in on the side of fairness, obviously, but I'm with the with the UVM on this one. I think that some of what we heard happened when kids and maybe not in all instances, but when when the students, these young adults went and circumvented the restrictions in place by renting a room at a hotel and packing a bunch of students in. And that's that's exactly what we didn't want to happen because that leads to community a spread of the virus and puts people at risk, especially before we had the vaccination plan in place where we were protecting older Vermont's Vermonters in particular. So again, I support the UVM president and others on this and the administration, but we'll see where it goes from here. And but again, but I just want to remind everyone they knew what they were getting into. They they agreed to the contract to come back into school. So I think the the oversight was necessary. OK, thank you. Lisa, the Valley reporter. Good afternoon. Good morning, I guess it still is. Governor Scott, is there a specific metric that you're looking for or no longer extending the state of emergency? Are there specific criteria per percent of vaccinated people or will you use other metrics such as decline in cases to canceled? Yeah, you know, the state of emergency, again, is a vehicle for us to unwind where we are now and will continue to need it for a bit longer. I'm projecting again that we'll be back to normal sometime before the Fourth of July or there soon thereafter. But I think we'll need that and we may need it beyond the state of emergency beyond that. But from my perspective, the sooner the better. But but as we'll you'll see in the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to to publicly show you make this visible and transparent about the benchmarks and so forth that we need to see as we unwind where we are right now, unwind and get out of this state of emergency. So I would expect you'll see the state of emergency over the next three months until we get to a point where everyone who can who wants a vaccine can have one and that way we're protecting the vast majority of the population. So that's where I see it. And the time will tell. But again, in two weeks, we'll be able to show you what our plan is and to present that to you. Thank you. And my second question is for Secretary Smith. It's a nuts and bolts question. Would it be possible to get the estimated number of people in the 60 and over age band, those in the 55 and older age band, those in the 50 and older age band, etc. So that those in their 20s and 30s can count down how many people before they get their shots. Yeah. And Lisa, if you just if you will be patient, we'll put that out on Friday and you can you can see when you're going to get your shots. Great. That's all for me. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rebecca. Good afternoon, Governor. Looking at the state's vaccine dashboard, it seems that there are two counties that are really lagging in distribution and getting vaccines and the people's arms. By population, there's about 50% more, more likely to get a vaccine in Rutling County than you are if you live in Essex County. And Franklin County isn't much farther ahead than the Essex County. Obviously, this is due to the accessibility of vaccines. And I did hear earlier that you're rolling out more vaccine locations in Essex and Franklin County. But it also seems that the part of this is related to the mentality of a good number of people in these counties and maybe an educational aspect. I'm wondering what the state is doing to to improve the educational aspect of these vaccines to to more rural communities that are that are lacking in the vaccine rate. And I'm also wondering if it's possible to get a breakdown of the vaccination rate by town. I don't know about your last question, but I'll let others try and answer that. From my standpoint, it's a combination of both. I think making sure that people see the benefits of receiving a vaccine, I think is important that this is, you know, it's like a pathway to more freedom, more mobility. I think it's good for all of us to make sure that we take advantage of this when we can. But there will be a point when when the vast majority of people are offered in Vermont, we hope is a high percentage of uptake that people will want the vaccine and we'll continue to educate the best we can. We'll we'll be working on that with the health department and others and and as well with some of the coalitions that we have out there, whether it's the the Chamber of Commerce is the the trade groups and so forth to try and convince their membership that this is a good idea. It's good for all of us. Good for them personally, but also for their families and who they might interact with. So we'll continue with that. The other part of the equation. We talked a little bit about this. I heard other governors asking questions on the call that was just on with the White House and and part of you know when you're talking about rural states and this came from rural states and I would say that we're one of them. They put a lot of emphasis on the federal pharmacy program programs and that they have a direct contract with them. Well not everyone has a pharmacy on every corner in their area. So what they're seeing in other states and what we're seeing here is a lot of the the so the supply goes to the pharmacies, but they aren't able to distribute because they don't have any facilities in some of the rural parts of the state. So these governors, the other governors were saying, you know, we could use some of that supply because we are going to mobilize and get the supply out to those those parts of the state as well. So the White House said that they were listening to see what they could do to help in that situation. And I know that we need to do better. And as Secretary Smith had said, we want to make sure that we get out to the rural parts of the state and meet them where they are. And maybe that will equate to more of an uptake and and more people wanting to get the vaccination. Anything you want to offer? Secretary Smith. Yeah, we do look at the county statistics on a regular basis to see where we need to sort of put more effort. I think there's two things that we're doing, particularly in Essex County. The average of percent started or completed in the state is about twenty six point nine percent as as Commissioner Levine Levine had talked about in Essex that's 20 point six. So as you saw today, we have a we have a community clinic up there that hasn't filled up. So I was trying to make sure that people understand that that clinics there sort of could fill up. We also added a clinic for education up in that area. We're also really cognizant that we need as you saw with Commissioner P checks graphs. We don't have this problem at the high at the higher age limits in terms of participation. But as we go down the age limits, I think we're going to have to do more outreach and we're anticipating that right now. We're putting a plan together to do more educational outreach in terms of vaccines and making sure that people understand the benefits of vaccine. Not only are you protecting yourself, you're protecting others as well. So I think you'll see that roll out in the next few weeks in terms of making sure that that informational campaign is up and running at the same time. Thank you. Not sure if this next question is for Secretary French or Dr. Levine. We heard last week that Mrs. Goye Valley High School was going to have to end their sports season. Now we're hearing that Rice High Schools withdrawn from the D one boys hockey tournament hearing that some other schools may end up having to do that, including Essex High School from their hockey tournament. I'm wondering what what schools are you aware of Dr. French that are in in limbo, I guess, so to speak. Yeah, I agree. Well, I can comment specifically on Mrs. Goye. I think, you know, your question was blending more into the sports, which I think is you know, some of the hardest and hard decisions relative to playoffs and what have you. But I did connect with the Mrs. Goye superintendent on Monday this thing yesterday, I guess, and we discussed her situation and it is a function of community spread, essentially. And you know, a lot of the virus in the community. So therefore showing up at the school sports teams have been part of that. But I think there is also a concern about people not wearing their masks and so forth. So it's a difficult situation for the school. And hopefully, you know, this should serve as a lesson for people that we still need to follow those mitigation procedures, even even with vaccine vaccine being deployed. But I know there's a lot of instability right now in the tournament, but I don't have specific information at the moment. And this is Dr. Levine. This is Dr. Levine. So we are aware of the Mrs. Goye hockey team and another team that was impacted by that hockey team. We do now know that Mrs. Goye is an example of, as Secretary French said, more community transmission means that will appear in the school will appear on a team. But there does appear to be potentially transmission across to another team. So that's the only time we've seen that in Vermont thus far. Mrs. Goye has its outbreak related to the team. It also has a separate number of cases that don't seem to have any connection to the team. So it has, as a high school, been much more extraordinarily impacted by the virus than we generally have seen across schools in the state. I did want to just add in one piece of information regarding the previous question. And that was the uptake of vaccine. I think one of the big issues for population in general is if they have concern about the vaccine, it's because of the fact that it's so new that with the mRNA it was something they weren't familiar with. And because with Operation Warp Speed, it came out to the public's eye so quickly, implying perhaps that corners were cut and that it may not be the safest product, which is far from the truth. And I think the experience that's occurred with it over the course of time has proven that to be true. The reason it could come out so quickly was it was a platform that the research community was very well versed in and the clinical community was already well versed in because it was almost used for other epidemics in the past like Ebola, but didn't need to be because of the lack of a pandemic from those kinds of viruses. So if you think about it, most of these trials that we're relying on the data from began much earlier in 2020. So the vaccines obviously became available for use late in December, but that's because they had enough months of follow-up from the trials to allow emergency use authorization. So I think as we find over time getting into the spring with more and more months of experience with these vaccines, if many people were hesitant because they had the safety concerns or had the concerns about it being so new, they'll begin to continue to see that they're used successfully and safely and effectively and that should help much more than just a separate education effort just laying their concerns because so many people I do think want to wait. Even in the 1A group in some of the healthcare workers, we found people who waited till the end of 1A to get their vaccine and then were happy they did so. So I think now with the passage of time, more and more of that will begin to be true. Just for clarification, what was the team that was affected by Mrs. Goy? Last time I knew Essex was the last team to play Mrs. Goy. Obviously, I know you don't want to out anyone, but the players know. The school certainly knows. Classmates know. Yeah, no, it was Essex. Okay. Thank you. Going to Zuri NBC 5. What should my monsters do in the meantime as we wait for more vaccine doses? Should people pre-register for the vaccine even if they aren't eligible just yet? Secretary Smith. You can go on the website and register. You cannot sign up for a slot on the on the website, but you can go on to the website and set up an account if you would want to do that would be fine. Or you can wait until we set out the, you know, we call the sort of the age ban that you are going to. The governor talked about the 60 to 64 age ban. We'll soon be announcing that age ban. So if you're in that age ban, here's my recommendation right now is that you go on and set up an account online at the health department's website and make sure that you have that account. So when we announced it, you can start making appointments within the scheduling software that we have. But again, right now, we only allow you to schedule an appointment when your age ban is called. And the next age ban, like I said, will be 60 to 64. And as the governor said, that should be coming soon. Okay. Thank you. Hi, I want to come back to this idea of back to normal by the 4th of July. What is your definition of normal? Is that all restrictions listed on businesses, large gatherings like weddings, being allowed again, no masks, no travel restrictions? Basically, kind of describe what society looks like in your vision for July 4th as long as the supply continues the vaccine. Yeah, because I recognize that my definition of normal and yours might differ. There are a lot of there are a lot of things to come into play with this. I would say, you know, from my standpoint, there may be still advise advisables guidelines we might put out in terms of mask wearing. I don't think that will be completely over for those who have not been vaccinated or nor are they willing to be. They may want to continue to wear a mask. There may be other restrictions that we're not aware of. For instance, I don't know when the border is going to open up between us and Canada and what that's going to mean. I tried to ask that question last week with the White House, but they didn't have a any definitive answer whether we're going to have some sort of a vaccine passport to come back and forth. But that could be part of the process. But that would be a border restriction. So again, a lot of what ifs, but from my standpoint, it's almost like we're back to where we were pretty pandemic in terms of having businesses open and being able to freely travel throughout the United States. So for people who are maybe they're an organization trying to plan a summer fundraiser or a person who's trying to plan a wedding, should they be saying, okay, my late summer wedding or my late summer event is on? From my standpoint at this point in time with the supply that we're seeing and if everything fits together as we see it. Yes, and we'll be able to lay that out again. This coming Friday, we'll be talking about the vaccine schedule and the age bands and where how quickly we think we'll be able to open those up. And then the following week or two, we'll be able to show you the exit plan. So it'll make a lot more sense by then, Kat, but that's where we want to get to some sort of normal by the end of that period of time. And I believe that's 4th of July. Thank you. Hi, this is a question for Dr. Levine. I'm seeing that a handful of European countries have suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine reports of a possible blood clotting side effect. The WHO believes this should continue going on and that there's no evidence that the vaccine is linked to clotting. I'm just curious what your thoughts are on this and then when reports like this come out, how important it is to kind of describe in detail what's going on. So people's confidence in the vaccine has been impacted. Yeah, this is a great question and very timely because lots of people are looking at the same data and coming up with varying conclusions. One conclusion is what many of the European countries have come up with which is they want to be safe than sorry, so to speak, and using what is always termed an abundance of caution. So they're putting a pause on things. Another conclusion is that there's actually no difference in the rate of people who are vaccinated getting blood clots than there is in the general population for getting the vaccination at all as a factor. I'm sort of subscribing to that one based on the numbers that I've seen. Keep in mind also that part of COVID, we don't talk about it a lot because it doesn't happen usually to most people but those who are most seriously ill with COVID and might end up in the hospital, blood clotting is a significant concern. So one has to separate that aspect out as well. And you're trying to use a vaccine to prevent an illness that might cause a serious blood clot and you certainly don't want the vaccine to do that. I don't think the data currently shows that the vaccine is definitively leading to blood clots which could harm someone's health if you look at it very closely. So that's my take at this point in time. And the question for Governor Scott, I'm seeing here that the White House is drawing a plan to surge vaccine to emerging hotspots in preparation for a big force wave as people are getting vaccinated. Is that something that came up during your call today? And what are your thoughts on that? How effective of a strategy that could be as we are working to fight the variants and also get people vaccinated? Well, again, that might be a it did not come up on the call this morning with the White House and it might be a better question for Dr. Levine. In some respects as we've learned it's almost too late when that happens when there's a hot spot there is already transmission and so the vaccine is about a month late. So that's why it's so important for us when your age group comes up they get vaccinated then and that's why we've been trying to accelerate and making sure that we get all the vaccines shots in the arms to protect ourselves so we don't become a hot spot. So we'll learn more about that. I I'm not aware. My only other thought is that as long as it doesn't disrupt the flow of vaccines into our state then they can take a different path and maybe that's what they do and maybe they're stockpiling doses that we don't know about and maybe that's what they're planning to do but but that didn't come up this morning. I just want to go back to the other the AstraZeneca if I could only to say just so everyone's very clear we don't use the AstraZeneca here in the States. That's not a concern for us here. We have Moderna we have Pfizer we have Johnson Johnson those have all been approved for emergency use and AstraZeneca doesn't exist here in the States. So for any of those who are having second thoughts about their vaccination this should not prevent them from getting their vaccination here in the States here in Vermont. Thank you. Hi, can you hear me okay? We can. Great. Thank you. Governor a question for you the Senate approved a bill this morning that would make universal mail and voting a fixture of the state's general elections. Will you support this change? Yeah, I've been I've been supportive. I think it approved to be worthwhile. There was a increase in voter participation. My only concern is if we're going to do it for the general election I'm wondering why not the other elections that we have and if it works for the general election it should work for some of the others. So I would only ask that it get expanded in some capacity so it can't be just other elections well like town meeting day for instance. That would include the timing and primary. Oh it does? Yeah, I'm asking is that what you mean when you say get into other elections? That's what I'm saying I mean I know for some the general election is the Superbowl in some respects but we have a lot of other games and other elections that we have along the way and town voting and so forth so if it's good for the big game then I'm not sure why it isn't suitable for the others. Great, thank you. I was hoping we could get an update on teacher clinics so how many teachers specific clinics have been held so far and how many are scheduled and when and we have an estimate on how many teachers have received a shot so far. Dr. Smith. I have this week's total Avery which I had mentioned which is 7,000 this week of teachers and individuals in the group of teacher clinics that have and regulated child care programs I have in the back of my mind I matter of fact I'm pretty sure this is accurate 11,700 have registered I can't tell you how many have actually got their shots out of that 11,500 that are registered this is in the state program I also know that the federal program as I said we're waiting on data from the federal program this week and we'll get we get reports afterwards in terms of how many how many doses of those have been with the education but I would assume the bulk of it is education and as I said we've added clinics in the Essex Franklin and Orange counties this week Secretary French I don't have the list of where we are this week in terms of clinics but I know we did like a 1200 vaccination site in Burlington yesterday for education and educators and school for teachers school employees and childcare Secretary French do you have anything to add on that? No I don't I'm digging up a list we did do a large site the double tree yesterday over a thousand doses in the Burlington area and we have aspects I think for Friday Avery let me let me try let's let's have Secretary French and I try to find out I didn't bring that information with me okay thank you and just to clarify too it's still you all still want teachers to be going to vaccination clinics that are close to their workplace or home correct we have vaccination sites and we're we would prefer them to go to sites that are close to their home or their school district but if there's if there's opportunities because some people live quite a way is the distance from where they work and there's a vaccination site that's closer to them they can they can opt to that vaccination site thank you I think this is a variant so far but kind of a sample of a certain number of tests do you have like an estimate of the prevalence of the variants in the community or like what percentage of cases are due to the variants at this point I don't know if we got the first part of that question but I think it's for Dr. Levin regardless yeah that's a that's a really great question Aaron so when we do whole genome sequencing we send a certain number of specimens to the CDC which is very minimal we send a modest number of specimens to the Massachusetts Public Health Lab pending our lab getting full capacity to do that which we hope will be within the month so this is a very small number of specimens when you think about the overall number of positive tests we have across the state so I won't even be able to extrapolate from those numbers to give you a prevalence rate because to be real we actually are targeting specimens in areas we think are more likely to have the variant based on the clinical characteristics of what's going on in that part of the state or with the people who have experienced the positive tests so I can't really give you a prevalence nor can probably anyone in the country give you a prevalence because of the fact it's not a random screening of samples and it's not a really robust distribution of samples anywhere in the country at this point the CDC fortunately has come out in the last week or so with some statements to the effect that they understand we're not doing a sufficient amount of searching for the variant strains based on the capacity the country has and want to have that increased and have their own capacity increased as well so that's a long-winded answer but basically we don't have an idea of the prevalence but we should assume because we found five here in Vermont that it's probably more prevalent than we would have imagined and as I've said in the past everyone has been saying that by the end of March it may be the dominant strain in our country so this is just the tip of the iceberg we're seeing the good news is we're not finding other strains with the sequences that we've sent to date okay my second question I think it's also for Dr. Lubien I got an email from a figure who's trying to hook up their 16-year-old or prior 16-year-old for the vaccine and from what I understand only Pfizer has approval for vaccinating 16-year-old so how do they figure out whether they're getting the Pfizer vaccine and where they can make an appointment to get it specifically? Yeah, that's a really good question so that you are correct so far the Pfizer is the only one I see a day in the future when J&J may actually be another one because they're extending their trials with the appropriate age group and then some of the ones that haven't been approved yet may also end up if they do get approval getting emergency use authorization for a younger age population as well based on who's enrolled in their trials so right now if you go on the website and register and what have you you're not going to be able to see the name of the vaccine just point in time though there may be a future time when that will be true so I would probably rely on the phone call more than anything to try to get an idea of what's available at the site that you want to sign up for we usually try to discourage you from using the phones and encourage you to use the online but in this case this is a very special instance that would be the way to go and I do know a large number of the pharmacies are actually getting Pfizer and the reason some of the pharmacies were enrolled in the original pharmacy partnership with the federal government when we were delivering vaccines to the long-term care facilities was because they had the freezer capacity to be able to accommodate that vaccine I also know that there are some of the sites that our partners are using across the state that do have the same way Thank you Rebecca my first question is for Dr. Levene Dr. Levene is the state tracking the number of adverse reactions that for doctors are having to the COVID-19 vaccine and if so what qualifies as an adverse reaction and how many have we got Yes so we do track the VA ERS reporting system and the last I saw which I think was this morning was 99 instances out of the well over hundreds of thousands of vaccinated vaccines delivered so in that system anything you report is reportable so it's not like you're restricted in some way the goal is to get people to report anything that they need to report you know most people aren't going on that system you know specifically to do something common like pain at the site of the injection but we're looking for the more serious or unusual things So that is purely self-reporting Yes framework and quick question for Secretary French as well Senator Education Committee passed out legislation that envisions some reforms significant reforms to come on education funding system just hoping to get your general thoughts on the framework that they've laid out I haven't reviewed the specific bill yet but I think you know we were working on is how to approach the waiting study which does have significant information so my understanding of the bill committee to sort of work on that implementation plan but that's something I've testified and supportive I think the waiting study does deserve some review and specifically an implementation plan because the implications are fairly significant Thank you all very much Hey Kyle anybody surprised there a little bit Rebecca sorry about that the state tax exemption which Suzanne itemized earlier Governor will you know she acknowledges that you would implement the state tax exemption plan you would have to go to the legislature and I'm wondering if you know how much that's going to cost the state whether you support it and when taxpayers could expect to know what's going on given that you would have to go through the legislative process Well first of all I do like an area that I would agree to I think it's going to be around 10 million I believe 10 to 12 million that it would would cost the state we're still not sure whether any of the new funding in this new recovery act may we may be able to get reimbursed for that just don't know at this point it's all too too new but we want to make sure that we're passing on this exemption to be coupled from the federal tax code as you know we did that probably 15 years ago so that makes it necessary for us to to go to the legislature and I believe the Commissioner Bolio is going to the Senate Finance Committee to ask for that exemption or that implementation Any advice to the taxpayers on obviously the federal is going to happen fairly quickly but what should taxpayers do at this point just file and there will be some guidance later on Is Secretary Bolio or maybe Secretary Young one of the two Commissioner Bolio are you on here Governor I'm happy with that Thank you Governor so Vermont forms start with adjusted gross income at the federal level the unemployment benefits for the first $10,200 for anybody under $150,000 of adjusted gross income is not included in AGI as it flows through Vermont as the Governor and Secretary Young articulated the Vermont legislature has to pass the corresponding law for that tax exemption to truly become effective in the state of Vermont so there is some uncertainty for taxpayers right now and when it comes to health today their tax software is going to carry that exception through My best advice is to stay tuned I am going to talk with the Legislature today and I suspect over the course of the next few days and hopefully we can get a clearer answer on this at the moment we have certainly we will provide that on our website and work But if the legislature ultimately decides not to link up to this provision, we will have to issue more guidance about how to either make adjustments for that or get a better chance. Okay, great. That's what I was wondering. Thanks. Joe, the Barton Chronicle. A couple of questions seem to be on a similar theme. The first is a reader who is asking how much of the current apparent outbreak in Orleans County can be attributed to northern state and what other factors might be involved in the high number of cases that we're experiencing. Michelle Levine. I can't give you a percentage breakdown right now, though I can find that out, but certainly a significant proportion of that outbreak is related to the correctional facility. But I don't want to give the, I shouldn't say it that way even, there's an outbreak at the correctional facility, a significant proportion of the Orleans County cases come from that outbreak. But not from other outbreaks in Orleans County. My second question is about these outbreaks as well. The lack of certainty about the ability of people who've been vaccinated to transmit the coronavirus, whether and not to lay the correctional facility of people who are in the state, but not only in the Newport facility, but around this might be time. Yes, so I can handle the beginning of that question because you recall, even when we have vaccinated people gathering with unvaccinated people, we're not telling them to all forgo the masks at this point in time during our mitigation strategies. And if you look at the way our correctional facilities work, they've been relying very much on traditional distancing, masking, guidance and mitigation strategies all along. Those aren't being dropped because we put a needle in the arm of one of the correctional officers, and especially not when the correctional officer has just been vaccinated and really hasn't yet built up that immune response. So clearly in parallel, having the vaccine and continuing to do all of the usual strategies is really the way to go in those facilities, and that will continue to protect everyone around. Great. I'm going to back up to a question that Pat asked earlier, just looking at the logistics. It's one thing for a person to take a chance of setting up a wedding at the end of summer, but a lot of events take time to plan for a parade, a church fair, even a county fair. Are those bigger events going to be off the table this time, or will you be able to draft regulations to allow those type of events to occur? How quickly can you do that? Yeah, a lot of that will be determined. And as I said, this coming Friday, we'll be publicizing our vaccination schedule and with the HBNs and so forth, so everyone understands the timeline for that to happen. And then the following week or two, within the next two weeks by the first week in April, will be publicly showing you what our exit strategy is. So a lot of those timelines, a lot of those gathering limits and so forth will be in that strategy. So it will be apparent at that point what you can do and what you can't and an estimated timeline for that to happen. Stay tuned on that. Okay. Okay, so you're not absolutely ruling out the potential to have our larger gathering. I'm not at this point. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Governor, when you look at the CDC information regarding delivery of vaccine doses per 100,000 people for each state, I'm wondering if the federal government explains to you why states like Oklahoma and South Dakota are receiving around 50 to 52,000 per 100,000 while Vermont is just at under 47,000. And then the other curiosity is the four states at the highest risk of still being infected are receiving even less between 40 to 43,000 per 100,000. Are you privy to that information and the explanation of how they do that? We have, I mean, I have not looked at that. And I'm looking over at Mr. P check something you want to try and answer. I'll ask Mr. P check to try and answer. You know, it's a good question. We do watch the percent distribution closely of Vermont. You know, at the beginning of the pandemic was closer to the top. I think early on and even today some of it boils down to how much of the vaccine can be is in a shipment or in a box that goes to a state and where those cutoffs are. And for some of the smaller states, we might get the benefit of some extra doses that are beyond our per capita distribution or less than that, depending on, you know, what the shipment is. Certainly, though, to your point about the states that have, you know, an increased risk because fewer natural infections, it's certainly a good argument to make. But at this point, you know, the per capita distribution is the way that the federal government is moving forward. And as you see, we're making pretty good progress on protecting our most vulnerable. You know, even under this plan, we think we'll get all of our population vaccinated really good numbers just in the next couple of months. Okay. Thanks very much. Yes, thank you. Good afternoon. Nursing facility in the kingdom here has an outbreak with two staff and four residents testing positive. The facility administrator reported to us the residents had about a 90 percent vaccination rate and staff at 60 percent. I'm wondering how typical these vaccination rates are compared to the statewide averages. And on the same topic, cases are down significantly in these types of facilities. But is there a threshold of vulnerability that you have determined at this point in terms of vaccination rates? And if so, do you have a list of facilities that might be concerning to you because they have lowered the average update? Commissioner Levine, I will just say that, you know, one that sticks out from my perspective on the other end of the scale was I think it was Randolph and they had like a 90 percent update. So that was that was the gold standard. And we had hoped that other long term care facility staff members would follow suit, but we know they fell short. I believe in Bennington as well, which is a concern for us. Dr. Levine. So it's pretty common for the uptake by the residents of long term care facilities to be very high. 90 percent is actually not an unusual number. I can't give you a facility by facility rate, but it's always in the 80s and 90 percent range. For the staff, it's very variable, I have to say. Some have been as low as 40 to 50 percent. More, more commonly is in the 60 to 70 percent range. So not as high as the residents and certainly not as high as some of the other health care facilities in the state. When we commonly talk to our hospitals, they're always with few exceptions above 70 percent and most most frequently in the high 80s and low 90 percent range amongst their staff. So obviously any diminishment in those numbers does provide some vulnerability, as you mentioned. And at a time when communities have more virus to transmit, that vulnerability may end up showing up in the long term care facility. Fortunately, though, as you've seen by the data, they're not showing up in abundance at long term care facilities. And maybe we're seeing a little bit of the demonstration, if you will, of community immunity within the walls of those facilities. Because in aggregate, there are so many people who have been vaccinated that it's less likely for one to transmit virus to another. But we're still very concerned about that. We do some education as needed. We had a very nice sort of town hall in Bennington, as the governor was alluding to, at the Vermont Veterans Home with the staff there. And we'll do whatever it takes to get that rate up higher. OK. Thank you. And then I have a second question from a reader who, within the last few days, my understanding is they went to try to reapply for unemployment benefits. Namer wasn't 100 percent clear to me whether this was related to the extension of the unemployment benefits that were just approved with the rescue plan. But they ran into trouble either connecting by phone or online and what they determined was a necessary reapplication. They were wondering if the system is in the state of transition to accommodate the new extension or if there's anything in that field. I may refer to Commissioner Harrington on that. Sure. Thank you, Governor. And thanks for the question. So there are a couple of different components there. The American Recovery Plan or Rescue Plan actually is obviously in the middle of being rolled out. Individuals are still filing under the existing programs for the remainder of this week, which is actually filing for the prior week. But to your question about the reapplication, what is likely happening is that in accordance with both our program and the federal requirements, if someone goes through a 12-month period of collecting benefits from the time they originally opened their claim, they must refile for benefits at that 12-month mark. And so there are individuals that are having to open a new claim, which is standards and reapply for benefits because they've gone through the 12-month period. It's not a full application process, but there is essentially opening a new benefit year is what is occurring. And that is again, redetermining their eligibility based on the wages, if any, that they have received over the prior 12 months and actually even beyond that based on the statute. So there is a necessary opening or reapplication process if they need to open a new benefit year because it's gone 12 months since their initial claim was opened. I guess that suggests the follow-up then given where we are in the calendar in the start of the pandemic. Are you expecting a bubble of reapplications to be coming in short order and is the system prepared to handle it if there is one coming? Sure, we are and we have been planning for that. Unfortunately, you can't open a new benefit year until your existing year expires. And so we do expect that there will be, as you said, a bubble, but an increase, especially over the latter weeks in March and the first few weeks in early April, where a number of individuals who have been filing consistently since last March and April will now hit that one year mark. So when their claim expires, they will receive a notification from the department that their claim has expired and that they need to file under a new benefit year. And there is a method for how to do that. So we will be sending them a detailed description of what the steps are in that process. Okay. Thank you, everyone. In regards to Andrew's previous question about long-term care facilities, just a message to all the media and those listening. It's not too late if you are a staff member at a long-term care facility and you chose not to, for whatever reason, decided not to get your vaccination when it was offered before, it's still on the table. So we encourage you to do so. This would be beneficial to not only those in the facility, but to you personally. It gives you a lot of benefits in terms of mobility, seeing others and seeing your kids, grandkids and so forth. So we encourage you to take advantage of that. Yes, Governor, this is a quick question on vaccine doses. You said the state is going to be looking at hundreds of more doses. How many have the state received this week? Well, we didn't. This week we didn't receive Johnson & Johnson, so I'm not sure how many. Just north of 16,000. Okay. About 16,000 of the Pfizer and Moderna. Does that include the second dose or is that 16,000 first dose? That's 16,000 first dose. The other is not really... And so when you say that the announcement today is the hundreds of doses on top of that amount. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca. Governor Secretary Smith discussed a working group to help Vermont's homeless long-term. Representative Dave Yacoboni of Marstown on the Appropriations Committee recently said that allocating the state government share of the Recovery Act could be invested heavily in COVID-related housing. So I'm wondering, is the state planning to merely extend payment for hotels and motels and build shelters with all of those new federal dollars, or are you expecting a strategy to reduce homelessness long-term? Yeah. I mean, our goal would be to reduce homelessness in the long term. We have to consider both. And if we have the flexibility, and I'm not sure what the rules will allow us to do, but I'd rather build housing than to provide temporary housing in more long-term to help those in need. So that would be my strategy, but it's good for all of us to get together. And I think we all have the same goal is to make sure, short-term protect people, long-term make sure that they have a place to go to, and not just a temporary facility. So short-term protect, long-term a place to go to, okay. Governor, Vermonters appreciate that when you come directly from the White House calls, we have just one degree of separation from the President, and you're it. On any of these calls, have the President or the Governors discussed asking the Chinese government to provide more transparency on how the virus developed? Yeah. First of all, the President has not been on any of these calls, these eight calls that were on a weekly basis. It's just the Governors and some of the CDC members and others in the White House. So, and that has not come up in any of these calls. Is that something you might want to bring up? Not on these calls, but I know that it's a concern of many. I mean, we, you know, as we, in the aftermath, we need to know what happened, I believe. And so there doesn't replicate and happen again. Thank you. Of these numbers, you know, where we are in the pandemic right now, you know, vaccines ramping up, more people are potentially getting back to work in the next few months. And it's potentially, you know, we'll have a return to pre-pandemic unemployment. Well, you know, just with the, with the measure that they're using today, 3.2%, we were down a pre-pandemic around 2% lowest in the country previous to that. But that doesn't tell the whole story. And I said it then, I'll say it again now. You really should look at, you need to look at employment numbers. That's what you should be looking at. And we still have upwards to 30, over 30,000 people who are on unemployment or in some traditional UI or a PUA, but they're not working. So we need to make sure that we put people back to work. So that's the number I like to look at. As well, after the pandemic is over and people do get back to work, we're still going to be have this shortage of workers. The workforce is the problem. We had, when we had 2% unemployment, we still had jobs available. We had more jobs available than we had people to fill them. And that will be the case when we, you know, exit this pandemic. And that's something that I'm concerned about. And we should all be working on to try and bring more people into the state and to try and solve that issue, the demographic issue that we have and bring more people into the workforce. Yes, we got a viewer question since we're at the end of the press conference here, I can ask. A gentleman has made his appointment and everything, but he doesn't know if there's any sort of situation. He has no transportation. And he was wondering, is there some sort of a plan in place for folks who, you know, want to get the vaccine but can't get to a place to get one? Yeah, I know we have a program for the homebound, but I don't know if this is the same. Steve, I would advise, there's two programs. One, we have a homebound program which he can call and get, if he's homebound, get to there. But this sounds like a transportation issue more than a homebound issue. I would urge him to go ahead and call our call center to make sure, see if they can accommodate some sort of transportation for this particular individual. I think, you know, we've been pretty successful in lining people up. And the call center number is 855-722-7878. Let's just see if we can help that person with transportation. You know, we have plenty of services out there. Maybe we can connect this person with our transportation alternatives. Public transportation has those. Right, those special transportation buses that maybe we can work on that. Thank you. Okay, with that, thank you very much for tuning in. We'll be back on Friday and provide you some details on our vaccination plan throughout the next two or three months. Thank you very much.