 First of all it appears we're getting closer to knowing the results of the presidential election. I know this process has caused a lot of anxiety But this is the process and we knew counting every vote in this unusual year would take time And I want to be very clear Every single legal vote should be counted and verified mail-in ballots are legal votes. I Agree completely with former governor and homeland security secretary Tom riche a Republican who said The president disrespected every single American who figured out a way to safely vote amidst the pandemic Not to mention those who are dutifully counting that vote absolutely shameful I also want to note that while this is going on we're still in the midst of a pandemic in Cases arising around the country at an alarming rate so regardless of the outcome It's more important than ever as they focus on beating this virus together And with that in mind I want to recognize an important milestone somewhat bittersweet this morning. We had our 150th briefing of the combined state emergency operations center and health operations center the call typically has About 125 participants from dozens of agencies departments and divisions across the government With a goal of making sure we remain coordinated throughout the crisis These are the people who continue to manage our response to this pandemic and have been doing so every single day since March So I want to take a moment to recognize these unsung heroes who work incredibly hard Often on weekends and well into the night to keep this operation running things like contact tracing finding and distributing PPE opening search sites Setting up testing locations managing food distribution for families in need Helping those in quarantine with housing and supplies answering calls providing important information To the public and the press and a list goes on and on Vermont would not have had the success we've had if not for our SEOC and HOC teams And so many others across the government who have worked behind the scenes every day So with that in mind, I want to thank each and every state employee who has been part of this collective effort And if you have a chance Please thank them as well As I often say the best way to thank those on the front lines is to continue to work to suppress this virus So we keep our valuable our vulnerable neighbors safe Protect our hospital capacity and keep our schools and economy open As you know, we've seen a rise in cases over the last two to three weeks And while our positivity rate remains low and we haven't approached any of the warning flags we've set I'm still concerned First we're seeing cases turn into clusters and outbreaks due to transmission at private gatherings meaning social events with with family and friends at their homes or at neighborhood barbecues More than it other venues like restaurants that have more rigid health and safety protocols As you know, this type of private gathering played a key role in what was maybe unfairly labeled as the hockey outbreak and we now know that We've been able to tie a few new outbreaks that started with those family and neighborhood get-togethers and parties as well So in a few minutes, Dr. Feene is going to share the state's new recommendations around private social gatherings While these are not yet being issued as mandates We strongly advise for monitors to limit gatherings in general. And if you host them be smart take precautions I am I had the opportunity to go to the dentist yesterday For the first time in over a year to the cancelled one appointment to do the pandemic and I was so impressed with the safety procedures and protocols put in place when I got there, but one of the things that Was interesting to me was asking they came and asked me a number of questions before even entered the building called in on the phone I thought I'd list these and and thought maybe some were Contemplating having a social gathering at their home or having someone over might want to consider asking some of these questions as well These are the questions. Do you have a fever or if you had a fever in the last 14 to 21 days? Have you had shortness of breath? Do you have a cough or any other flu-like symptoms? Have you experienced recent loss of taste or smell? Have you been in contact with anyone who has been confirmed COVID positive in the last 14 days? Have you traveled on an airplane bus train with people unknown to you within the last 14 days? Have you been outside of Vermont in the past two weeks? This is just food for thought again This is relevant to what we're facing here in this state, but if the answer to any of these was Was anything but no You might want to reconsider whether they should come into your home and and in fact maybe reduce the spread And as our travel map stays almost entirely in the red Limiting travel will be crucial to slowing down our case growth. So we'll talk more about this on Tuesday Before we get to these topics, it's important to remember why is pressing this virus is so essential So we have Dr. Bell the president of the Vermont chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics back with us today As we said when we reopen schools in September keeping the level of virus low in our communities is critical To keeping our schools open for in-person instruction, which must be our top priority Dr. Bell is going to remind us why that's so important And I really hope every remonder takes notice because we all have a role to play and a responsibility to our kids By staying vigilant being smart limiting our gathering sizes and travel Even during the holidays we can keep schools in our economy open and we will get through this pandemic faster And I'm better footing than just about any other state. So with that, I'll turn it over to dr. Bell Well, thank you for having me back governor I was here in July on behalf of Vermont pediatricians Speaking about the importance of in-person learning for children's academic social and developmental needs And why we believed given Vermont's very low prevalence rate of COVID-19 and the lower risk of transmission and serious disease among children That in-person learning could be done safely and should be prioritized. I Mentioned then that pediatricians were worried and that kids were not doing okay It's been two months now since K through 12 schools opened And I'd like to take a moment to reflect on and to thank teachers school nurses and administrators for their incredible work our pediatric patients tell us that their in-person days at school provides structure and Routine and the opportunity to interact with their peers and teachers in meaningful ways Many describe improvements in their mental health Parents are relieved and grateful When I asked the school leader recently how things were going at her school. She said Teachers are really showing up for kids They have given up a level of normalcy in their own lives to keep kids safe at school and the students feel that Sabina bro shoe is a junior at CVU and a student member of the Vermont State Board of Education She surveyed high school students around Vermont recently about their feelings on school life during the pandemic Over a thousand Vermont students responded across eight high schools and she shared some of that data with me What was most striking to her was when she asked students How protected they feel from COVID-19 at school The percentage of students who said they felt not at all or just barely protected was only three percent The vast majority of students in Vermont feel safe at school And this is a testament to the work of teachers administrators and fellow students they've created a community of safety and The case numbers support this feeling of safety We have always known that there would be cases of COVID-19 in schools because schools reflect what's happening in the community We continue to see that schools are not a main driver of transmission in this pandemic The fact that there have been a number of cases in the K through 12 learning environment that have not led to outbreaks Highlights the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies we have in place here in Vermont As COVID-19 cases grow in communities in and around Vermont Pediatricians want to highlight the good work that schools are doing and to implore Vermonters to follow health department guidelines around masking distancing avoiding crowded spaces adhering to travel guidelines Getting the flu shot and staying home when sick as the days get darker and colder and we enter the holiday season Following the guidelines will be more important than ever in order to keep kids in school And why is this important? It's crucial because kids need consistent in-person learning with minimal interruption Children and adolescents exist on a different time course than adults Growth and development is measured in weeks and months not years Development is rapid and exciting But that also means that when opportunity is missed or delayed that lost time can be unforgiving for children We saw this in the spring when school closures led to regression of developmental milestones for our children with special health needs Who missed out on much needed services? Educators have been racing against the clock to trying to catch students up and re-engage Learners who have fallen behind These are critical times for periods critical time periods for motor and sensory development for social emotional learning for academic progress Kids can't afford to lose more time So what can the community do to minimize school interruption? I'm going to speak a little bit about equity here Although COVID-19 presents a risk to all of us. It does not do so Equally we know that there are great disparities and how the virus directly and indirectly affects our population Knowing that the virus does discriminate I would ask that Vermonters make decisions about their own activity through an equity lens When the health department makes policy it considers how the policy may affect equity and we can do that too on an Individual basis as we make decisions as an example Holiday travel and gatherings are activities that require resources that are not available to all Vermonters Travel requires a place to stay a reliable form of transportation time off from work Hosting large groups for gatherings requires a home and space and food to share And those Vermonters struggling with housing or food insecurity are not able to participate in these activities COVID-19 has forced us to consider risks and benefits to everything we do as we think about whether to participate in an activity That may increase public health risk. We should think about whether the activity minimizes or exacerbates inequities Hosting a large gathering in your home over the holidays is not an activity available to all Vermonters and by Possibly increasing the risk of COVID-19 transmission in the community It could threaten the ability of schools to stay open a place that does address and minimize inequity Keeping our schools and early childhood centers open should be a priority The other piece is getting a flu shot as we head into our typical viral respiratory season We worry about how influenza will affect our health our testing resources our hospital capacity and our ability to keep schools open If you haven't gotten your flu shot yet, please do so now Every year Vermonters become sick and some die from influenza I personally have cared for Vermont children who have died or have had devastating complications relating to the flu Getting an influenza vaccine can prevent illness completely or reduce the severity of illness We're doing better than previous years to date in terms of vaccine coverage, but our baseline coverage to be honest is not great Typically Vermonters get vaccinated about average compared to the rest of the country and we can do better In particular only 27% of Vermonters ages 18 to 49 received a flu shot last year We're living in a time of increased awareness of how our individual behavior affects our local and national communities Vermont broke voting records this week. Let's continue this engagement by making sure all Vermonters are vaccinated against influenza Reducing community spread of the flu will keep us healthy keep our children and childcare in school and allow us to work. I Want to end my remarks by again reflecting on the incredible work that our schools have done this fall to support kids Together with early childhood centers after school programming and childcare hubs for mott children and families are receiving much needed support We all need to do our part and follow the health department guidelines And with that I'm going to turn it over to secretary punch. Thank you Thank you. Dr. Bell. Good morning Our schools continue to operate safely during the COVID-19 pandemic We're not seeing large patterns among the handful of cases that we are seeing in schools And the work of contact tracing and containment seems to be working well As of November 1st is past Tuesday. We had 11 cases in the last seven days in Schools and a total of 39 cases in schools opened in September. These numbers include student and staff cases School operations are being affected by the availability of staff Which have caused some schools to shift back and forth between in-person instruction and remote learning This flexibility was built into our planning and schools are maintaining a fairly consistent operational disposition in spite of these challenges Some of our schools on the New Hampshire border are struggling with operations as cases continue to increase on the other side of the river We are working closely with them to provide support and guidance in cooperation with the school authorities in New Hampshire It's hard to remember with the weather today, but this week in this past week We saw our first accumulating snow in many parts of the state It was nice to see the pictures on social media of our students playing and having fun in the snow during recess and after school There are many pictures of students sledding building snowmen in short the normal activities That Vermont children enjoyed during the winter in any year let alone in a year during a global pandemic These pictures underscore how successful the work of our teachers and our schools have been Despite this unprecedented global pandemic our students had fun playing in the snow with their friends at school It's important to remember that in-person instruction is much more than academics It's about all the normal activities and routines that schools provide to ensure the healthy development of our students I want to thank all of our monitors for their willingness to accept and follow our safety guidelines For adults, this has been an incredibly stressful time But by working together we have made it a less stressful time for our kids This is something we should all be very proud of We need to continue to put a priority on their safety and well-being in the coming months We can do this by working together to keep our schools open and safe Thanksgiving and the holiday period can be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with our families and friends But this year will need to be different than normal I've been asked if we will be considering putting all schools into remote learning after Thanksgiving As part of a preemptive strategy to address potential safety travel and quarantine considerations Quite simply I feel that taking such action would not be in the best interest of our students Our conditions for the virus remain positive in Vermont and we should endeavor to keep our schools open for in-person instruction as best we can This is what is best for our kids We have asked a lot of our schools at the last several months and staffing issues will continue to make it challenging for many of them to sustain in person Through the winner This was expected to a certain extent, but we remain committed to providing in-person instruction for our students if we can safely do so Yesterday the agency of education shared a holiday travel toolkit for schools that was developed in conjunction with the Department of Health I think it provides useful information for school personnel in all Vermonters on how to make this holiday period as safe as possible So we can keep our schools open Firstly, we strongly advise not traveling this Thanksgiving We think there are risks involved with hosting or participating in a gathering and those risks need to be evaluated from a personal perspective And from the perspective of your family and friends That being said We understand that many of us miss our families during this time of year and look forward to celebrating the holidays together We suggest that you start having conversations now about the risks associated with any potential holiday gatherers Our holiday travel toolkit provides the following prompts to help have these types of conversations Firstly, you should check the Vermont travel map before making your plans The travel maps updated every Tuesday So you need to be aware of the conditions of where you're traveling to or in the case of your guests The quarantine requirements they will have to meet when traveling to Vermont You also need to consider what quarantine requirements you will need to meet upon returning to Vermont if you're traveling out of state This brings up another point You should have what we are calling a COVID talk In advance with the people you plan to visit and discuss your comfort with COVID-19 prevention steps like when people wear a mask How you stay six feet apart and how you can keep gatherings small Basically, you need to consider whether your trip or gathering is worth the risk to you and your family And before you attend a gathering make sure everyone has the same understanding of the precautions that will be necessary Such as wearing masks and distancing Additionally, everyone should get a flu shot before Thanksgiving Like we saw with high school graduations in June and recently with Halloween Vermonters are really good at finding creative ways to celebrate even in the middle of the pandemic Those creative solutions can make this Thanksgiving very memorable But we need to acknowledge that there are real risks involved with traveling and gathering during this holiday period Especially as cases continue to increase in the region in many parts of the country I am confident that if we acknowledge these risks upfront and act responsibly We'll be able to keep our schools open through the winter for our kids I'll now turn it over to dr. Levine. Thank you Thank you, secretary french I'd like to just start out by presenting some of our data slides to you this morning Especially because some of them involve some of those guardrails that we frequently get asked about I can bring alive with some numbers and graphs so We didn't have a lot of fanfare when we crossed the 2000 case mark It's hard to believe we're actually at 2,326 cases right now Fortunately the death line has not changed since the end of july Which is wonderful I always show this so people can get a sense of the slope of the curve And as you can see it's been pretty consistent though It is slightly arching upward as we have expected at this time of year with more indoor gatherings You'll notice that our highest number of cases back in april was 70 Two days ago We reached 35 Fortunately that has come down in the last day to 24 But it's pretty obvious from the way the graph looks that as we've entered the fall We've had a pretty consistent new normal of cases We talk frequently about the percent positivity of our tests as a major guardrail that we're following Keep in mind states like south dakota are now in the 40 percent range States like new jersey are six percent Countries in europe have gone to very high numbers Vermont forever has been in a very low place below one percent You can see there's been some uptick in the percent positivity on this graph In the lighter color is the testing that we're doing So clearly we're still doing an exuberant amount of testing So that any change in the positivity rate is not because we've changed the strategy of testing but November 3rd the percent positive was 0.5 percent in over a seven day Average zero point six four percent These are numbers that are a little higher than they were a month or two ago But clearly still in a comfortable range for us at this time And then finally we often talk about syndromic surveillance And that means how many people in the state of vermont are going to emergency rooms or to urgent care centers feeling terribly Feeling perhaps like they have COVID And though, you know, you can see minor fluctuations I think you'll agree that the levels are staying very very low Which is great And we'll need to watch that clearly as we enter the flu season Where we'll have an expected increase in those cases And those symptoms but hopefully again because of masking The great hope is that there may actually be less than in previous years and we'll just have to see how that plays out So we're following numerous outbreaks and situations at this time more than ever before There are approximately 11 outbreaks including what I will call the ice sports teams outbreak in central vermont Which is quieting down now It's up to 116 cases Just increased a little beyond the time this graph was made Including 69 cases at st. Michael's college, which is the largest sub outbreak under that category But again pictures often tell much more than words And I want you to get the impression at least That though we've had some peak activity on this graph Things are now Quieting down but clearly not over And if we look at the blue that is the initial outbreak That ended long ago It's the secondary and now tertiary outbreaks That we're seeing in the dark and light green colors That are going to take some time Um, but the containment process is underway and very active and we should remain optimistic regarding that Our newest outbreaks include two worksites and a chitin and county community outbreak across several households stemming from a social gathering There are roughly 42 what we term situations currently Though a number of these are nearing resolution Which happens 28 days after the last case These outbreaks and situations include schools and a few daycares Almost none of which have had to close All small and quite containable But obviously very disruptive to the lives of everyone concerned each time one occurs All attest to the fact that every teacher staff member student and parent Reflect their community and the fact that virus is lurking throughout the state We're also seeing sporadic cases in long-term care facilities and senior living complexes For a long time We've been reporting a steady rate of just a few new cases each day And as you've seen the numbers have increased to double digits and most days Often these cases are scattered throughout the state So while in any given community, it may not seem like a lot Cumulatively the numbers really add up And for each individual there are a number of cases or close contacts Too often too often leading to yet further spread which in turn could lead to other outbreaks The data and the trends of the past few weeks are sending a clear message That we need to up our game in order to protect ourselves and our communities And prevent widespread infections You know from listening to me throughout my time as health commissioner And especially during the seven plus months of pandemic response That I am not prone to hyperbole And that the health department's guidance and recommendations are based on the data and the evidence-based science I say this because I wanted what I want to tell you today and in the coming weeks I want to be heard clearly First of all nationally and internationally And across the u.s. We're in a new stage of the pandemic Case numbers are up and as winter starts to settle in exposures and transmission will increase Many european nations are going into lockdown again the u.s Just had a day with a hundred thousand cases Only to be surpassed yesterday With a hundred and twenty thousand When we get concerned about the growth of virus the so-called exponential growth Those are the kinds of numbers that should concern us 40 percent of states report hospitalizations are up Some have had to resort to shipping ill patients out of state to provide adequate care And our region has seen major changes as well As I mentioned on tuesday, we are already seeing other northeastern states rolling back reopening plans imposing restrictions on activities on travel on Frequencing of restaurants and bars after certain hours Southern new england and new jersey are seeing percent positivity rates in the four to over six percent range Just yesterday vermont had 24 cases And while that was a refreshing drop as I just pointed out from the previous day Our neighbor to the east With twice the population had 10 times this many cases Now we don't have a vaccine yet and we know that covet 19 is highly infectious And that it's extremely opportunistic If given the chance to spread it will So we can't really control the nature of the virus And it's time for us to focus on the things that we can control As you've been hearing more and more Even small gatherings can have a big impact and larger gatherings obviously can have a larger impact In vermont we have seen cases as a result of such socializing As we enter the holiday season we all have to make very hard decisions about if and how to celebrate Just as many of us did for halloween For thanksgiving and through new years We have to take a hard look at whether to travel and get together with friends and family Our plans our choices will have an impact on the health and lives of our families communities and vermont I am strongly urging people to lay low this season and forgo non-essential travel So how then can we celebrate while staying safe? Many of us are breaking with tradition and celebrating at home this year keeping holiday plans local and small lowers the risk of getting or spreading covet 19 This is what my family will be doing even though it means more time away from my new granddaughter Remember the more people at the table the higher the risk I can't emphasize this enough We cannot know for sure Each other's infection status And that's how the virus spreads Even though we call people trusted households and they mean no ill to us or us to them It is very challenging in an environment where there is more virus around For people to understand what their potential infection status is at any given point in time Even if they've had a test recently Whether it's a close family member coming from just a couple of towns over Or a dear friend you see now and again Guests can bring the virus into your home Without even knowing they're infected and that they are in their pre-symptomatic period The bottom line Is we strongly advise that any social gatherings you choose to have Be with less than 10 people and with a very limited number of trusted households And this applies to all gatherings Including just getting together with friends socially at home Or on campus or around town Now is the time to keep our social circles small And for the reasons that support this while we can find plenty of evidence around the country We also have plenty examples from our own contact tracing teams Of events that resulted in the unwitting spread of COVID-19 here in vermont These include holiday parties Birthday parties Dinner parties sleepovers Baby showers and barbecues To name a few As you plan your holidays have an open conversation about safety Let your friends and family know that what you need The more you stick to these the safer everyone will be So yes, the holidays will look different this year and for many it will be hard For you for me everyone We all have traditions we cherish and people we love to be with But we all share responsibility to look out for one another I ask you all to give this serious thought And to please join me in taking some solace And knowing that by making these sacrifices And finding ways to still make the holidays special and safe We can all look forward to being together for a better year ahead I'll turn the question and answers over to the governor Thank you. Dr. Levine will now open it up to questions All right, it is 1140. We have 25 people in the queue Really asking folks to keep to one or two questions and listen to Previous questions, so we're not duplicating Start with Calvin So as you mentioned, we heard some pretty remarkable falsehoods from president last night Are his comments hurting our democracy? You know, it certainly is inciting a lot of rhetoric And the president enjoys a huge following They take him at his word. I don't believe any of the statements he made last night are true And I do believe that it's hurting our society and our ability to work together We'll get to the bottom of this. I believe every vote should count Every We've we've taken a lot of opportunities in this country to allow everybody to vote And it's worked out fairly well. It's just taking a lot of time to process the ballots that are in place So we just need to give it that time. But when the results are clear It's time to move forward And maybe a question for either you or dr. Levine For the past, you know a couple months really we've been hearing about the risk of travel In and out of state and I think it's on vermonter's radars, but what about in in other states? I guess how are you working in reaching out to other governors or other health departments throughout new england To make sure that people are getting the message from out of state that they're not going to be coming here Yeah, it's difficult at best. I'll let dr. Levine answer as well We I stay in touch with the other governors. Everyone is is keenly aware of the situations they're facing in their own states And to communicate it's difficult enough for us to communicate within our borders Much less outside of our borders. So it's up to each and every one of us To make this word known to those who we're inviting in And to make sure but we'll be stepping up our efforts to make sure that we're doing everything we can to communicate that message Unlike the governor and his colleagues. I keep in touch with my colleagues And we've been in more touch in the last couple weeks than ever before Just looking at the news yesterday in new hampshire with the number of cases the state epidemiologist raised the issue of Alterations in their travel policy in response That nothing to definite but obviously raised that as an issue Southern new england colleagues Governors are equally looking at being more restrictive to States coming into their states and vice versa I think most know that Vermont is probably the most restrictive. But as the governor pointed out, it's a little harder for Them to telegraph to their population and for us to telegraph to their population In a consistent way that we are very restrictive Thank you. I'm looking at some of the new cases around the state and I guess specifically in county Do we know or have a sense of how many of those would be from either uvm or just education in general? Believe we do Yeah, so, you know a chunk of them are from the st. Michael's college of break A newer chunk of them are from the family households that I refer to with their gathering and uvm reported out six this week And those still remain They're not linked to any particular in any particular way To the community or to each other The reality is in the last two days uvm has had a probably Over three or potentially four thousand negative tests And they are continuing to test today and even a special testing event tomorrow To be absolutely sure that There's nothing new going on in that arena Whether be related to halloween or not related to halloween just as another index of The activity around the community making sure it's not involving the campus and Lastly, but the school's secretary french had mentioned that built into some of the planning was Um Plans for when teachers have to step out of school wondering if you could give a sense of how many teachers have had to Employ those plans and some of what that looks like as well as the disruption it may bring Yeah, in terms of if you're asking how many schools I think almost all of them are operating in some form of hybrid learning and certainly I think our policy emphasis has been on in person for the younger students and I see that as a strong trend Just a reminder we do collect monthly data on on those trends and we're we're finalizing actually today The data collection for the month of october so we'll be able to provide an update statewide on that But I think staff availability issues We're concerned before the the pandemic certainly just like all labor issues in the state But certainly it's exacerbated a lot of them and I expect it will be challenging for some districts through the winner To maintain operations But they have that ability to flexible and kind of move back and forth Which should should allow them to provide some measure of stability How thin are some of the staffing margins? As we start to see I think they're fairly fairly slim, you know But one of the advantages again with the remote learning is that we can We can address the needs of students and scale a little more readily than we can in in person But I think it's it's always been kind of thin depending on the region of the state you're in and the The speciality if you will of the endorsement of the teacher. So It varies greatly around the state But I know I know districts are operating on very thin margins right now, but They've also been working really hard. So I'm I'm also not surprised by you know, people being tired and doing their best Thank you. Yeah Steve All right, we'll move to the phones with Joe from the Barton Chronicle Two questions both that came from other people one from a restaurant owner who notes that the weather is getting colder and the um the ability to host people outdoors is declining and Um, he wants to know if there is any prospect that um, the 75 person limit will be increased at any time in the foreseeable future Um Joe, yeah, thanks for the question. I guess it would uh I guess it would depend on what foreseeable future might mean Um, certainly during these times we're seeing the case growth The case counts grow We're seeing surrounding states. Uh, New Hampshire actually opened up some of their limitations and opened up the restaurants and And this morning they had over 200 cases in New Hampshire alone. So I don't know if they're tied to restaurants, but Again, um, they're going to have to do some reflecting on what that means to them I don't see that we're going to open that up in the very near future but if we get our Control over the number of cases that we're seeing And we put get back down to some of the levels we saw earlier this like in the in the summer Then we could consider opening it up a little bit more, but not this not at this time The second question, and I'm not sure who get it Is that I chance to run into a legislature a legislator the other day and he asked me to inquire Why the state does not list the number of people who currently are infected and he suggested that it might be to make the Uh, the situation look more serious than it actually is I I don't what the question is Yeah, you know, I'm having a little trouble understanding what the question is we do list those positive cases That we encounter so I'm not sure I'm not sure what the legislator is getting at I believe he was suggesting That the reason the number of the cases is not listed is that it's so much lower That the number of current cases is so much lower than the number of overall cases That the number of overall cases suggests A more serious situation than it's actually the case and I guess the question is is correct Yeah, I I'm not sure that Maybe that legislator I could give us a call They know our number and we could explain to them how this is done and and try and rectify that and At least clarify it for them So that they can give the information to their constituents Thank you very much Hi, I had a viewer who works in a school district who has some questions that might be best directed to Secretary French We've been talking a lot about the staffing challenges If a school has to go to remote during a positive case Should other schools in that same district who share teachers or after school programs also go remote during contact tracing? Yeah, that kind of guidance cat would come specifically from the Department of Health and it's based on a case by case analysis So there's no general answer to that question would be based on the specific specific circumstances and who's defined as close contact The second question they had was what does the agency of education have in place to assure schools Are able to carry out the plans that they developed to Reopen safely for instance like who's checking whether a pause system is still in place if there are fewer staff Or do we just kind of have to accept that as staffing challenges arise some of the safety measures may not be possible Yeah, well your question around safety measures. They always have to be implemented. So that's sort of non negotiable We have districts, you know to the earlier question about staff availability. I know districts are You know have to be flexible and creative to adapt to as staff are available or not And certainly, you know some of as I've mentioned some of the flexibility We've given them in terms of moving from remote or in person and so forth But we you know our support is largely through our guidance Was once again crafted with the help of our health department and our infectious disease experts at uvm And it's fairly comprehensive now well over 40 pages and we have regular Interactions with school nurses and superintendents and principals and so forth And anything we can do to help them if they have a specific situation or circumstance that needs to be addressed We're we try to be as responsive as possible for their needs Okay, thank you. Well, and I don't know if joe is still on the line But I do just want to share that the health department does offer In addition to total cases the total people recovered So presumably if you just subtract those two numbers You would get Number of current cases and that's published every day Next we have gregg the county courier Good morning governor. Uh, congratulations on your reelection Um, wanted to start with a quick follow-up on a question. I've asked a few other times But just wanted to a little more specific on it um Been hearing for a while from a lot of different employers Of the frustration that the state has not reimposed the work search requirement um In short, we've gotten the response from your office that you're looking for Uh, the number of employed employees The number of unemployed and the number of Jobs to come closer together In order to re-institute that In this frustration, I think it's uh Compounded with the fact that employers are continuing obviously to pay into the trust fund while Having hard times finding employees and nursing employees who are not applied So, um more specifically, what are you looking for number-wise to re-institute that policy? Are you looking for a one-to-one ratio? At what point, you know, does it cross the threshold where you are now Where you might re-institute that policy? Yeah, we've come a long ways, Greg, from where we were to begin with We're down even with pua and traditional unemployment. I believe we're around the 20,000 mark From a high of about 90,000. So we're uh, we're constantly I think people are going back to work For not searching any longer I think there is an incentive at this point because there is no additional dollars To be um, to be utilized in the unemployment assistance for pua The 600 dollars has gone The the 300 dollar is gone and now the 100 dollar is gone as well So there's a bit of an incentive for some to to look for work on their own If they can if they can find something we'd be happy. The labor department isn't just for the unemployed in in in terms of the insurance policy and And giving benefits out. We also try and link people up for employment So I would advocate those businesses to contact the Department of Labor And see if we can work together to find them the employees they need Because that's that's our goal. I mean it's our goal is to put people back to work. So I think We could we could assist in that way, but but again when we get to a point I don't know what the ratio is right now But but there is going to be a time when it's going to make sense for us to reimplement the work search requirements because At that point there'll be enough jobs available Versus those who are Unemployed so we'll uh, we'll continue to monitor that but I don't you know, we're getting closer But I don't think it's where they're yet. We'll see another wave. Obviously when construction Tapers off due to the weather and that will be fairly soon So we may see another bump in the number of people Going on unemployment or for applying for unemployment assistance And perhaps you might even see a bump with Employers looking for workers Earlier in the weeks your administration announced winter guidance Kind of asking that out of state workers don't come up to speed Resorts to to work like maybe some years. So you may actually see an increase in in In jobs For at least local for monitors. So I guess I was looking for a for a specific ratio, but maybe maybe uh, next week Yeah, I'm not sure that we have one but it certainly will reflect on that And uh, the one question I have for today, uh, I spoke with a pub owner earlier in the week Who was a little bit? Just experiencing their express expressing their frustration with uh Some of the restrictions from the state and and one of those restrictions is a ban on billered tables in bars and pubs Uh in the perception that you know a pool table Isn't any more dangerous, especially with certain restrictions like maintaining the lair, uh, the players within one's pod Uh, then it would be to go bowling Um, can you provide a little bit of insight on the state's view and why? Pool tables might be more restricted than say going bowling and and if the state is looking at Read uh settling down any of those guidelines You know to to maybe allow families to you know go play pool together at a bar or You know at least within somebody's pod be able to Socialize together. Yeah, maybe secretary curly is on the line. She could respond Absolutely. Um, thank you for the question. We actually have um, we don't have a ban on on playing pool in a in a bar Or even a bill your call We just require masking Um, there is guidance on our website. I can't point you to the exact spot but again, you know, follow the health and safety guidelines the recommendations in terms of Be hitting six foot distances as much as possible wearing masks But other than that folks are allowed to play pool All right, so this the uh Great that I'm most aware of uh, the pool table is basically in its own room But they're not allowed to you know, go play pool and have a drink and stay with each other's live and And I'm wondering if there can be a little more common sense to that Greg. Did you read that? Greg, did you read the the policy on the on the agency of Commerce and community development page Restricting um on pool. Yeah, honestly, governor. There there's so many policies I I didn't specifically look out at this one. I was I was educated by the pub owner There's one too specific. Yeah, maybe uh, Greg if you could Maybe you could give us the name of the pub owner and then we can have Agency of Commerce and Community Development reach out to them so they can have some clarity on what they can do what they can't Okay We need to move on Ella uvm cynic Thank you. So we've seen a bit of a striking cases at uvm with seven students testing positive this week And between 30 and 50 close contacts and quarantine Um, the provost informed the student body this morning that students who were tested on Monday or Tuesday After halloween for their routine weekly test Must be retested on friday or saturday Um, this is in a line with a request from the vermont department of health And i'm curious with the motivation behind that request was And if you know anything more about this bike in cases at the university Yeah, I think dr. Levine had talked about that a little bit in his remarks, but maybe you could repeat that Yeah, so i'm curious with the motivation For the department of health was behind the request to have uvm students tested early this week get a follow-up test Hi, this is dr. Levine nice to have the uh Cynic as part of our press conference today The um, you're right. Uh, there were cases reported earlier this week from uvm Which was I wouldn't want to use the word spike, but it was an increase From the usual disease activity, but obviously we know there are Well over 10,000 students so in the bigger picture Not a huge prevalence of virus on campus Unfortunately as we're seeing Especially in the student population It's not like it was when we were all staying indoors in march and april when people might have had two or three contacts per case We're seeing more abundant contacts per case Which is why you're reporting on the 30 plus individuals who are now quarantined Does not mean uh, that they're going to turn into cases obviously But it's just the reflection of the contact to case ratio the um Abundance of caution we're operating under at this time Is again just recognizing that uh, halloween was last saturday that Students but also others in our population not just a single out students, but others in our population um Enjoyed themselves on that night and as I alluded to in my question in my comments today Uh, even the small gatherings never mind the more medium and large ones Can be opportunities for people to infect one another with virus unwittingly So we just wanted to make sure knowing that there were some new cases on campus And knowing that the campus has done such a wonderful job to this point in time And would love love them to get successfully through to thanksgiving when the semester ends We just thought it would be an opportunity to make sure that on Honor close to the seventh day after The halloween Events but might have occurred that students had the opportunity to be retested So those who would have gotten tested early in the week this week Um rather than have them wait till the next week. We wanted to see Them have an opportunity to be tested today and tomorrow Uh, because the timing is so much better If they were going to be in an asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic state Not knowing that they may have acquired the virus and we would identify it then And be able to do the containment that's been so successful everywhere to date Is that clear? Yes, thank you so much. Um, is there any more information that the state can provide about the options in cases at UVM this week? Uh-oh about the cases themselves Um, only that that There's they're they're not related To one another Several have no idea how they would have even come in contact with virus which unfortunately is is true now in society Other than that, I can't really give any specifics to the cases Um, there's certainly they were way too early to represent any, uh reflection on halloween Mike Donahue the islander Sir, congratulations on reelection Dr. Levine, uh You often use Some big phrases that probably don't mean a lot to most promoters Today you mentioned there were a quote chunk of cases And also mentioned like 42 situations What do you mean by 42 situations? Can you be specific to tell for monitor what you really mean? Absolutely Those are sometimes individual sometimes small numbers of cases They don't qualify for the epidemiologic definition of of of a outbreak And they are across every sector you can imagine whether it's the education sector college versus K through 12 whether it's in the daycare sector whether it's in the long-term care in senior living sector Whether it's across worksites It it's really reflective of our society if you will so These are just very small numbers of cases, but they obviously necessitate a Containment approach where once we know the test is positive we interview contact trace make sure we've Identified those who are close contacts so they can be quarantined and then move on so It's just our way of letting you know that there's a lot going on at any point in time But they none of these qualify for a true outbreak like we're seeing with the ice team sports in st Michael's college What's the difference between staying 42 cases or 42 situations? Oh, okay, so These situations generally involve more than one positive test most of the time But there are times that you know, there are times that one positive test has such big implications Say it was a member of a school community So that obviously is going to involve a lot of investigation Because of the necessity to keep the entire school safe So that will be listed as a situation Where if An individual person just happened to become a positive case and they had no contacts or nothing else going on That would not be recognized in the same way And follow up to that. What are the latest Vermont schools that have positive cases and what can you tell us about the North Darrell school case? Yeah, I I don't have a list of schools with me at this time. So we can uh Get back to you. We we will have the website updated For Tuesday's press conference and going into the future We will have it updated actually Tuesdays and Friday. We couldn't accomplish that for today Because it takes a lot of work to verify everything and make sure we're providing accurate information But it will be every Tuesday and Friday So that when we're talking at this press conference, we'll be able to give you the Data as recent as we have it All right, we're going to move now to Lisa and what the North Darrell school What happened there? I I I don't have that on the tip of my fingers. So I'll have to get back to you with that All right, moving. Okay. Thank you very much moving to Lisa at the ap Hi, thank you. Um, governor, I have a question about the ubs health network You ordered the Vermont national guard cyber team to help a new response to the cyber attack Do you feel like UBM the health network should or could have done more to protect itself from the type of cyber attack Yeah, you know, we have cyber attacks almost every single day within state government throughout The economy throughout the nation This is becoming more prevalent. I think Uh, you know, we'll we'll see in the end, but from my standpoint, uh, it appears that they've done everything right It was just one of those Almost fluke things that happened But but they'll they'll come to some conclusion and be able to report on that Um, but again from our from my understanding They've done then done a lot of good work along the way to keep everybody protected and and they kept all the individual cases, I believe protected Identities and so forth. So I think So far so good All right, Eric, the time's our guess Yes, governor, what do you make of the collection results in Vermont where Brexit's overwhelmingly voted for you They also overwhelmingly voted for their fight for the 5,000 man in the sense of Peter Pompis Uh, in fact, they voted for republican and democrat both very strongly in certain reasons Yeah, I mean it was uh from my standpoint a positive sign that uh It's not all about all about the the letter beside your name It's about the individual and what they bring to the table. So I think uh, this is uh, I guess heartening in a lot of respects If we could break down these barriers and just and just listen to people and do our jobs and do them to the best of our ability People will see more of this in the future Less polarization and Did you receive any feedback from any other governor and he wasn't from your own political party here or even the Trump administration for who you decided to vote for Tuesday? I did uh Thank you Sean the chester telegraph Um, I think this is for commissioner shirling On wednesday the chester select board got some high popping numbers that the state proposes To charge local police agencies to dispatch their 911 calls And that included a schedule of charges for the next four years rising to $59,000 a year for chester and almost 58,000 for windfall By comparison the chester fire department paid 18,000 for regional dispatching We're one we're hearing that this is in effort to push small police departments to find other dispatching it We're wondering how this will affect coordination among enforcement agencies in emergencies, and I've got a follow up Good morning. Thanks for the question. This is a piece of a modernization strategy that we rolled out in january in response to A variety of reports and surveys and white papers and things that have been Created over the course of literally the last five decades This has been an ongoing challenge to try to create a A level landscape primarily for taxpayers who in some instances are paying for dispatch services twice Once with their local agency and then once a statewide contribution to the two public safety answering points that the state police operate And not to get too far into the weeds, but This is not at all. There's no background effort to do anything other than to level The economic playing field We're certainly very happy dispatching for the over 100 agencies that get services from the state police piece That's right now But the playing field Relative to how we pay for public safety services Isn't level also important to note that in that modernization strategy There is an array of things that we're proposing doing that no charge to municipalities to support public safety services This just happened to be a one-off where because of the nature of the way things were paid for there's There's a disparity going on So it's a piece of a much larger construct about actually providing better supports to public safety operations statewide Well, that that's actually what I was wondering because this would mean Paying twice in a sense Has anybody quantified what the state police would have to spend to cover those towns where Tax payers have taken on paying for their own law enforcement And if this new fence we should select boards to reduce size of their courses, what effect would that have on public safety? Uh We haven't quantified what it would take for the statewide dispatch centers to click on additional services for the roughly 50 percent of agencies that don't get their services to the state in part because The quality of the regional Communication centers and the local communication centers statewide is excellent and that redundancy actually creates stability in the way that those services are delivered So I don't think we would recommend going to a smaller number of public safety answering points And I think I lost the second piece of your question Yeah, I was more asking about Tax payers in these hundred areas With agencies are paying for law enforcement while tax payers in other areas are not paying for Being covered by the state police. So there's there. I'm just wondering if If that's ever quantified how much the state is saving by a town like chapter wind while providing their own law enforcement We've not qualified that although I think the premise of your question has a bit of a flaw in it Uh, there the agencies that are getting the staff services now their taxpayers in some instances are paying Uh, the taxpayers that are paying for dispatch services through other PSAPs or have their own services are paying to subsidize The hundred or so agencies that get their state services. So there's an inversion To to what you're describing And there's a much longer conversation around the delivery of public safety assets and services statewide that Is a thread we could pull on for a couple of hours around what towns decide To pay for in terms of their police fire or rescue coverage some provide their own they choose to make A robust investment in their own services others partner with other municipalities and still others choose to get their services in particular from law enforcement as you observe from state police But that is just a base level of service while others are making conscious decisions to upgrade their services All right, we've got to move to our next caller Peter Hirschfeld vpr Governor lawmakers have come up with the impression That walmart will not be applying for hazard pay grants on behalf of its workers I'm wondering if you've had any conversations or anybody from your team has had conversations With walmart, um, and whether or not You can give us an update on What they intend to do as it relates to the hazard pay program Yeah, to be honest with you, uh, peter from my standpoint, uh, I just learned about it from a tweet last night So I have not had any interaction with legislators at this point But there may be somebody from the administration who has and I would Maybe inquire Peter if you uh, if you want to connect with commissioner p check, he has been communicating with both legislators and retailers Um, where this this might be an issue. So he'll have more information for you. I'll reach out All right. I'll reach out to my Another question for commissioner herrington. Um, commissioner herrington's heard from Somebody, uh, who received notice that they had, uh, gotten overteed for their unemployment benefits and were told they were going to have to Pay the state back, um, money they weren't supposed to have gotten I'm wondering how many performers received Similar correspondences from the department of labor Um, and how aggressively you're going to be seeking those repayments Thank you, peter. Um, and thanks for the question so it's a It's a situation that occurred even outside of the pandemic certainly with a high number of filing Um, you know, it's occurring more frequently Um, I don't have a number and and our system doesn't provide necessarily an aggregated number But I can tell you the the type of situation That we run into, um It can happen a number of different ways It could be that someone was filing and when the department became aware of more information regarding their claim We found that maybe the information they provided was incorrect And that change the status of their claim it could be that they filed under one program and as federal guidance changed They were made eligible for another program. So under the federal guidance They have to be placed in overpayment for the federal money they received And so we are able to and working to do offsets between programs, but it still counts as an overpayment So sometimes it's around eligibility criteria and not meeting eligibility criteria Sometimes it's about fraudulent information that's provided. Sometimes it's around Changing federal guidance That has occurred And sometimes it's just a truing up of the various programs. Remember prior to the to covid 19 We operated one unemployment program And now we are operating anywhere from Four to five programs if you count the lwa program as well all of those Have opportunities for someone to be placed in overpayment It is a federal requirement that if someone is improperly paid benefits That they pay back the programs they were improperly paid out of And it really depends on a case by case basis So it's not like we sent out a math email the other day and notified, you know A large group of people that they were all in overpayment. Um, this happens on a daily basis And occurs on a case by case basis depending on the specifics of each state So there's no opportunity for the state to forgive Those debts for lack of a better word um Notwithstanding sort of the bleakness of the employment landscape, but some of these folks still face So we we do have some flexibility But the flexibility only resides to the state unemployment trust fund So only funds that came out of the trust fund and it only extends in cases where It may be based on an apartment error So if someone provided inaccurate information or falsified information That then we do not have the ability to forgive that if it was something that's heard Due to something that an apartment and it was in the the traditional ui program There are some flexibilities built in there. It's not a blanket waiver But under the federal programs that they've received Benefits uh, and then we're deemed after the fact to be ineligible for those benefits for whatever reason They are required under federal law to pay back the program those funds came out of Sorry to take up so much time. Thank you all Thank you Stuart mbc five Thank you, rebecca governor. Have you spoken yet with molly gray and Do you think the departure of so many state house leaders? And the modest pickups by the republicans could change the legislation that passes next year I have spoken to molly gray Um And in terms of the leadership it is quite ironic in some respects I look back four years ago and I came into office as governor a new speaker new pro tem new lieutenant governor and uh today I'm the only person standing Out of that uh of that group So it is um, it's going to be a you know a clean slate where we'll start over as we do every legislative session But this year will be unique again, uh, that there will be so many in leadership That may not be returning now. I will say i'm not sure about I know that the speaker has requested a A recount so we'll have to wait until the results there to determine Whether she'll be back or not, but but at this time it doesn't appear She was successful. So again, this is um interesting times, uh, and and we'll see what happens, you know my My goal always is to present a budget and present different Ideas to the legislature To bolster the economy make vermont more affordable protect the most vulnerable as we've done over the last four years And i'm hopeful that we'll be able to present ideas to them and work together So that we provide for vermonters um second question, uh, I guess a month or so ago you Said you couldn't see reimposing widespread restrictions On our state and i'm just wondering in light of the spike in active cases that we're now Obviously seeing if that is still the case, uh, that that it's just really not A likelihood or even much of a possibility, you know, it's always a possibility, but From my standpoint, we've learned a lot over the last eight months And we've done things differently. We've we've been able to do things more strategically And vermonters have done a great great job in trying to Protect themselves and protect others. I think what we need to do is tighten up a bit And you know, we've become a little bit lax in all areas and from what we're seeing around us That's what gives me the greatest Concern when I look at New Hampshire and the number of cases That have grown there and not just in the southern parts of New Hampshire but also in the in the northern part And what I see in main as well in new york and massachusetts So we're still okay. We're in good shape. There's no reason to panic, but there is this is a time to reflect on what we're doing because You know, as I've said so many times This is literally in our hands. We can control this individually If we if we just follow the simple guidelines we have in place And the travel portion, which we'll outline on tuesday. We'll know a little bit more when we Commissioner p check presents the modeling, but it doesn't appear to be getting any better And that's our greatest risk at this point from my standpoint But but again, I I don't see us rolling back to where we were in the beginning Because we have a little bit better understanding of what this virus does and how to protect ourselves Thank you Lisa the valley reporter Hello, thank you for taking my call. I believe my question is for dr. Levine when The state goes about contact tracing for a positive case If the person who is positive requires or mandated to participate in contact tracing Or is it optional? I'm not aware of any specific law that requires anybody to Do that I am aware that I have Reports from numerous Places around the country Where their rate of success And doing contact tracing Is literally 20 or 30 percent Because they've not been able to enlist the cooperation of those Who they try to connect with who are positive And then they're not able to always once they do that. They're not always able to connect with the contacts That's a vastly different experience than we've had in vermont Um, and we've had a wonderful success rate So we don't view it as a problem here That would require anything more stringent Apply to it I think vermonters understand protecting vermonters Thank you, and then a very specific follow-up I've received reports of a small cluster of cases in waysfield and the town by town map Doesn't reflect any change. I'm wondering what time of the day It on friday, but that town by town map updated And so the update that's put on the website is usually in the early afternoon So i'm assuming that that is updated at the same time We'll uh, we'll connect with you lisa to be more specific about that Thank you very much Yes We have bordered by three states, and i'm thinking about what the um, what the you and um I'm sorry, sir. I mentioned, uh, dr. Levine. We're talking about as far as travel Early on in this pandemic, there was direct midperson surveillance of um, of state lines I'm wondering if given your concerns about um about how Holiday travel might um What that might do as far as uh, do the cases here in vermont whether uh, the in-person surveillance is something that you would reconsider and I guess that also You know if there's an opportunity there to say whether you thought it worked in the first place or it was more of a deterrent Yeah, we're considering um Doing whatever we can to make sure that we communicate directly to those coming into the state Because that's our weakest link in some respects the travel from other states are we can control somewhat What's happening here in the state But um, but again as we see the cases rise Outside our borders and then with the ability for them to come into the state That that does give me concern So we will be talking more on tuesday if we continue to see if the modeling does Reflect what I think it's going to you know show in some respects will We'll be implementing whatever policies we need to To provide to provide for that communication to those visitors coming into the state, you know if you come into the state right now It appears most of its red within at least a couple hour drive from us And so if that's the case you should be quarantining if you come into the state One quick follow-up question also with regard to concern about what might happen around the holidays Is the state's planning in regards to even if someone does everything right and travels I mean As we've learned the virus simply doesn't care so Is the state planning for the likelihood of an increase in cases? Around or immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday I think our our modeling had shown That we did expect to see this uptake that we're experiencing right now And so we're always prepared for that and we'll do everything we can To mitigate that to the best of our ability Thank you very much Thank you And wallace allen vt digger and Europe do you have a question? Yeah, I wanted to ask which historic voter turnout in this election Do you think the state should permanently adopt the practice of mailing every active voter a ballot moving forward? Interesting question and we'll be able to reflect on that after you know The permit the the elections are all certified and so forth But but I will say this and this is something we put forward For the legislature to consider it didn't they didn't look favorably on it But I believe this This crisis is going to be with us at least for the next Three or four months. So well into into march And I would say that we should prepare For some sort of mail-in ballot procedure for town meeting so that people can Exercise their right to vote in a safe manner and that everyone has an opportunity to do so. We've had very low Voter turnout for town meeting and this may be a way to bolster that if we we had this month's participation In this general election, possibly this could work for Town meeting today and some of the municipal votes and school votes as well. So we advocated for that. They didn't They didn't take us up on that at During the last session But we'll come forward with another another try early in january Even apart from coveted would you do you see this as a as a method that the state could use just going forward? Well, again, if we can, you know, we'll reflect on what happened in this general election if we can move forward and try it in the in the town meeting day That will tell us a lot as to whether we can pursue this further But but so far so good. Thank you. And I just have a quick question for dr. Levine. I hope that this hasn't been clearly answered I'm just wondering how many student and staff cases uvm has reported to the department of health this week I think it has been answered. But dr. Levine Did you say how many uvm cases student and staff cases I'm aware of at uvm. I'm aware of six cases. So those aren't all students I'm aware of six student cases not aware of any others All right. Thank you so much Annacloth times Argus Thank you for this opportunity gums thought. Um, I'm here's a lot clear That's been to the uncertainty of blue season as well as holiday travel. What is your message to teenagers across the state? Um, I'm going to let dr. Levine answer part of that but from my perspective, um, you know, just just be careful Um, know what you're dealing with know your surroundings be aware that this this, uh Coronavirus, uh, it doesn't care how old you are. It can affect infect anyone So your actions, uh, you should be careful. You should mask up. You should socially And physically distance yourselves wash your hands a lot And uh, and if you uh, if you don't feel well, don't come in contact with others So it's the same message as everyone else But I hope um, I hope uh, you can You can promote that as well because it's uh, it's something that's really Uh needed and necessary for all of us to get through this until a vaccine is uh fully implemented and safely distributed Dr. Levine That was a great public health message. I can't add too much more to it Um, I don't regard a teenager any differently than I do a young child or an adult um, it's Six foot spaces Not going in crowds Keeping masks on your face And I guess the special message around holidays for teenagers Uh, would be that you are much more likely to Not know You actually are ill or even if you're not ill you're much more Unlikely to know that you were in a circumstance where you might have acquired the virus And be in an infectious period And since around holidays you're around Not only parents, but often grandparents people from generations that make them more susceptible Just because of their age or other illnesses Just take extra care to uh, follow all of this guidance in those circumstances as well Uh to protect the the ones you love Oh and dr. Dr. Bell what dr. Bell would love to bring some pediatric insight into that as well Thanks so much for asking that question. Um, I do want to reiterate the importance of a flu vaccine And we know that young people Don't have have a lower rate Usually in the 30 percent or so in your age group So encouraging others to get the flu vaccine now is a time to get it if you haven't And I also just want to point out to folks that adolescents are actually really Much better than adults at having some challenging conversations So secretary of friends talked about the having the covid conversation And I I actually think young people are going to be better at doing things like that than our adults I mean they are more adept at having conversations around consent And so I think I think talking about that talking about expectations is you can model that for adults because you are very good at that And I also just want to put the message out there that we know how important school is we know how important sports are And your community cares about you and all of us in the community are Are working hard to keep the community levels Low so that you can keep going to school. So thanks My second question might just be for you as well, dr. Bell Earlier you said students are doing better emotionally now that schools are back open With the possibility of shutdowns are there any plans in place to ensure mental well-being for them on a school or should schools be forced to close again Yeah, that's a great question. And I'd have to defer to someone else about a statewide response I do just want to remind folks that your pediatricians Are here for you and a lot of the questions that they're fielding right now are about mental health And so remembering that pediatrics Pediatric care is about mental health too. Please. Please talk to your pediatricians And I do I hear you So many students tell me that even with two days back with hybrid that those two days They feel a difference in their mental health on those days. There's structure. There's routine. They can connect with their Friends they can connect with adults So We're really working hard to prevent closure. But I hear you that we would need more mental health support if that were to happen I'll I'll see if Dr. Levine has anything to add to that The only addition to that would be that I think it was a misconception Back in the spring when things were truly shut down and schools were clearly closed That accessing mental health support and resources was As impossible as everything else in life might have seemed at those times But the reality is the mental health system was up and functioning And oh and in vermont even though we often have concerns about Adequacy of mental health providers and supports We rank at the top of the list in the country when it comes to the opportunities Vermonters have to access those things And we actually do a really good job here. So I would just keep that in mind and Back in the spring telepsychiatry tele counseling telehealth. We're all very much operating All the time And didn't go away And even now many of those people who are involved in those fields are continuing to offer the services remotely In case their patients are concerned about the challenges of more face-to-face contact So Clearly do not Assume that Those services are not available because school is closed etc etc There'll be a robust system in place to help provide that Thank you Jolie local 22 We can Considering new hamsters numbers. Do we know roughly what might have caused this increase in cases and Either way governor scott or dr. Levine has new hamsters governor discussed some of Vermont's mitigation strategies or vice versa have we offered any of our mitigation strategies to help them? I'll speak from the gubernatorial level first and then dr. Levine can talk about his His folks on and the health department side health commissioners I speak with governor snuneau regularly He I know that they were very concerned About what they perceived as a problem with their rinks and hockey and so forth So they put a two week pause on on hockey in and hampshire I don't know. I mean it takes a while To see if those measures had any effect But that may be part of what they're seeing But but they're coming they're trying to get to grips come to grips with this as well This isn't easy again We're concerned here because we share a border and there's a lot of trade that goes back and forth So we'll continue to do what we can and listen To their perspective and what they're what they're learning So that we don't make the same mistakes Michelle Levine But much like at the gubernatorial level and at the state health official level There's also robust connections between the state epidemiologists And I know that dr. Kelso and dr. Chan Either via phone or via email are also constantly connected And addressing the fundamental problems that we have in combating a pandemic I do know that new hampshire has been more recently concerned about travel As perhaps part of the mix of what's created their increase in numbers But also judging by their very frequent Media releases to the public. They've been equally concerned about bars and restaurants and They're wanting to cast as wide a net as possible when they relate cases to those kinds of establishments I can tell you that in vermont We do not have large numbers of cases That we can connect directly with having dined in a restaurant or been to a bar So I just want that to be very clear But I know that in new hampshire that has become an issue for them and perhaps related to the Not the opening of them, but the pace of opening and the extent to which they've opened But that's a hypothesis My question is about the hazard pig ramp program I know mr. P check is not on the line, but I just wanted to see if Speak to what the rationale was for employers applying rather than the employees We too have been hearing from employers employees from Walmart and Shaw's about how the companies were not applying Yeah, I think this was part of the legislation to be honest with you Avery So, um, that was how it was set up legislature decided That this is way they wanted to implement it. So that's what we've done These people we may feel frustrated that they feel like they should be getting some sort of hazard pay And they've worked their best. What was early on in the pandemic? What would you say to the people? well, again, we're encouraging employers to come forward and Sign up for the grant process and so that we can take care of Disperse the money as best we can We have I think we went back in with another request to the joint fiscal committee to To implement the second round of Hazard pay grants. So there's going to be another opportunity if they take us up on this Which I'm not sure if they did or not They didn't take us up on all of the suggestions But but they have 10 days to do something with that So we'll know more in the future if they didn't take us up on on Tuesday or Wednesday We'll know in the next week or so whether we'll move forward on that. So there is There is going to be hopefully another opportunity to sign up for this program Tim for my business magazine. I have a question for michael harrington More popular today, and I think the reason michael is because we're getting a lot of questions in our side People who aren't working who have been getting the various As he was mentioned about the various employment benefits And the the question I had is about the lwa and whether the lost wages program has completely played out now If people could expect any more money or is it where it's done Thanks for the question I believe we have paid out roughly about 98 percent of that program Based on the people who are eligible and the people who have have certified for those weeks the program Has a future closed date That femo will articulate to us and at that point we have 90 days following the close of the program before The funding is is stopped From there the only what we continually find obviously are either someone who has come in late and certifies It through the program And then we add them to the next pay file and their pay Or if somebody has come through the appeals process And it was found eligible They they too Are able to certify and then be paid. I would say for the most part this program has played out You know probably 90 Uh 90 percent of everybody who Was counted and expected to be paid Has been paid. There's no backlog So it really is as people Come through now and are either certifying At this point in time as opposed to when the program first launched or they're being made eligible So most of those funds have gone out the door to individuals If if someone feels like they've fallen through the crash they may still come to your office Have some sort of adjudication So they do have a appeal right that First of all, let me back up if someone has not certified Feels like they thought they had certified and and should have received the benefit and they didn't They can call our claimant assistance center And the folks on the other end of the line have been trained to either take the certification over the phone What we did find was that we had a number of people who certified and actually responded No, that their separation was not COVID related. Um, and for whatever reason, uh Want to change their answer is that they didn't understand the question or didn't know what they were agreeing to And what the impact would be so they're now coming in And wanting to change answers and there is a an opportunity for recertification as well And we'll review those very closely for eligibility purposes But they can also do that by calling our our claim center as well. So If they feel like they've been missed or or Feel like they were deemed ineligible At the same time, even if they go through the recertification process and we find that they're ineligible They do have appeal rights. Um, and they it's the same appeal process as Uh anyone in in traditional ui or pua would have uh in terms of appealing the decision All right, great. Thank you All right, uh, we have about 14 minutes and and four people. So just keep that in mind guy page the chronicles of vermont state house Guy page governor. Uh, governor baker governor baker Go ahead guy Governor baker in Massachusetts on monday He switched his home social gatherings to 10 And required a 9 30 p.m. Curfew on public gatherings If you make these recommendations you discussed earlier in the mandate Do that include a curfew and Please power to let you find that governor baker is done Uh, too early to tell at this point in time guy as you recall we gave flexibility to municipalities To implement curfews if they thought it was necessary barrowington had their curfew For a while, but they've since rescinded that But that is still in place. They can still communities can can Utilize this tool if they see it's necessary for their for their communities, but um, but again We're you know, everything's on the table, but at this point that's not something I would rather not Mandate this. This is an advisory at this point Uh, we want everyone to be aware of their surroundings aware of who they're having in their homes And limit their gathering size. I mean, it's it's it's an advisory. It's not a mandate Also, the interest is in your thoughts on the democratic progressive loss of their supermajority We feel over life, uh Which uh, you know, what what might have caused that? Uh, how it might affect legislation going forward for example the Uh Yeah, I mean it's it's really really close at this point. I don't think it's changed dramatically. Uh, there isn't a clear um Clear number of of republicans who will be able to sustain a veto So you're still counting on on common sense, uh democrats and independence alike For there to be any ability to sustain Or you know in terms of override same It's the same thing the independence And progressives are going to play a part in that as well Andrea seven days Andrea. Hi there. Can you hear me? We can Hey great, um specifically about um, uh Some I have a question about kind of testing strategy as we go Into this kind of winter holiday season, um possibly You know slightly increased travel season I know the some of the high volumes of testing that we're seeing um Are sort of connected with the monitor and strategy on college campuses Um, but as kind of as we head into the season where people may be Maybe kind of traveling out of state and then coming back And are are there going to be any changes in kind of the state's approach to testing for the general public? um, and uh, especially in that kind of uh that week after After any holiday just wondering if there's kind of any anticipation that there's going to be kind of a lot of demand for testing Yeah, we're going to continue to try and enhance our testing capacity as best we can We're going to rely on on private entities to help us out with that and we're also looking to Implement more of a surveillance testing program as well. I'll let uh secretary Smith answer that as well Thank you for the question a couple maybe a week ago. I alluded to uh some changes in our testing strategy as you know We went from fairly back in march having minimal testing capacity to Pretty robust testing capacity where we now You know anywhere from 25 to 30,000 tests a week as And as you pointed out many a lot of that is in the The student population in terms of a higher ed One of the things that we did as we sort of went along and built that robust testing Uh capacity was to sort of build upon Success after success after success, but one thing we've done now is take a look at that testing strategy And wondering does it work for vermoners? And what you'll see In the upcoming weeks are a couple of things One uh testing on demand that's at the convenience of the vermoner And not basically the provider So that we'll see seven days a week testing Opportunities we'll see permanent locations throughout the state It's going to take us a while to build this capacity up But I think you'll start seeing it roll out then in the next few weeks as we move forward The next thing we're doing is much greater surveillance Testing Bigger populations in terms of what we're doing with surveillance testing as you probably know We're doing surveillance testing in our correctional facilities. We're doing surveillance testing in long-term care facilities We're doing surveillance testing in other areas as well But we're going to expand that now To fairly significant populations as we as we move forward We're determining what those populations are now in order to get us the best look At what is happening in our state in terms of the progression or the the regression of the virus So, um, I think in the next few weeks the next week or next two weeks We'll have an announcement specifically of what this new testing strategy looks like And with that kind of that surveillance testing, would the population There be something like like, you know associated with schools or You know Or kind of a more general like regional population I think what you said is Possible in all things are considered, but if we were doing surveillance testing of school staff and employees For example It wouldn't be just regional. We would probably do it system-wide as we look at it now how that would be done We would still be looking at it, but it's other populations as well Maybe public safety and some other populations as we're as we're moving forward. Thank you Andrew Oh, Dr. I just wanted to add to the other part of the question that was asked in my comments I did make the point that For people attending gatherings at the holidays We have recommended Testing a week later after those gatherings. Thank you Andrew, how do any in record? Yeah, good afternoon. This is for dr. Levine Just over three weeks ago. There were only 51 positive cases from the northeast kingdom and since that time We've added 63 and at least five different schools in the region have had cases I know what a recent conference that was shown that the kingdom counties weren't connected with the high sports outbreak So what do you think is driving these cases? Is there a common thread or are they just Probably enough through community transmission Yeah, these are great questions. So we have to continue to look for common threads And are not finding them So there is community transmission We have also found that in Essex county On the new hampshire border. There's some sharing of educational programs and schools And there has been more activity on the new hampshire border that seems to have Affected those who are vermont citizens or residents. I should say the other part though is A good illustration that being rural does not mean the virus won't find you And that's what the nation has found In the most recent months You know as we know the new we don't hear about new york city or san francisco or chicago so much anymore When the south and the midwest had their surge over the summer it was Quite notable that it was more suburban and rural And not necessarily urban and we're seeing that progression continue now So being rural is not protective is my uh my major message on that again Thanks one for the governor and one for the doctor if I may governor I've lived and worked and for and voted in four different states and two of those were in a major city And I was wondering Why why do you think Appoling a vote counting area would would prohibit Legally legally Sponsored Watchers from attending the vote count Even though, you know, they have court orders and and they're legally allowed to be there Why do you think they would be kicked out? Or left out kept out. Yeah, I have no idea probably a better question for their states. Um, we didn't prevent anyone from witnessing our Our polling places. So I don't That's a great thing about vermont. I mean, you know, we're pretty much polite and on the up and up up here But it's not always so in some of the major cities I've found All right, Steve, we only have a couple minutes if you had a question for dr. Levine for the doctor The doctor as you know, there was a moratorium I I wonder why we're so curious about the origin of this About the origin of this pandemic And as you know, there was a moratorium on this research regarding coronaviruses and other pathogens nasty pathogens from October 2014 to december of 2017 and the There were over 200 scientists and bioethicists who had signed petitions to to keep this research because it it They said it risked an outbreak and a global pandemic And this was a couple years ago Um, I mean, do you support gain of function or almost the weaponization of these viruses? Wasn't something like this bound to happen so Without referring to the terms weaponization or gain of function Every scientist and every infectious disease specialist believes something like this was bound to happen But through more natural occurrence And through the fact that the bat family seems to be a natural reservoir for many of these viruses And that there have been other examples of other species of animals um Allowing the virus to be transmitted from them to the human population So-called zoonosis so this This pandemic was inevitable everyone will agree with that um, the real issue has to be Further research on the topic of zoonosis and the topic of viruses and their genetic makeup and how they Can cleverly Exist in different species of Animals and humans To put it that way. So that's what's going to be continuing. I have no doubt that there'll be ongoing research as there was previously The other thing your question brings to light and just sort of closing here on a high note is the fact that Public health has known this all along And public health has known that sufficient emergency preparedness and pandemic preparedness Is a core function and needs to be well supported even when times look good So the fact is the country and the world are all recognizing that once again and I suspect that If lessons are learned preparedness for the next time around which hopefully won't be As quick as people are thinking and could be another hundred years Preparedness will be much better at that time Yeah, but humans have humans have shared caves with bats since time immemorial and And especially when we have people who've escaped from communist china saying that they can identify the cut marks On honor the genome Uh, I do you think that we should look into that? No, I think I think what we're recognizing is the conditions of the planet and the conditions of humans encroaching on environments That they haven't encroached on as to his a greater degree previously And bringing all of these things much more in concert with one another more connectedness That's sort of how it's evolved I'm giving a short shrift to that part of the answer because I know it's one o'clock and That would take a much levy of dissertation All right, great. Well, thank thank you both very much Thank you all very much. We'll see you on Tuesday to talk about our travel model