Looking across the country, we continue to see a forest fire of COVID-19 spreading in the south and west and things could shift back towards us. We have to keep our guard up, because Vermonters want to move forward, not backward. We now have the lowest number of cases in the nation… our trends in Vermont have held pretty steady. And while, as expected, we’ve seen more cases as we’ve methodically opened back up…

Today, Manchester Medical Center reported, that over the past 72 hours, they have had 42 positive cases and likely 30+ false negative tests (meaning folks may be contagious, but the test doesn’t detect it). This does not indicate what towns or states these people are from. Furthermore, the VT Dept of Health told the Manchester Medical Center that their COVID cases would not be counted in the VT state/county numbers, which is why you are not seeing a change on their website.

As you may have heard, the Manchester Medical Center (34 Bonnet St., Manchester) had 5 positive cases of COVID yesterday, with dozens more tested and awaiting results. Their Facebook post states…

As of June 11, Vermont has seen an new COVID-19 outbreak in Winooski due to family and friends gathering. We want to keep everyone safe here at Equinox Village and urge you to continue following the guidelines set forth by the CDC and Governor Scott.

We value how active our residents are. It’s one of the great things about our community. With that said, the more active each of us becomes in the outside community, the more at risk we are to becoming exposed to COVID-19 and thus bringing it back to Equinox Village.

We want to acknowledge that there is a degree of uncertainty regarding what is safe and unsafe right now. As you know restaurants, retail and other businesses are beginning to open. The weather is finally nice enough to spend more time outside. Vermont has fortunately maintained low numbers of confirmed COVID cases.