Cavendish Update 12/31/21: Accident on 131/News/Events
/
VIEW THE CAVENDISH VT FACEBOOK PAGE DAILY FOR THE LATEST NEWS
12/31/21
1. Cavendish Info
2. Covid update
3. Events
Transfer Station Closed Saturday, Jan 1
1. CAVENDISH INFO
• 131 Tractor Trailer Accident: On December 28, 2021 at approximately 2:55 am, the Vermont State Police responded to Route 131 in the Town of Cavendish [2 miles east of Tarbell Hill], due to the report of a tractor trailer that went off the road into the Black River. Upon arrival the operator of the vehicle, Donald Darrah, 77, was standing on top of the tractor trailer. He was able to communicate with first responders, but due to the water depth and temperatures a cold water rescue was required. Members of the Proctorsville and West Weathersfield FD Cold Water Rescue teams successfully retrieved the operator. The operator advised he lost control of the vehicle as he was going around the snow covered corner. The tractor trailer unit was on its passenger side in the middle of the Black River. Multiple agencies/companies assisted the Vermont State Police including Cavendish FD, Proctorsville FD, West Weathersfield FD, Reed Truck Services, Department of Agency of Transportation, Department of Natural Resources, Vermont HAZMAT and other local companies. Route 131, between the 103/131 intersection and Downers (131/106 intersection) was closed from about 4 am until 11 pm.
• How a Small Quarry Could Have a Big Effect on Vermont’s Land Use Law
• Whisper Room Dedication to Spencer Huntley at RVTC: Spencer lived in Cavendish, graduating from CTES and GMUHS. A former RVTC student, Spencer, at age 18, died in a tragic car accident October 2011. His parents, Mark and Sharon, are Cavendish residents. VT Journal
• VTrans Winter Weather Central: Learn more about road conditions, routes of plows, highway cams, alerts etc.
2. COVID UPDATE: For local information on testing, vaccinations, boosters, notifying contacts as well as other resources, including those for people with Long Covid, please see the Cavendish COVID-19 Resource Guide.
WEEKLY DATA:
Cavendish & Surrounding Towns: For the week ending Dec. 22, Cavendish had 6 new cases; Ludlow 7; Chester 12; Springfield 78 and Weathersfield 13. For the week ending Dec. 29, Cavendish had 2 new cases (95 total); Ludlow 14 (186); Chester 16 (388); Springfield 51 (1,317) and Weathersfield 5 (189).
Schools: The VT Dept of Health’s school report for Dec. 27, reports no new case for CTES (3 total); Chester Andover (15 total); or Ludlow Elementary (8 total). GMUHS had 2 new cases (20 total). There were 201 new cases last week in Vermont schools and 3,208 cases since the start of the school year.
Area Nursing Homes: Springfield Rivers Nursing & Rehab is reported to have 6 cumulative cases.
State: Tuesday’s modeling has been overshadowed by the significant increase in daily case counts. Wednesday set a new one day record of 940, which was broken on Thursday with 1,352 new cases. No data will be provided again until Monday, but it is anticipated that the numbers will be high thanks to the combination of omicron’s high transmission rate and the holidays.
Of Wednesday and Thursday’s new cases, approximately 85% were among the unvaccinated. Data continues to reflect that those who are unvaccinated or even partially vaccinated are most at risk for hospitalizations, ICU care and death.
Currently 56 people are in the hospital, including 19 in the ICU. Deaths increased by 53 in December, 471 total, with one person in their 30s dying from Covid.
Seropositivity (percentage of tests that are positive) is now up to 7.3%. Note that the data for test results is going to be skewed and less useful as the emphasis becomes more on home testing and self-reporting.
TESTING & REPORTING: With the rapid home test give away for the holidays, the VT Dept. of Health (VDH) ushered in their new approach to testing. VDH has stated that going forward more of the testing will be done using rapid antigen test as well as the LAMP, which has the accuracy of the PCR, but can provide results in under an hour without a lab. LAMP tests were distributed over the holiday for home use.
Self-testing requires self-reporting, which may or may not happen. As Dr. Levine, VT’s Health Commissioner noted, “The days of case counts being the primary endpoint to look at are over for sure. The challenge now is to be “laser-focused on … preserving the capacity of our health care system, making sure that we know day-to-day, hour-to-hour, where we are in terms of hospital beds, ICU beds, etc.”
We will lose a lot of information with the advent of at-home antigen and PCR testing. And the reality is concepts like percent positivity, which really have been very helpful in managing the pandemic, will not become calculable, because we won’t have a denominator anymore… If a person is actually going to report their test results to the health department, they’re probably more likely to report a positive result than a negative result.
So focusing on cases makes it look like some wildfire’s wildly out of control. But the reality is, if more people than not are getting colds and mild flu-like symptoms and are better in a few days, that’s adding to the immunity of the population at large. Putting that together with vaccine-mediated immunity, getting people to a level of immunity where this will become, for our future, a more endemic virus — part of the background, just like a common cold, and hopefully nothing more serious will come.
Most scientists believe that Covid-19 will become endemic-it will be in the community and will surface periodically. Historically, most pandemics last between 2 1/2-3 years. As the virus mutates, and more people in a community become immune, through prior infections or vaccinations, it circulates at a much lower more manageable level.
A good example is the 1918 flu pandemic, which has never disappeared but rather continued to mutate so it became a less serious health issue. The hope is that omicron, with its high transmissibility, may be what takes Covid-19 from pandemic to endemic.
RAPID COVID TESTS FOR K-12 STUDENTS: Families with children in kindergarten through grade 12 can pick up one kit per child at one of the Agency of Transportation sites today from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Locations closest to Cavendish include:
• Chester 165 Elm St.
• Londonderry 158 Derry Woods Rd
• Ludlow 91 Route 100 North
• Springfield 12 Missing Link Rd.
• Windsor 1640 US Route 5 North
• White River Junction 226 Beswick Dr.
Name and school of the student(s) will be required to pick up the tests Families should complete the online registration.
Tests should be administered at least 24 hours apart, starting two days before school begins. Example: Jan 1 (Sat) Take the first test; Jan 2 (Sun) Take the 2nd test. If both tests are negative they can return to school on Monday, Jan. 3. Children experiencing any Covid-19 symptom should remain at home.
ISOLATION & QUARANTINE PERIODS: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced new guidelines this week.
If you test positive for Covid: People with COVID-19 should isolate for 5 days and if they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving (without fever for 24 hours), follow that by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others to minimize the risk of infecting people they encounter.
If you are exposed to Covid and are vaccinated/boosted: Individuals who have received their booster shot do not need to quarantine following an exposure, but should wear a mask for 10 days after the exposure. Best practice includes a Covid test 5 days after exposure.
If you are exposed but not vaccinated or fully vaccinated: For people who are unvaccinated or are more than six months out from their second mRNA dose (or more than 2 months after the J&J vaccine) and not yet boosted, CDC now recommends quarantine for 5 days followed by strict mask use for an additional 5 days. Alternatively, if a 5-day quarantine is not feasible, it is imperative that an exposed person wear a well-fitting mask at all times when around others for 10 days after exposure. Best practice includes a Covid test 5 days after exposure.
OTHER NEWS
• 86 Killington Resort employees test positive for Covid-19
• Thousands who ‘followed the rules’ are about to get covid. They shouldn’t be ashamed.
3. EVENTS
DECEMBER 31 (FRIDAY) New Year’s Eve Town Office Closed
JANUARY 1 (SATURDAY): HAPPY NEW YEAR! Transfer Station Closed
JANUARY 5 (WEDNESDAY): Select Board Budget Meeting 6-8 pm at the Town Office
JANUARY 10 (MONDAY): Monthly Select Board Meeting 6:30 pm at the Town office
JANUARY 15 (SATURDAY): Monthly Utility bills due
JANUARY 17 (MONDAY): Martin Luther King’s Day Town Officer Closed
CA❤︎ENDSH VAXXING & MASKING TO PROTECT SELF & OTHERS
IF YOU READ THIS PLEASE HELP SUPPORT CAVENDISH CONNECTS