Persistence is why Vermonters are able to return to many – but not all – of life’s daily routines that abruptly came to a screeching halt back in March.

As of Saturday, August 1, 2020, Vermonters and visitors are required to wear masks or cloth facial coverings over their nose and mouth any time they are in public spaces, indoors or outdoors, where they come in contact with others from outside their households, especially in congregate settings, and where it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least six feet.

As we begin resuming some of our activities, we want to caution our residents and their family members to continue to abide by the social distancing, mask wearing and travel guidelines advised by the state of Vermont. Many people are traveling right now, here to Vermont to visit friends and loved ones, as well as traveling out-of-state to get in one more vacation….

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…