Cavendish Update 12/3/21: Volunteers needed/News/Events
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12/3/21
1. Cavendish Info
2. Covid update
3. Events
Saturday is Proctorsville Fire Dept’s “Stuff a Fire Truck” at Shaw’s Plaza to benefit BRGN food shelf. The Snow fleas will be selling Holiday Gourmet Gift Baskets from 9-2 in front of Singletons and the Cavendish Library Book Fair will be hosting a Pirate Party from 1-2.
1. CAVENDISH INFO
• Urgent need for Snow Sports Program, on-snow, volunteers CTES is planning to have their Snow Sports program. In order to run it, they must have a 3:1 student to volunteer ratio. Volunteers have to be fully vaccinated and pass a background check and be finger printed. The program will run for 6 Tuesdays starting on 1/11/22 and ending on 2/15/22. Signups for the program will be Friday, Dec. 3rd from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM and Saturday, Dec. 4th from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. If there are not enough on-snow volunteers, the program will only be able to operate for some grade levels or be cancelled completely. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Jarrod Harper at 802-770-2892 or by messaging him directly on Facebook. Learn more about the program: Lack of volunteers threatens CTES Snow Sports Program
• GMUSD Finance Committee Gets first look at proposed FY23 budget: The almost $15 million spending plan for running the high school plus Chester-Andover and Cavendish Town elementary schools represents a 3.28 percent increase over the current year, but there are also Covid-19 related funds and other grants that will supplement the operation but do not appear in this budget. Several of the TRSU recommendations, including a sole principal position for Cavendish Town Elementary School and the proposed $40,000 Fletcher library contribution, were approved. CTES in particular saw the biggest school increase recommendation from nearly $1.6 million to over $1.8 million, up 15.36% from last year. One key factor in the increase was the recommendation to return to a sole principal for Cavendish rather than the shared administrative model used since the resignation of former CTES principal Deb Beaupre at the end of 2020. Chester Telegraph VT Journal
2. COVID UPDATE: For local information on testing, vaccinations, boosters, notifying contacts as well as other local resources, please see the Cavendish COVID-19 Resource Guide.
WEEKLY DATA:
Cavendish & Surrounding Towns: The VT Dept of Health issued town data for the past week, minus one day due to the holiday. Cavendish with 7 new cases (69 total), Chester 24 new cases (263 total) and Springfield 90 new cases (850 total) all set records for number of new cases in a week. Ludlow had 4 new cases for a total of 145.
Schools: The VT Dept of Health’s school report for Nov. 29 reports CTES had no new case in the past week and list 2 cases total. Green Mountain has 5 cases for the past week, for a total of 8. Ludlow Elementary had no new cases for a total of 8 cases, while Chester Andover Elementary had 2 new cases (14 total). There were 183 cases last week in Vermont schools and 2,244 cases since the start of the school year. Note Springfield Elm Hill School has been closed this week due to a Covid-19 out break.
State: According to Commissioner Pieciak, Tuesday’s Modeling data is skewed because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Testing was down by 32% this past week. VT cases decreased 12% over the last seven days and decreased 16% over the last 14 days. The state now has had over 50,000 cases
Those not fully vaccinated were 13.5 times more likely to require hospitalization in November compared to those fully vaccinated and boosted. While Covid cases have been increasing over the last three months, the number of deaths has declined from 50 in September, 46 in October and 34 in November.
The best indicator of what’s going on is the number of hospitalizations. There has been a 12% increase in the 7 day hospitalization average over the past week The unvaccinated accounted for 71% of hospitalizations over the last seven days. There has been a 31% increase in the 7 day ICU usage, with 81% being unvaccinated. VT reached a record high on Tuesday with 84 patients in the hospital, 22 of which were in the ICU.
The demand for ICU beds is such that UVM is converting operating room space, postponing elective surgeries in order to set up five more ICU beds. Dartmouth has also stated they will pause or limit surgeries that weren’t immediately required in order to free up space for Covid patients.
Seropositivity (percent of test that are positive) has increased significantly from a low of 3.8% just before Thanksgiving to a record high of 5.2% yesterday. Vt now has had 51,134 cases of Covid, with yesterday setting a new daily record with 604 cases. There are currently 76 people in the hospital, 23 of whom are in the ICU.
OMICRON: The newly detected Omicron COVID-19 variant may be highly infectious and less responsive to available vaccines than other variants, but it is too early to know how it compares to the Delta variant, top infectious disease official Anthony S. Fauci, MD, said on Tuesday.
On Thursday, data from South Africa showed that Omicron was now the most dominant strain and is driving a sharp increase in new infections. Some 11,500 new Covid infections were registered in the latest daily figures, which is a sharp rise over the 8,500 cases confirmed the previous day. By contrast, daily infections were averaging between 200 and 300 in mid-November. People previously infected with other variants of coronavirus do not appear to be protected against Omicron but vaccines are still believed to protect against severe disease, according to top scientists from the global health body and South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
Though South Africa alerted the world to Omicron, it appeared earlier in The Netherlands, France and Japan. It is unclear when or where this new variant arose but it’s been in circulation for weeks now. The United States announced its first case on Wednesday and as of last night, the variant has been detected in five states, with five cases in New York. No cases have been found in Vermont.
In the next few weeks more will be known about this new variant, including how much protection the current vaccinations provide; if it is more transmissible than the Delta variant and what type of severity is associated with it.
Regardless of what the data ultimately shows, we have the ability to reduce its impact with vaccinations/boosters; wearing a mask indoors; handwashing & sanitizing; testing and staying home when sick.
NATIONAL PLAN: President Biden announced his latest strategies yesterday to try and bring Covid under control. The components includes: Mask mandates for airplanes, trains and public transportation; requiring private health insurance to cover 100% of at home tests; all in-bound international passengers must test for Covid within 24 hours of departure, regardless of vaccination status or nationality; and launching a media campaign to encourage booster shots.
NEWS/LIT REVIEW
• Vermont plans to increase rapid and at home Covid Testing options, but supply concerns persist.
3. EVENTS
NOVEMBER 28 (SUNDAY)-DECEMBER 6 (MONDAY): HAPPY HANUKKAH
DECEMBER 3 (FRIDAY): On snow volunteer registration for CTES Snow Sports program 4-7 pm at CTES. FMI: Jarrod Harper at 802-770-2892
DECEMBER 4 (SATURDAY): Stuff a Fire Truck Food Drive for Black River Good Neighbors Food Shelf. From 9-5 at Shaw’s Parking Lot. This is being sponsored by Proctorsville and Ludlow Fire Departments.
- Cavendish Library Scholastic book fair and pirate party. 1-2 pm at the Library. Includes games, prizes and shopping.
- The Cavendish Green Mountain Snow Fleas Snowmobile Club will be selling Holiday Gourmet Gift Baskets on Saturday, Dec. 4th from 9 am to 2 pm at Singleton’s. Priced at $50, the retail value of the baskets is $120.
- Registration continues for Snow Sports Program Volunteers for CTES. 9-noon at CTES. FMI: Jarrod Harper at 802-770-2892
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 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