Cavendish Update 12/10/21 Jobs/Masks/News/Events

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12/10/21

1.    Cavendish Info

2.    Job Postings: Town & Mack Molding

3.    Covid update

4.    Events

Winter Weather Advisory has been posted for our area from 3 AM-10 AM on Saturday. Mixed precipitation, freezing rain. Ice accumulations.

Sunday is the Proctorsville Christmas Ghost Walk. Meet 7 pm in front of the War Memorial (across from Svec Park).

 

1. CAVENDISH INFO

• Local mask mandates

• Letters to Santa Now Open at the Cavendish Post Office: Children have their own mail slot to use at the Cavendish Post Office so they can drop off their letters to Santa. Thank you Miguel (post master).

• TRSU Looks to align school schedules for both its districts: Superintendent Lauren Fierman noted at the recent TRSU meeting, she would like to see a single schedule for all schools in the TRSU. Currently, CTES has an early release on Tuesdays in order for the teachers to have ”embedded professional development time.” Chester Telegraph

• Christmas Concert: St. James United Methodist Church (570 Main St., Proctorsville) will be holding a Christmas Concert on Dec. 18 (Saturday) at 5pm. Admission is free. Donations welcome. FMI:802-455-6500

• Grant program to help homeowners settle unpaid mortgage, utility bills: A program that aims to help eligible Vermont homeowners settle thousands of dollars in unpaid dues is expected to launch by January. VT Digger

 

2. JOB POSTINGS: The Town of Cavendish has an immediate opening for a Temporary, full-time Highway Department crew member. Applicants are required to have current CDL, good driving and work records and must be in good physical health. Solid experience in construction and heavy equipment operation, including dump truck operation, is essential. A comprehensive job description is available to serious applicants. Applications, resumes and inquiries should be directed to: Brendan McNamara, Town Manager, Town of Cavendish Municipal Building 37 High Street, P.O. Box 126, Cavendish, Vermont 05142. (802) 226-7291. Cavendish is an Equal Opportunity Employer

 Mack Molding will be holding a job fair on Wed. Dec. 15 from 8-4 at the Cavendish location (2044 Main St). Employee referral bonus $500. Sign on Bonus $3,000. Flexible part time hours available. $15.63/hr-$22/hr.

3. COVID UPDATE: For local information on testing, vaccinations, boosters, notifying contacts as well as other resources, please see the Cavendish COVID-19 Resource Guide.

WEEKLY DATA:

• Cavendish & Surrounding Towns: Once again, Cavendish- 8 new cases (77 total); Chester-36 new cases (299 total) and Springfield -124 new cases (974 total) have set records for highest number of new cases in the past week. Ludlow had 7 cases (152 total) and Weathersfield had 8 new cases (123 total).

• Schools: The VT Dept of Health’s school report for Dec. 6, lists CTES as having no new case in the past week with 2 cases total. Note, we are aware of at least two other cases at the school. VT Digger recently posted an article State, local data show discrepancies in Covid-19 cases in Vermont schools, which helps to explain why this is happening.

Green Mountain had 6 new cases this past week, for a total of 14, while Ludlow and Chester elementary schools reported no cases. There were 246 cases last week in Vermont schools and 2,491 since the start of the school year. 

• State: VT continues to set new records for number of new daily cases as well as high daily hospitalizations. Cases of Covid have doubled in the last six months.

Tuesday’s Modeling showed that VT cases have increased 54% over the last 7 days and increased 31% over the last 14 days. A post-Thanksgiving surge is underway with the not fully vaccinated having a 95% increase in the last 7 days while fully vaccinated increased 52%, Those not fully vaccinated were 15 times more likely to require hospitalizations in November compared to those who were fully vaccinated. Health Commissioner Dr. Levine noted Tuesday that 91% of those currently in the ICU were not vaccinated. He also noted two pediatric hospital cases. Over the last 7 days cases have increased for all age groups. However,  VT also has the highest testing rate so is more likely to capture more positive cases.

Seropositivity (percentage of tests that are positive) has dropped from 5.2% to 4.8% in the last week. Vt’s case count is 54,321 with 426 deaths and 87 people in hospital, 23 in the ICU.  

TESTING: On Tuesday, the Governor and his team discussed a new approach to testing. From now until March/April, there will be a steady move to replace the PCR testing with LAMP testing, which does not require a lab and can provide results in an hour. This testing is viewed as reliable as the PCR and is currently in usedas part of “Test to Stay” in the schools. Note that a negative LAMP test is sufficient to shorten a 14-day quarantine or return to school after an illness. The second component will be testing at home using rapid antigen testing.

According to the Governor, We’ve been working to secure thousands of rapid at-home tests. ..We want to have tens of thousands of these available at no charge to Vermonters. ..You might have seen that President Biden is working to allow Americans to be reimbursed for at-home tests in the New Year. Commissioner Pieciak and his team at DFR [Dept. of Financial Regulation]  had already been working on this, so we’ll launch this in Vermont within the next couple of weeks.

DFR today will issue an emergency rule requiring commercial insurers to cover the cost of rapid COVID-19 take-home tests, it will be retroactive to December 1.

Once the emergency rule is fully in place, those with commercial insurance will be able to get take-home COVID rapid tests at a pharmacy, without out-of-pocket costs.  We believe this will cover about 140K Vermonters, and we’re working to extend it beyond commercial insurance, in hopes of covering most Vermonters. And again, we think this is an important step to take now and we encourage people to use tests before & after holiday gatherings.

This will be in addition to giving our tens of thousands for free, once we finalize logistics with the federal government and other partners.

Currently, those on Medicaid or Medicare are not eligible for this reimbursement. Efforts are being made to make these tests available for free who don’t qualify for the reimbursement program.

If you test positive on a home test: A positive self-test result means that the test detected the virus, and you are very likely to have an infection.

-       Stay home or isolate for 10 days, wear a mask if you could have contact with others, and avoid indoor gatherings to reduce the risk of spreading disease to someone else.

-       Contact your health provider about you positive test. It’s important to talk to your provider ASAP. Your provider can determine if you are a good candidate for monoclonal antibodies or some of the newer medications that can reduce severity and need for hospitalizations.

-       Notify Contacts: Use How to Notify Contacts if you Test Positive for Covid

-       Notify the VT Health Dept. using the VT Covid-19 Self-Test Reporting Form

OMICRON: Several studies have been released this week. Preliminary results from two small studies strongly suggest the vaccines will be much less effective at stopping infections from the omicron variant but will still likely offer protection against severe disease. The study in Germany also indicates that a third shot, or a booster, will partially recover the effectiveness of the vaccines, at least for a few months.

 Omicron variant is four times more transmissible than Delta

NEWS/LIT REVIEW

• Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith to retire at the end of this month: Mike Smith, a critical player in Vermont’s pandemic response and the state’s secretary of human services, is retiring at the end of the year. 

• State kid-vaxx incentive program could bring thousands of dollars into TRSU schools

• FDA has authorized Pfizer booster for those 16-17 at least six months after their last dose.

• DHMC’s No Visitor policy (with certain exceptions) goes into effect Dec. 10. Rutland is now restricting visitors as is Springfield Medical Center.

 

4.EVENTS

DECEMBER 12 (SUNDAY): Christmas Ghost Walk-Proctorsville. 7 pm, meet at the Proctorsville War Memorial. Free and open to the public. Donations welcomed.  FMI: 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com

DECEMBER 13 (MONDAY): Cavendish Select Board Meeting, 6:30 pm Cavendish Town Office.

DECEMBER 18 (SATURDAY): St. James Methodist Church (Proctorsville), Christmas Concert, 5 pm. Free Admission. Donations welcome

DECEMBER 23 (THURSDAY)-JANUARY 2 (SUNDAY): Schools holiday break

DECEMBER 24 (FRIDAY): Christmas Eve Town Office Closed

DECEMBER 25 (SATURDAY): MERRY CHRISTMAS

DECEMBER 26 (SUNDAY)-DECEMBER 31 (SATURDAY): HAPPY KWANZA

DECEMBER 31 (FRIDAY) New Year’s Eve Town Office Closed

JANUARY 17 (MONDAY): Martin Luther King’s Day Town Officer Closed

CA❤︎ENDSH VAXXING & MASKING TO PROTECT SELF & OTHERS

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