 Good morning, everyone. Today we'll provide some important updates on both education and health. First, I want to remind folks that I have extended the state of emergency for another month. Again, this is a tool we need in order to continue to manage the public health risks of the pandemic, which has not gone away despite our success here in Vermont. Dr. Calso, our state epidemiologist, is sitting for Dr. Levine today, and she'll provide an update on the outbreak clusters and cases we're following. Notably, the outbreak related to adult and youth hockey leagues here in Central Vermont. First, I want to note that we're considering a number of steps to strengthen guidance, particularly around off-the-ice activities and interstate play. We also need all players and families to abide by the strict guidance we already have in place. We talk a lot about the importance of staying vigilant, and I know that by talking so much about it, and while we continue to have success here in Vermont, continuing the virus, I worry that Vermonters are not listening to the message as intently as before. But I hope folks will listen carefully today as Dr. Calso talks about the hockey outbreak in particular, because it does tell a story. Importantly, our contact tracing team is on top of this, and we'll contain it just the way we have every other outbreak. But again, please don't let this lull you into complacency. I think each outbreak should be seen as a learning experience for both my team and for Vermonters. So we get a better understanding as to how we can slow the spread while living our lives in this new reality. Because if we want to keep businesses and schools open, if we want our kids playing sports, and if we want to be able to get back together with family and friends, all of which is really important to our mental health and social well-being, we have to be smart about how we do it. As an example, Dr. Calso is going to share some tips for a safe Halloween. What I hope you take away from this, in addition to how to have a safe Halloween, is that, again, we can have some sense of normalcy. As long as we recognize it's not going to be exactly like last year, and we use common sense to prevent spreading the virus. Believe me, I understand how hard it is to keep this up for seven months. But here's what's important to remember. The smarter we are about how to do the things we all want to do, the better off we'll be. So while small gatherings are okay, they still need to be done using precautions, like wearing masks and keeping six feet apart. But we've got to avoid gathering in large crowds, traveling from red counties without quarantining, even sharing food at these types of events can be risky. By doing things a little differently, and being smart and cautious, we can stay open, continue sending our kids to school, and even seeing some family over the holidays. And we'll keep ourselves in a position to come through this pandemic faster, and on better economic footing, than states who have lost countless lives, seeing their healthcare systems pushed to the brink, and who have had to roll back their reopenings. And as we work to make sure we come out of the stronger than before, we also need to stay focused on getting Vermonters back to work to fill jobs that are open and available today. So I'm pleased to have President Joyce Judy from the Community College of Vermont here with us today to talk about a new offering that will help displace workers trained for new careers. While this pandemic continues to be devastating for workers, particularly in the hospitality sector, this program could help thousands gain the skills they need for new careers, filling the many jobs we had available well before the pandemic. This will be a win-win for our workers and employers. And it's one of the ways we can make our economy more resilient in the future. I also want to give credit where credits do and recognize Representative Gino Sullivan and the House Commerce Committee for introducing this initiative, which provides $3 million to CCV for this important program. So with that, I'll turn it over to President Judy for more details. Thank you, Governor. And as President of the Community College of Vermont, I am also here representing the Vermont State College System. And I appreciate the chance to let Vermonters know about a very unique and exciting opportunity that is available through the four colleges. As many of you know, CCV is part of the Vermont State College System, along with Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College. And thanks to the $2.3 million allocation by the Vermont legislature from the Federal Corona Relief Funds and with support from the Governor, I have some really good news for all Vermonters whose employment has been impacted by COVID-19. CCV, as well as the other members of the Vermont State Colleges, are pleased to announce that we will be offering free college courses and training for the next two months to all Vermonters whose work or household situation has changed because of the pandemic. As the Governor said, this idea originated in the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development. Under Chair Mike Marcotte and Vice Chair Geno Sullivan's leadership and then was championed in the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs by Chair Michael Sorotkin and Vice Chair Allison Clarkson. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the Vermont Department of Labor for partnering in this effort. So if you or someone in your household has been laid off, furloughed, had your hours cut, or you've been employed in an industry that has been impacted by the pandemic, you are eligible for these free classes and trainings. You can choose from more than a hundred different courses at our four institutions. Most of the courses are available online with flexible scheduling offerings and all are aligned with the high demand careers such as early childhood education, healthcare, business and manufacturing. This program also has an added benefit in that it provides funding for support services such as computers, childcare and transportation. So if you've had your hours reduced, you've been laid off from your job. Your job no longer exists. You're self-employed and have experienced financial losses or you've been impacted by your daycare closing. This opportunity is for you. To those of you who have been struggling to find your bearings during this pandemic, the good news is that this free opportunity, this is a free opportunity that can help you gain new skills, change your career, boost your resume and prepare yourself for the next job. But here's the challenge. The challenge is you need to act quickly. Funding is only available for classes and training this fall and you need to sign up within the next couple weeks for these courses. So I encourage you to visit www.vsc.edu slash Vermont workers to learn more. And I hope you'll all take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. And now I would like to introduce Deputy Secretary Heather Boucher. Thank you, President Judy. Good morning. We are still seeing a relatively small number of cases of COVID-19 in our schools. The Health Department has been very responsive to the needs of districts and that partnership from both a health and communications perspective is working quite well. I'll begin my update by congratulating Susan Rosado of Colchester High School. Yesterday we announced that Susan, who teaches English language students at Colchester, was named the 2021 Vermont Teacher of the Year. English language students are often new to the U.S. and need additional supports to be successful in school due to language barriers. Susan's dedication to her students and her community is commendable and certainly worthy of celebration. Dedication and commitment are typical of so many Vermont educators. During our COVID-19 response we have asked a lot of our teachers and our schools and their response has been exemplary. Susan and her team had to ensure that their students had school reopening materials translated into many different languages and that students were supported in both remote and in-person learning. This was and remains challenging work but it is also inspiring work. We are so grateful to dedicated teachers like Susan who have stepped up during this emergency to support our students and directly to Susan. I know that Secretary French was very honored yesterday to recognize your service by naming you the 2021 Vermont Teacher of the Year. On a similar note of gratitude I also want to mention that this week is National School Lunch Week. I want to thank all of the school food service personnel around Vermont who have worked so hard since March to ensure that our children have access to food both in school and at home. Late last week the USDA announced it is extending waivers for the school meals program that were due to expire in December. Under these waivers every Vermont student can receive free school meals. We are pleased these waivers have been extended through the rest of the school year. We are now in the process of working with our local school nutrition staff to support them in implementing these waivers. In addition last week we closed our first administration of a monthly data collection designed to monitor trends in student instruction modalities such as in-person and remote. We will collect these data on a monthly basis at the end of the month. Nearly all districts over 90 percent responded to this data collection. We still have some data to clean up from independent schools but these charts on the screen provide a good summary of the general trends across the state as of the end of September. So overall as you can see about 62 percent of our schools are in a hybrid mode. Excuse me I would collapse the fully remote and the hybrid into some kind of hybrid mode and that would be closer to 70 to 80 percent. Again these are data from the end of September when we first announced the shift to step three so we do anticipate a shift to more in-person instruction the next time we do this collection at the end of October so later this month. And if we can go to the next slide so as expected as you can see here more elementary schools are utilizing in-person instruction than our middle school and high schools. This conforms with our policy emphasis on prioritizing in-person school experiences for elementary students and the fact that remote learning tends to be more viable for older students. We will report these data on the Agency of Education website going forward and use the data to consider additional guidance for school districts. We will also be updating the map that we developed with the Department of Financial Regulation to show patterns from the initial school district reopening plans. Finally one issue that has emerged as a concern from districts in the last week or so is holiday travel. Governor Scott noted this as well in his remarks. We're hearing that schools are concerned about the implications of holiday travel on their ability to offer in-person instruction. In an interview this week Dr. Fauci stated we should not expect Thanksgiving to be a typical holiday this year. He encouraged us to be very careful and prudent about social gatherings particularly when members of the family might be at risk because of their age or their underlying health conditions. So it's probably important for all of us to carefully review our holiday travel plans in the coming months. To be sure celebrating holidays are important for our mental and emotional well-being but it's probably important that we also acknowledge the public health implications and factor those into our decision-making this year when we can. That concludes my update. I will now turn it over to Dr. Calso. Thank you. Good morning. As you heard Dr. Levine is taking a few well-deserved days off his first I think since February. If you've been following our data you know that we are up to 1,915 total cases in Vermont during this pandemic and many of you will have noticed that we went from several days of just a few cases new cases each day to 10 or more cases each day in more recent days. It's a bit concerning but it's not at all different than what we've been forecasting and talking about. We anticipate that as the weather gets colder as we get into the fall as schools are open and other things are opening up a bit more we do expect to see more cases. As you can see on the slide I'm going to talk about an outbreak that we've been investigating this week an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among members of a youth and adult recreational hockey and broom ball teams in central Vermont and the link among the cases came to our attention last week thanks to our contact tracing efforts. The outbreak is associated with people who practiced or played at the central Vermont Memorial Civic Center in Montpelier earlier this month and it appears that cases are limited to players and their close contacts. So far there's no indication of community spread of the virus. As of this morning we've identified 18 confirmed cases among players and their close contacts. Most of the cases so far have been identified among adults and the health department has informed schools if any of the youth were in attendance at school while they were infectious. The contact tracing team is continuing their work to identify and reach out to people who may be affected. So please it's important that you answer the phone if you get a call from the health department. This is how we give you and your family the information you need if you to know if you're at risk and it's key to our ability to contain outbreaks and spread in the community. Tomorrow Saturday there will be a pop-up test clinic at the Berry Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and we're recommending that anyone with direct links to the teams their close contacts and people associated with the Civic Center be tested. Testing is not recommended for the broader Montpelier community in response to this situation but the clinic is open to the public. To make an appointment to be tested go to healthvermont.gov slash COVID-19 dash testing and these these two slides if we could go back to the previous one please thank you. Indicates the dates of onset of each of the cases associated with this outbreak and we've identified through contact tracing efforts that there were multiple opportunities for potential transmission between the end of September and the very early days of October resulting in subsequently identifying these cases with some limited transmission to close contacts but again no community spread has been identified at this point. In addition to the other cases reported this week two cases are associated with Union Elementary School in Montpelier. These cases are the first instance in Vermont of transmission within the school. As with all cases we're working to identify close contacts and have been working closely with the school and district officials to investigate and in their efforts to keep their students teachers staff and the community informed. These cases are not associated with the hockey related outbreak. The fact that this is the state's first in-school transmission doesn't mean an escalation of the virus. It means that someone who is infectious transmitted to someone just this time inside a school rather than a workplace or a long-term care facility or other setting. It does mean that despite our low rate of COVID-19 in Vermont this highly infectious virus is still at a risk to Vermonters and we have to keep up our own personal and institutional efforts to prevent its spread in every way that we can. I want to share our concerns about travel as well especially with the fall and winter holiday season coming unfortunately the latest travel map from Commissioner Picek isn't showing many green counties in areas beyond our borders. So this means that if you do decide to leave Vermont you likely will need to quarantine when you come back and if you have visitors from out of state they will need to follow our Vermont quarantine rules while they're here. We all want to see our friends and family who live farther away and because these are people we trust we may let our guard down more than we usually do to not worry too much about their county and whether it's green we might sit closer to them spend more time together or take our masks off but the fact is we don't know and they may not know if they've been exposed to the virus especially if they live in an area virtually anywhere outside Vermont with a higher prevalence of COVID-19. Tests before they arrive or at the time that they arrive reflect just one moment in time and it still may take several days from the time that they were last exposed for the virus to replicate in their system to the point where tests can detect it. This is why following our prevention guidance and quarantine rules is so important. As we move indoors and as schools are open we need to make sure we're keeping these social and holiday visits as safe as we can. We're all chafing at the bit keeping our guard up for months and months has been hard but the virus doesn't watch the calendar and we need to continue to take these precautions and work them into our daily lives. I also want to mention the rule of testing when it comes to travel. Starting this week you may have seen that rapid antigen testing is available at the Burlington Airport and we appreciate both the city of Burlington and airport officials being partners in educating travelers and visitors about preventing spread of COVID-19. As we've said testing is one critical tool to find the virus and prevent its spread and there are several types of tests each with its own best use and as Dr. Levine has discussed antigen testing is different than PCR which is the gold standard but antigen testing does have a role and can be useful. In general we've said antigen tests should not be used to diagnose asymptomatic people but they can be informative for people who have a known exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19. If you do travel to Vermont by plane you still need to quarantine for 14 days. You also have the option to be tested on day seven or later to shorten your quarantine but it needs to be a negative PCR test and remember testing is not prevention. Test results give you a snapshot in time of whether you have the virus. Following state guidance and rules will help keep the virus from spreading and finally on a lighter note Halloween. It's getting closer so I wanted to remind people of what Dr. Levine has said here before. You can still celebrate Halloween safely. Like other places we go these days we just need to keep three things in mind. First can you keep a six foot distance from people who aren't in your household. Walking around a neighborhood outside is a good example of that. If you're giving out candy think of creative ways to keep that safe distance like having bags of candy ready to grab or set up a candy slide. There are lots of good and sometimes extravagant ideas on the internet. The second are you and others around you wearing masks. We're all used to getting to wearing them by now but it's and it's a great time over Halloween to incorporate them into our costumes. And finally number three how crowded is the place you're going. Keep your group small and remember that outside is always safer than inside. If you're trick-or-treating and one neighborhood seems too busy skip it and move on to the next one. And as always if you're sick please stay home. You can eat the candy you bought just don't tell our nutrition staff. We all need to find ways to balance the seriousness of the pandemic with some fun. And if Halloween is your kind of fun you can find safe ways to celebrate. And now I'll turn it back to the governor. Thank you Dr. Kelso and then we'll now open it up to questions. Calvin. Probably for Dr. Kelso's school regarding the airport testing. If after receiving a test people still have to quarantine for two weeks. I guess what is the point of having to test since this is a waste of time. It's a valid question. Thank you for asking it. A test can be useful because if you know you do it at the right time on the right day and you are infected you can identify that infection with the test. It's you know it's it's one point in time so it doesn't mean that you're not going to become symptomatic the next day. It doesn't mean that you're going to remain asymptomatic but if you were tested the next day it wouldn't be positive. So it's it's valid if it gives you a positive result that you weren't aware of because then you know that you're infectious and need to isolate but if it's negative it's honestly not that helpful and regardless you still need to follow the quarantine rules. So people can make their own decisions about whether or not to access that testing. And another question about the Hockey League as well as you probably saw New Hampshire has suspended both their hockey leagues. I'm wondering if through the contact tracing process so far there's been any link whether it be through elastic or travel teams or anything like that. Any link to New Hampshire. We we do know that some Vermont hockey players did travel out of state. We don't know what role that might have played in acquiring the infection or you know causing further spread. It is one of the things we're looking into further but I think there are a lot of factors you know there's there's travel to non-green areas there's not wearing masks. There's not social distancing. I'm not saying that these things are things that happen. These things are potential risk factors that could contribute to spread. So we all need to keep in mind all the rules not just travel but wearing masks staying apart not gathering in groups things like that. And then I guess one last question for the Governor as well. You may have seen that the Governor narrowly wrote in Ronald Reagan on his ballot. I'm wondering if you made a decision on you know whether you'll vote for Vice President Biden or he'll be writing something else. Yeah well as I stated before I will not be voting for President Trump. I have not made up my mind at this point but I'm sure whoever if I decide to write in it will be a living person. David. Thank you. I have a question following up on how this is about the hockey upgrade there. There has been a few weeks ago now that hockey official in Maine and it sounded like there was quite a bit of spread associated to that. Do you mean that with any of the people who played at the Civic Center or in any of the hockey leagues they both have so closely come on right now have been in contact with anybody in Maine or have been in contact with anybody involved in any known race in other states? I think the epi team is looking into that obviously. I think it's a good reminder though and I spoke with Governor Sununu yesterday before they had announced it about what they were going to do. Now in New Hampshire just so that we put this in relative terms to Vermont they've had 158 cases thus far amongst 23 different teams so their issue is far greater than ours at this point. Our you know guidelines are much more stringent than theirs. We have we have promoted the fact that you should be wearing masks during play. They don't and they allow spectators as well. So it's much different than here and they also allow much more interstate play than we do. So we are going to continue to watch what's happening in New Hampshire learn from them but we need to make sure that we're vigilant that we're following the guidelines that we aren't becoming more lax in some respects due to all the success we've had here in Vermont. So over the next 48 to 72 hours we're going to make some some decisions and some of the decisions may be sooner rather than later. I'm concerned about with New Hampshire shutting down their facilities for instance. What impact that will have on Vermont because I'm sure there's going to be border communities and hockey players that are going to want to pick up some ice time in Vermont and we want to prevent that from happening. So there may be some guidance issued in the next 24 hours regarding that but as well we'll contemplate other ripple effects of what what that means to us here in the state. Well a little bit of both. I mean just naturally with them closing their facilities in New Hampshire this will impact some in Vermont who have have already scheduled to play there. That won't be happening right now but more about I'm more concerned about them wanting to come here to to play or have some ice time and so forth and maybe coming from from counties that are not green because we're seeing more and more red in New Hampshire. They've had an uptick and a number of positive cases of late and that's concerning. So we'll be again updating some of our guidance and reinforcing the guidance we have right now to make sure that anyone who's playing in a men's or women's league and and or youth leagues are adhering to the guidance that we have in place today. It's not like earlier the week there was a huge impact perhaps as the administration considers sports moving forward. Is that the same situation now or do some of the hockey operates in that assessment schools read? Are things changing perhaps more with their likelihood for things to change or more restrictions as the guidance gets ready? Yeah again we'll learn from this experience. I happen to believe that much of what we're seeing here in Vermont and this is just me anecdotally seeing the situation from 30,000 feet but I believe it's more of the social aspects outside of of the play not on the rink. So I'm hopeful that will be the case so that we can continue to offer sports in a very measured different way than previous to our kids and our adults so that we can do you know offer this in Vermont for some normalcy some mental health and lifestyle but doing it in a safe manner. And lastly just to get a sense of how the decision-making process works when considering to either close the school or switch it to remote learning and certainly the trend continues towards the in-person but specifically the relationship between the health department and the schools themselves. Do schools have the final say on whether they say open or not or how does that relationship sort of play out? I'll let either Dr. Kelso or Dr. Boucher or Secretary Boucher answer that. It's Dr. as well isn't it? But from my standpoint I believe it's a local decision but I'll let them answer that. Thank you. Yeah the EPI teams whether it's the contact tracing team, the outbreak prevention and response team they work closely with the school officials to determine what the situation is whether there's been spread, how many students and staff are impacted and whether the school has the capacity to stay open if you know if staff are out or whether the recommendation from the health department is to close a pod or a classroom or a certain part of the school. So the recommendation comes from the health department and then the schools do with that what they feel is appropriate given their particular circumstances. I suppose it's theoretically possible that the health department could recommend closing a classroom for example and the school pushing back and not wanting to do that. We have not encountered that yet but and I don't anticipate that we'd encounter that but so it's a health recommendation and then the school does without what it chooses. It can happen both ways. Sometimes we hear about situations from schools because a school nurse for example might have a sick child and then they talk to the health department or sometimes we get lab results, we investigate the cases. In that case investigation we determine whether it's a school aged child or an adult who works in a school and whether they were in the school while they were infectious and then we share information with the school as needed to make decisions. Thank you very much. Steve. I don't know also since you're out there and actually for you many too governor are you concerned or is the health department concerned or the administration even with the the advent of these retail if you will uh testing sites coming in uh i.e. Burlington that the business becomes lucrative enough that it you know that you'll get the advertising they'll start people will get the wrong idea behind uh what a test will incur or a false sense of security. I do worry about the false sense of security. We did work with the the entity doing testing at the airport on what guidance and information they're sharing with people who get a test. I haven't seen it but I understand that it does indicate that people are still required to quarantine regardless of the result. So that I think is the most important part. I think you know it's not a bad thing to give people access to more information if they're seeking it and a positive test among an asymptomatic traveler can be really useful information. At the same time a negative test isn't that helpful. So again people can make their own decisions. It's not necessarily a bad thing that these entities are offering testing as long as people understand what the result means for them and what they still need to do. Steve I just want to reinforce what Dr. Kelso and Dr. Levine have been saying all along you know this testing is just a snapshot in time it's not a prevention measure but it is good information. We've talked a lot about more surveillance testing sentinel testing and so forth which is helpful to provide us with information about the spread and the amount of infection coming into the state. But if someone is having a test after traveling immediately getting off an aircraft that may come up negative they could have picked something up in their terminal on the on the travel just hours before and it won't show up. So that's the concern I share that with with Dr. Kelso that it gives people a false sense of security. They need to you know abide by the guidelines and they need to quarantine for that 14-day period or seven days with a PCR test. And finally have you had any communication with our congressional delegation in response to both sides sort of falling apart as we look at relief for the for the states in COVID getting some money out here to people. Both sides say you know we've got a great package and you know it's the other guy that's doing is having the problem. Have you gotten any message out to to folks and is there any sort of sense of optimism at all? You know there's a lot of finger pointing in Washington that's the way Washington seems to work. It's really unfortunate because the American people are the ones who are suffering at this point and it's a lot of its due to politics and posturing and so forth before the election. My hope is that after maybe a couple weeks when the when the election is over that they can all get serious about providing for Americans and and Vermont is in need as well. So I mean I believe there will be some sort of package. Everyone has talked about having some sort of package stimulus package of some sort available. The size the magnitude will be determined but I am I'm not hopeful that will be before the election. It'll be sometime after. Okay moving to the funds now Kat WCAX. Hi these questions are likely for Dr. Kelso. Some communities are advising residents against trick-or-treating. I know Montpelier yesterday said it's discouraging people from doing it. Should cities in town be discouraging it? Well like Dr. Kelso answered some of that she had remarked in some of her statement about how to do it effectively and safely and I think that's the bottom line. Communities have to make up their own minds but individuals do as well. If everyone adheres to the guidelines they six feet apart use their imagination about how to distribute some of the candy and so forth on these visits. Everybody be okay especially because it's outside but communities have a responsibility for their constituents as well and it's up to them those constituents to abide by that. But from our standpoint we're trying to just at least provide the guidance on how to do it safely and I think that Dr. Kelso did a great job in providing that. Kat I don't think Dr. Kelso has anything to add to that. Did you have another question? I did and this one was a contract tracing question. I had a viewer who wanted to know what happens if someone in a person's household tests positive for the virus and then the person who's the housemate you know schedules a test. Does the person who's still waiting for their test results have to tell their work and then does their work have to notify the other employees that one of their employees had a member of a household who tested positive. Basically how far out does the obligation to notify about potential contacts go because I imagine it's not wanting to panic people but also wanting to make sure that you limit contact. Yeah a lot of personal responsibility there but I'll let Dr. Kelso answer. Kat if I understood the scenario you're talking about someone in a household testing positive and their partner or household contact being a close contact because they share a household and so it's appropriate for that household contact to get a test you know at some point during at least several days after their initial exposure to give the virus time to be detectable and to quarantine for 14 days after their last contact with the person in their house who's positive or at least seven days with a negative test. That person the household contact of the confirmed case does need to quarantine and therefore should not be going to work so what they tell their employer is entirely up to them but they should not be at work. Their co-workers however are considered contacts of contacts. They're contacts to the person in the household who's a contact to the confirmed case so there's no concern for the workers unless the household person also tests positive and was at the workplace while they were infectious. So you know there's a cascade of information that we need to collect about a case who their contacts are the time frame that the contact was potentially exposed and then you know what that means for other people around them so there's a lot of information gathering and some of that information is important to share like if you're a quarantine person you shouldn't be at work or school but for contacts of contacts there's no concern and I can see how the people in the workplace for example might be nervous because they've heard about their co-workers infected household case and they might be concerned why haven't I heard from the health department don't I need to be contacted. The message there is if you're identified as a potential contact of a case the health department will reach you. If you don't hear from the health department you probably have absolutely nothing to worry about and if the situation changes you will hear from the health department. Does that help? I think it does yes thank you. Lisa Raffke, BAP. Hi, thanks. I have a question about the unsteal your school cases. Any tell us if those are in students or teachers or both those two cases? Dr. Kelso. Actually I am not able to tell you that due to the safe harbor provision in HIPAA so unfortunately I just can't share any additional information. We're posting information on the health department website on any cases who were at school while they were infectious whether it's adults or children and we're not breaking them out by how many adults and how many children we're just giving the total number. We're updating that once a week and it's on the health department website. Okay, I see. And then actually the hockey outbreak I've seen up in New Hampshire squad hockey now for two weeks in indoor rigs. I mean is that is that a step that Vermont might consider taking? Lisa as I said before you know that there's a difference between New Hampshire and Vermont in many different ways. You know 158 cases they've had as a result of some amongst 23 different teams amongst the hockey players in in Hampshire. They don't require masks during play. They allow spectators. They have more interstate play so their circumstances are much different than ours. I would say we are we'll consider anything to keep Vermont safe but at this point in time we want to make sure that they're adhering to the guidelines that we've put into place now. We're asking players to wear masks during play and if you can't do that when you're when you're playing if it's just that uncomfortable don't play. I mean it's just as simple as that just don't play. Okay, thank you very much. Liam Elder Connors vpr. Liam vpr star six on mute. Hi, I had a question start with Dr. Kelso about contact tracing. I just was wondering you mentioned that the current increase in cases still needs you still feel like you have capacity to do adequate contact tracing. How many tracers do you currently have and sort of are you planning to ramp that up as you expect more cases to ramp up as well? Yeah, Liam we've been tracking that and following it and thinking about it since February or March. We have I think over 100 slightly over 100 contact tracers who we could pull in at a moment's notice if we needed to. We typically use I think about 10 or 15 any given day maybe fewer than that. So we certainly have plenty of capacity now our contact tracing record as far as the number of people we reach within 24 and 48 hours is among the best if not the best in the country. And you know we have reserve staff who are trained up and ready to go if we need to pull them in. So I think I think for right now we're feeling very comfortable about that. I mean if you were to have to activate you know all like all 100 I mean what you know what how much could you be tracing I guess what's the outer limit right now? Yeah it depends because some cases have just one household contact and you know that's a relatively quick interview. We reach the person we give them the information get what we need and then that situation is wrapped up and that person is quarantining at home and there's no risk for further spread and it's pretty straightforward. Other cases might have been at work and doing other things during their infectious period and so we might identify 10 or more close contacts for that person and so then we need multiple contact tracers to divide up those people and make the phone calls and do the interviews and collect the information. So it just sort of depends I think the most I could get you a precise number but I think the most contact tracing staff we've used you know on any one day is is well under 50 it's well short of the capacity that we have. Okay and Governor I was wondering from you you know at the top of this press conference you sort of laid out a pretty strong message to people in the state to kind of keep following guidelines and especially in light of you know we've seen this hockey outbreak we're seeing kind of look you know higher numbers than we've been seeing for a while and we're going to be more in store and you know there's just all these sort of factors up play and I'm wondering are you confident that you know going forward over the next couple of weeks we'll be able to continue to operate at the same level of openness or are you expecting to have to institute some more restrictions like we had back in March? Yeah no I don't think we'll ever go back to what we had in March we've learned a lot over the last seven months we can be more strategic more surgical in some respects about if we have to backtrack but at this point in time again it's up to each and every one of us if we adhere to the guidance guidelines in place if we follow the travel policy if we keep six feet apart if we wear a mask whenever we're in contact with others we'll be okay we'll get through this and it's just a very slight uptick again when you think about where Vermont is and and Dr. Kelso didn't didn't mention that we were recognized with the EPI team we're recognized as being one of the leaders in the country in terms of capacity throughout from the beginning we prepared for this prepared for the worst and we've actually used other agencies to to try and use that cross agency support and training and so forth so we could ramp up if necessary when you look at like Wyoming for instance Wyoming is now the third lowest uh they were the lowest in terms of positivity and a number of cases and so forth now they're they're the third lowest right now we're we're the lowest but they had over the last week they've had 200 cases a day and we've seen the uptick in other states as well we haven't seen that dramatic of an increase we expected to have some increase especially with more travel schools opening back up things getting much more back to normal but but again it's just a reminder to us when we see these outbreaks that we just have to be careful we have to be cautious we have to take some self-responsibility self-responsibility because we're in control of this individually and we just can't take this lightly we're impacting other people's lives so just adhere to the guidelines and we'll be okay if everyone follows everything we have in place we're not gonna we're not gonna be having another stay home order this this winter you think that'll be right I I don't believe that we will I think that I think for monitors have learned they may be getting a little lax at this point in some areas some some are doing everything right but we you know they're getting complacent and understandably but and they're getting tired of this it's almost like battle fatigue in some respects but I believe that they can get back into shape so to speak and and get back to doing the right things and we'll we'll avoid what we're seeing across the country I have a lot of faith in Vermonters thank you Andrew McGregor the Caledonian record yes good morning thank you this is for Dr. Kelso or perhaps Secretary Smith looking for an outpage on the facility wide testing at the skilled nursing facility here in Caledonia County where an employee tested positive earlier this week I think I'll refer to Secretary Smith on this I don't I'm not sure I have a an update on that particular incident in terms of what is going on there I'll turn to Dr. Kelso if she she does but as you know we have instituted monthly testing in our long term care facilities that we're going to see instances of positive tests given the rigorous testing that we're doing in our long-term care facilities we'll also ramp up our testing if we do find a positive case in a long-term care facility in addition to to a sequence of testing facility wide testing if we do find one in terms of a Caledonia County I think that was one case in a long-term care facility of a staff person and we are moving forward in making sure that person is quarantined and I think we are moving forward in a facility wide testing okay that's what I was curious about is my understanding was the facility wide testing would be I think performed on Wednesday with results on Thursday and then the second round would be done on Sunday so I guess I'm curious if the results are back results are back and they're all negative except for the index case except for the index case and so besides the second round that's scheduled for this weekend any other steps at this point or is it well there'll be a next round of facility wide testing on 1018 with the expected results at the lab at 1019 and then additional testing will be assessed at that time but I just want to say I mean this facility had good adherence to PPE within the facility and so the other circumstance that the employee worked both at the nursing facility and at the hospital there's no ongoing exposure concerns regarding their time at the hospital we're looking at that right now in terms of contact tracing there was good adherence to social distancing at PPE at the hospital and the facility is providing a list to us of several employees to contact just to make sure that we do the epi team does contact trace them and if I may Dr Kelso regarding the hockey outbreak um can you say how many different adult teams and youth teams were involved was it one of each or or multiple and is there a connection between the adult and youth teams um other than just the facility if like for instance an adult player happens to be the youth coach or or something like that yeah there are some connections um my understanding is there are two different youth teams and at least two adult teams um that's my understanding based on what I'm recalling in this moment so it could be a little bit off um there are connections among some of the adults and some of the youth um but the bottom line is we haven't identified the precise you know source or origin or um you know who who is the first case we haven't been able to pin that down we often can't pin that down in a situation or an outbreak sometimes we're able to sort it out as we do more interviews and gather more information sometimes we just can't so we'll have to see what we're able to sort out with this situation there are some relationships between adults and youth um but we're not quite sure what direction the spread went in each of those cases and um do you uh agree with the governor's perception that this may be more related to off ice interaction as opposed to uh on ice gameplay things like that yeah I think there are lots of factors you know we know what works in preventing spread staying apart not being around people when you're sick wearing masks all of those things I think there are probably a number of factors that went into spread in this outbreak including activities off the ice very likely so I don't I agree with the governor we have not been able to say that you know transmission is largely due to playing hockey it it may be more due to activities that surround the playing of hockey okay thank you everyone Greg can I just go back to Andrew for just just a minute Andrew just so as a reminder again to everyone many of these rinks have been open throughout the summer many of these teams have been playing throughout the summer some of the youth leagues have been playing throughout the summer so we haven't experienced this at this point it may be ramped up again we may be getting more lax there may be some more social gatherings maybe outside of the rink and so forth that's what we're looking at at this point but we'll learn a lot from New Hampshire I mean they're they're trying to get to the bottom of it as well and maybe there'll be something that connects on ice versus anything else but but we don't know that at this point go ahead Greg good afternoon governor I wanted to ask about the ER doctor at Northwest that tells us how this it's my understanding that she had a connection somehow to the either the outbreak of self-reliance in high school or the hockey outbreak or maybe even a combination I'm wondering how many people have been contact traced in connection with the ER doctor and if any of those have come back positive I'll start with Secretary Smith and then go to Dr. Calcell thank you Greg let me let me start by saying something that Dr. Calcell may have said or something that I at least heard today during a morning briefing these this hockey outbreak has it has impacted schools several schools and several classrooms and I want to really be careful when I talk about schools because in most cases when the contact tracing team goes out they talk about classrooms not entire schools and and various things so talking about classrooms what do we do with classrooms who needs the quarantine who doesn't need the quarantine um this hockey outbreak has affected several classrooms and it has affected healthcare facilities as well we'll have a press release about about the the hospital is doing a press release about the the situation that they have at Northwest Medical Center Northwest Medical Center didn't identify any high-risk contacts some staff they are testing there out of an abundance of precaution I I do not know the the answer to that question great any follow-ups Greg yeah just a quick follow-up I didn't know Dr. Calcell had anything to say but no I think governor you you've kind of touched on this a little bit this morning with area ice rinks being kind of a discussion with this a lot of rinks are putting in their ice right now it's the costly thing to do and not just put it in but also to maintain it do you expect to allow a school hockey uh this winter or if it's too soon to say I just I'm hearing people wondering if spending the money to put in the ice not knowing it's really a wise yeah um understand their concern as well um we'll be updating that winter guidance I would say in the next week uh sometime next week so they should have their answer but again we'll learn a little bit from what's going on right now on terms of New Hampshire and so forth but my hope is that we can move forward as long as we adhere to very strict guidelines and have have safety be the beam being the primary concern so I'm hopeful that we can continue to move forward as we expected but we'll we'll know more after the next few days thank you thank you for your time governor thank you for your explanation thanks for your time Eric the times are yes yes these are most likely for dr kelso uh the very city elementary middle school announced yesterday that somebody's there had tested positive for the virus is that related to the hockey and stuff but the montaille rink I'm just checking my notes because um we're following a number of different situations and I don't want to confuse them so bear with me for a second um the very city school you said very city elementary middle school yeah okay sorry um just reading my notes to um distill what I'm allowed to say um and I'm not sure that I'm allowed I'm actually not sure I'm allowed to answer that question um I had a slide up earlier um um where I indicated that associated with the hockey outbreak there are about 10 different facilities that here we go um workplaces and schools where someone somehow associated with the hockey outbreak was at either a workplace or a school while they were potentially infectious so we have one college we have three different k through 12 schools and five different workplaces with the exception of one workplace it's only one hockey associated case in each of those settings so we're not talking about you know dramatic potential for spread or anything um but I'm not sure that I should answer questions specifically about any any of those settings and you know naming them Montpelier had asked for everyone at the elementary school to be tested after the two people there exit positive but the department of health said that's not recommended at this time why is that yeah um we so our normal response is we um learn of cases interview them find out when their infectious period was based on the date their symptoms started and then identify who they were around while they were infectious um so that takes some investigating um we can't always assume that just because there's a case in a teacher for example that a classroom or other co-workers were exposed because it might be that that teacher wasn't even at school during their infectious period so first we we do that um investigating and then um based on what we learn and based on the types of contacts that we identify and which precautions are in place you know is everybody masked all the time um are people six feet apart how much time do they spend together in a particular room are they um in pods that are shifting throughout the school during the day or that are they one pod that's sitting in the same classroom for the whole school day questions like that and then based on that we determine whether um we are recommending quarantine or quarantine plus testing um for those contacts and so it's very situationally dependent and it depends on um the expert advice of the contact tracers so does any of that calculus change given that this is this the school this is the first time where there's been in the school transmission of the virus no um you know again it's the same it's the same investigation um we know that this virus spreads from one person to another whether it's in a school or a workplace or uh you know another setting we've seen that throughout the past several months so this is what this virus does it's relatively easy to spread from one person to another and um just because it happened to be in a school doesn't change how we're approaching the opening of school or the practices that are in place in schools okay thank you lisa lumas the valley reporter hello thanks for taking my call my question is about visitors to vermont despite the shrinking travel map and the number of visitors who can now come to vermont without quarantine we're seeing no reduction in the number of visitors to vermont including those from states that are beyond the single day of travel and those who states have no green counties whatsoever this was readily apparent over last weekend long weekend a community member had asked it to be possible to have commissioner p check resurrect the mobility data slides for the northeast that we were shown earlier this spring and summer to compare it to the current travel map next yeah that is possible we actually talked about that i spoke with commissioner p check this morning about showing the mobility mobility data um on tuesday um as in comparison to last year and so forth so yes he's um he'd be able to do that i believe great thank you very much tim mcquiston from on business magazine um i had a question about the the last wages program maybe way in on it i was wondering if the nine hundred dollar federal program has has now played out and what has come with the state these sort of associated state hundred dollar program that you had talked about previously uh yeah commissioner herrington are you still on i am sir uh so with regards to the law's wage assistance program the second round was announced we did receive the funding i think it was just about two weeks ago that we actually received the funding for the second round of payments and so um we'll actually have a bulk payment going out at the start of next week for the tune of about i believe 25 million dollars to a number of different um claimants let me see if i have that number right here so it'll be roughly 25.2 million dollars to about 34,500 claimants uh the first part of next week we were doing some data validation on the certification piece um and uh once we have that squared away those payments will be issued for law's wage assistance that would complete the full six weeks of benefits we received from the federal government um we'll continue to issue benefits um out of that program for anybody who either comes through the door or is processed through the system uh after the fact uh until that program either ends under the federal terms of the program or funding uh runs out with regards to the hundred dollar benefit that was passed through the legislature um that actually didn't uh it started or went into effect on september 27th however um we always look at week ending so the the week ending october third would have been the first week we will likely um just because of timing with lwa and the need to validate claims um to be able to issue those funds um the four weeks of that program for the four hundred dollars or some variation thereof um will go to eligible claimants at the end of october in one uh bulk payment um and that could be that they're eligible for anywhere from one week to all four weeks but the other thing i saw uh df that this is probably not your preview but they were talking about the economic impact payment still there are still sponsors who have received those apparently i was wondering how many uh people they're still eligible i was able to get them until November 21st but i was wondering how many sponsors are still waiting for those twelve hundred dollars checked which you know started way back in april or something like that a federal government yeah that um i'm not sure who would have the answer to that uh to be honest with you tim if that's the twelve hundred dollars that the federal government issued yeah so they some of them were direct deposited some of them want to being debit card and that sort of thing and not everybody got them i just thought i was actually on the my.gov website homepage uh about uh people could still apply to get those they had to receive um i might i don't know if us secretary curly or maybe uh commissioner goldstein might be on i don't know if you have any more information on that we can we can look into it i just don't know where where that information would be helped them oh yeah i don't i don't have any things to add i'm happy to look at you know look offline and get back to you okay if it if it turns up then let me know thank you very much uh joseph dresser the bartender chronicle good morning i have a question that i believe is for secretary smith um over what a leader wrote to us and asked about why the department of corrections uh uses garbage bags as personal protective equipment and the question really is is this the best the state can manage can't imagine we're yeah they have been experimenting with mask and various uh protective uh first of all let me back up joe uh first of all uh they have all the protective equipment that they need um we've made sure that corrections has the protective ppe that they need the protective equipment that they need um one of the things that they have been doing is experimenting with various uh various aspects of uh ppe they have been doing their own masks um they have been experimenting with some of this um what i would call uh plastic material uh in order to uh look at various options in case we have another surge um and ppe becomes an issue i think it's prudent planning i think it should be continued uh but at the same time i just want to assure you and your reader that we have sufficient ppe uh in in the state to handle uh correctional officers this is experimenting with possibilities um experimenting with possibilities and i think when there was a chance that there was going to be a shortage way back when in the beginning probably looking at how we could use various uh unique opportunities i will say but i i think the aspect is called unique opportunities it's it's not a um is it is something that we will turn to the regular ppe uh when when it's available okay thank you i i had also a question for commissioner harrington um and this one concerns the um the state's ability to get extended federal unemployment benefits i see that the um the day for the monthly jobless report for vermont is coming up i know that there's been some conversation with the federal government about other ways of looking at the real rate of unemployment to the state and i'm wondering whether there's been any progress made there maybe i can start with that and then let commissioner harrington finish that up but we have reached out to our congressional delegation um as a result uh i believe that there are other states in the same position vermont is at this point and we've uh we've asked the department of labor to reflect on that the unique nature of the pandemic versus what is normal because these aren't normal times and vermonters are in need and i'm very concerned about the impact this will have on employed vermonters mr harrington they're absolutely correct governor the only thing that i would add is um you know we have uh as the governor said the our congressional delegation did write a formal letter and impressed upon uh secretary scalia with the u.s. department of labor to look at the um the calculation that is used i don't have uh you know the uh an early look at the numbers that are coming out certainly a major concern for us is if and when we will trigger off of the the regular extended benefits program we triggered off of high extended benefits and that cut seven weeks off of the benefit period um and then if when we trigger off of the regular extended benefits program that will reduce the benefit period by another 13 weeks so we have not heard anything from the u.s. department of labor at this time so we'll continue to monitor that situation but we are also increasing the level of communication that is going out to individuals who um one were at the end uh of the extended benefit period when high extended benefits ended and we'll be doing the same uh if we have an indication that we'll be rolling off of the regular extended benefits as well thank you very much and joe we'll be reaching out as well to the uh national generous association to see if uh we can get that put on the uh ongoing list of concerns from the states okay thank you again every powell wcax this is two questions for dr calzo the first is that we received a tip that there could be cases within child care facilities in vermont to unfortunately not specify where but once we ask if the health department is investigating any um COVID-19 cases in child care facilities not to my knowledge as of um you know late yesterday but um we get lab reports or health care provider reports in all the time so there may be something that has come in recently to my knowledge i'm not aware of any currently okay um my second question is just about the new study that came out in the world health organization about rindesivir um saying it has little to no effect on mortality for hospitalized COVID-19 patients i was wondering if vermont has kind of flipped over their use of it and is reviewing how it will be used in the future um i am not dr levine um i can say that we the health department issued a health advisory for clinical providers several months ago on remdesivir and how to acquire it if needed for their patients and how to use it um i believe the FDA i think it is has recently updated the recommendations for use um dr levine could explain this better um and so we are actively revising our advice our health advisory our han on remdesivir to make sure providers have the newest information so that um i would say would probably come out next week but beyond that i can't get into any specifics because i don't know them we can definitely follow up with dr levine thank you um am i am i coming here yep yeah go ahead great okay thank you i have two questions with regards to climate change and energy policy the first question is where we are in the process of kick starting the state's responsibilities under the global warming solutions act there are deadlines in the next couple months for example about appointment climate council so i'm wondering if you could talk about what progress you can report on where we are and initiatives going forward and meet its uh to meet its requirements yeah very aggressive timeline in terms of appointing the 23 members and and so forth but um maybe secretary young if she is on she might be able to provide more detail as she is chair of that that council secretary young are you on secretary moors i'm not seeing secretary moor i might be able to help answer that great thank you thank you sure uh so eight of the 23 appointments are actually cabinet members and those are fairly straightforward um the remaining fifth appointments um are the speaker of the house and the committee on committees on behalf of the senate um my understanding having reached out to to members of both um is that they are actively in the process of reviewing uh nomination but haven't provided a timeline the global warming solutions act gives them 60 days to complete that work um so that gives them pretty well through the end of november and then we have 30 days to convene our first meeting um we started some conversations and planning work internally both on the the inventory work that will be foundational the work at the climate council as well as just thinking about how to structure and manage these committee meetings as the governor noted the timeline is very aggressive with a draft report needing to be complete by october um of next year uh so that it can be finalized by december you you broke up just in one place there secretary moor i just want to make sure that uh greg understands the eight there's eight members that are cabinet positions and then there's 15 there are 15 others that are appointed by the legislature and they have yet to forward those names at this point okay um uh what might be sort of an associated of this is the second question uh governor two days ago you asked you had signed a letter with four other new england governors with regards to reforming the energy grid operated by iso new england or if you can go into a little more detail about how you became involved with an effort to what extent you see that as part of the state's climate change policy well again uh you know we're very concerned about having uh an electrical system that can handle all the new initiatives and renewable energy and so forth uh that we're uh contemplating so this uh not only affects us in vermont but all over new england uh we all all the governors uh agree uh that we just need to have a very safe and reliable system and again because if we go to uh if we if we uh which we will uh go to uh carbon neutral type of uh heating and so forth um and more uh evs then it's just going to put that much more stress and demand on the electrical system that we have in place so we have to uh really ramp up in many respects because it'll be significant the amount of power that will have to be utilized throughout the uh the electrical infrastructure that we have in place right now so it's a it's a great concern okay um how long is that this new conversation that's been going on for for months or was this was this recent can you sort of characterize a little bit um I would say uh you know it came it came together uh in the last month or so but we've had over the last three or four years we've had meetings with iso and and trying to make sure that we have a safe reliable infrastructure that is in an affordable infrastructure as well so these have been ongoing efforts for quite some time but certainly uh ramped up significantly uh due to what we expect will be much more demand for electrical vehicles electrical uh power and electrical um heating as well in the in the coming years okay um one one last follow-up you didn't mention the talk to Governor Sununu uh yesterday he did not sign the letter um did this come up in your discussion and have you lobbied him as a fellow in the England Republican governor to uh to be part of this initiative yeah I didn't uh we didn't speak about that in uh in particular um I uh it was just about the the hockey and the pandemic and so forth understood okay um I use the rest of my time to mic down to you thank you thanks mic down here thank you and uh Dr Kelso uh I guess I'm not sure we heard your answer about the uh up broken hockey player and the connection with the ER doctor at Northwest Medical the word here I live in South Brompton is that at least two others have also tested positive for connected with that case and the hockey player may have gone to Maine as your investigation actually gone to Maine I know you've talked about here but how far is this hockey thing to extend so we're aware of travel um to other states we're aware of um as I showed on the slide a number of schools a college and some workplaces that have had a case or in one case two cases associated with the hockey um you know the situation could continue to evolve um we may see additional spread among close contacts of the cases that we've already identified um I don't anticipate that we'll see broader spread in the community but you know it's not unheard of that once you have a case you can sometimes have one or two additional rounds of infection um we've been pretty good in Vermont so far of containing that um to avoid big outbreaks that continue to spread on and on but um you know we'll have to see does that answer your question um a little bit uh I guess like and I guess the other thing you said is there is going to be some sort of press release out of the hospital in St. Albin dealing with the doctor and how he's the how he's dealing with it and how the hospital is dealing with it um um the hospital may have done a press release or may be planning to do one the health department is not planning to do that we typically wouldn't give a press release about a specific individual case okay um and at one point I think it was in regards to my failure you threw out KIPA again uh South Perlton basically has identified their cases of students other schools as you've heard have identified schools KIPA has been blown out of the water at these new conferences and offline KIPA does not apply I'm just wondering uh we've asked for proof by the way you may not have been on but we've asked for proof that KIPA applies never been forthcoming from the health department of the state so just wondering what's changed in faculty when on vacation uh why are we back to picking and choosing uh with what information you guys are giving out yeah to to be clear to my knowledge there has not been a change and my understanding is that um from our legal counsel at the department that we are not allowed to release names or um details about certain situations um I'd be happy to follow up with our knowledge no one has ever asked for names it's statistics and statistics are not under HEPA and it's legal journals and it's everything it's been a bunch of stories written that it just doesn't apply to you guys yeah sometimes names are names of individuals sometimes names are names of workplaces or institutions like schools um and um again my understanding is we're not releasing those but but you have you've been for towns and everything like that some towns in Vermont have let people then some schools do and some bigger towns so it's been an issue of picking and choosing by the state here on what they give out and it's just one of the criticisms we continuously hear is not an even playing field here but information is not always worth that Mike this is Mike Smith um we don't pick and choose we try and HIPAA isn't thrown out the door on patient confidentiality I don't know where you're getting your information we can take it offline and talk about it but you do not disclose patient information publicly here now if a school chooses to say whether it's a if it's a staff member or a student that's up to the school it has not come out of the health department so in this case we don't know what the case that you're citing we don't know what the school has said we are telling you that there are two people within I think the Montpelier Roxbury school district and we aren't discussing whether there are students or um whether they're students or staff we can we can discuss the information that you're saying that HIPAA has been blown out of the water let's discuss that no that's great we've asked multiple times and I've not heard one in the health department so and I think we've shared the article legal journals whatever so I've got no response so I'll wait for their response thank you Mike Erin Botanko Erin Botanko, VT Digger I mean we're getting kind of student actual readers who are confused about how many total cases there are in schools and how many active cases there are in schools even the journals who follow these conferences every week or are doing uh in my Twitter feed on Tuesday trying to figure out exactly what the total number of schools are that have been affected are there any plans to kind of update that PDF are frequently or um the PDF of school cases more frequently or converted into a different format perhaps so that it's a little more clear what schools are affected a week to week or it's just kind of all we can expect from our readers I think Dr. Kelso may have an answer for you yeah just so everyone's aware um that um PDF um which looks like a table which lists all the schools in Vermont um that have 25 or more in attendance and um the number of cases that is updated weekly it's updated on Monday morning and it only includes the cases reported through the preceding Friday so it's always going to be a little bit behind um and it's not meant to be a real-time you know snapshot of what we've got going on it's meant more to um you know fully disclose the number of cases we've had at schools while they were potentially infectious if there's a need for additional information we can we can look at how the health department might be able to provide that but again you know HIPAA may really prohibit or limit what we're allowed to share and with what frequency and um in how much detail so I apologize that you're not finding that table useful we don't currently have any plans to update it more frequently than every Monday morning included that has data through the preceding Friday the reason for the Friday to Monday delay is um you know if a case comes in on Saturday or Sunday we're not likely going to have all the information we need in order to say whether it was um someone who is in the building while they were during their infectious period so um in order to have the information be accurate we're including cases through the preceding Friday hold on um the cases that are reported on the TES or you know on the website do they only include people who are in the building? Yes they only include and and this is um specified in the header that's right on that table they only include cases that were potentially in school or at school while they were infectious so if for example um a household contact um let's say there's an adult who's positive and they have a school-aged child at home um if that school-aged child is in quarantine so not going to school and then becomes a case they would not be included in that table because they were not at school at all while they were infectious they were in quarantine at home or if a school if a child is um doing fully remote learning again they wouldn't have been in school at all while they were potentially infectious so they would not be included in that table Yeah I probably got told this and and temporarily blanked on that information but could that create a situation where like a school is reporting a case voluntarily on the website but the department also is going to exclude it or report it out um is that kind of why some cases we're hearing about cases from schools like I think epic reporting a lot earlier this week but it wasn't mentioned in the press office is that why there's kind of contradicting information that we're getting Yeah it could very well be and that will likely be the case um from time to time because a school may be aware of a case and even if that case was not at school at all while they were infectious um you know through the nature of Vermont and our small towns um people may in fact know about that case and have concerns so schools may put out information just to show that they're aware of a situation um and to calm any any concern but that doesn't mean that a case was necessarily potentially infectious in school and it doesn't mean it's going to be counted on our table on our health website okay I understand um I think that's about it I don't think so any follow-up sir no thank you all right guide page governor I was calling in when you may have discussed this question with another reporter so please bear with me you and four other governors yesterday asked ISO New England the regional power grid operator for a decarbonized grid in March ISO president Gordon Van Willy said carbon pricing is the best way to help states reach their carbon goals it said there needs to be consensus among the states uh will you and the four other governors be asking for carbon pricing on wholesale power purchases um that wasn't the the intent of the letter at this point in time so um we'll we'll just have to react to that in the future it's more about the the grid and so forth so so what what what's the the ad for what you what you want ISO to do but from my standpoint it's about making sure we're prepared for the demand that will undoubtedly happen due to the electrification of vehicles electrification of heating devices and and and so forth over the next coming decade or two as we move towards a carbonless society so we just the demand is going to be tremendous we just have to make sure that we have the infrastructure prepared to to accommodate that thank you governor I was just told moments ago by a conservative republican nominee for the legislature um he quote Tuesday morning my Facebook account was disabled no reason given no message no email nothing didn't know of other conservative voices whose state had experienced the same thing this is someone who's been active in opposing VLM clacks and district have you heard of any instances like this happening in Vermont and it becomes a pattern is it something that you'd be willing to approach Facebook on I have not encountered that and have not heard of anything like that some respects Facebook has been both a blessing and a curse maybe maybe the best thing is to just shut down Facebook in its entirety that might be helpful okay what what do you suggest over monitors especially political candidates you know it's hard to go door to door social media how things are done what what do you suggest that they do when they're frozen out of their social media account well again you can go back to more traditional methods I guess you can call people you can take out ads and newspapers as I have you can use the media for other in other ways and and I'm sure I don't know if they've been unable to use Facebook for advertising or not but that's always a method as well but there are other ways of getting your message out again I don't know the particulars of this of this incident and I have not heard of anyone else having having that experience okay thank you all right well thank you very much and we'll see you on Tuesday for more modeling and probably an update on the hockey situation as well thank you very much