Vermont opening COVID-19 vaccines to those 30 and older

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont is opening registration for COVID-19 vaccinations to people age 30 and older.

The Vermont Health Department website will begin accepting appointments at 8:15 a.m. Monday. Next week, all adult Vermonters will be eligible to be vaccinated.

The presence of the virus in Vermont has been increasing in recent weeks. Officials say the state is in a race to vaccinate as many people as possible to help stop the spread.

Officials blame the increase on a number of more-transmissible variants of the virus that are being found in Vermont and among young people who are more socially active but not yet eligible to be vaccinated.

Even though more and more Vermonters are being vaccinated, officials are urging residents to remember the guidance that has helped the state maintain a relatively low rate of COVID-19 during the pandemic: Wear masks, maintain social distance and avoid large gatherings or crowded places.

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STUDENTS AT THE BEACH

The University of Vermont is promising to “take strong and swift action” against students who violated the school’s COVID-19 safety restrictions at a Lake Champlain beach in Burlington.

On Saturday, hundreds of young people flocked to Burlington’s North Beach to enjoy the summer-like weather.

UVM Vice President Gary Derr says that if UVM students at the beach weren’t social distancing or wearing masks they could be subject to school discipline. At the beginning of the semester, the students agreed to follow Vermont’s COVID-19 guidelines.

Derr said they are examining videos of people at the beach.

“We are going to be looking that over,” Derr said. “We are going to be looking at other information we might have, and if we can successfully identify individuals that were up there that were violating university policy, we will take strong and swift action on this.”

The university reported nearly 100 new cases of COVID-19 last week. The total number of cases for the spring semester is now more than 500.

“Our message to everybody is not who was there or who wasn’t there,” Derr said. “We all need to be safe... Now is not the time to back down.”

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NUMBERS

On Monday, the Vermont Department of Health reported 91 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19, bringing the statewide total since the pandemic began to almost 21,300.

There were a total of 29 people hospitalized with COVID-19, including four in intensive care.

The state reported a total of 233 fatalities from COVID-19.

The AP is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 154.29 new cases per day on March 27 to 150.43 new cases per day on April 10.

The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Vermont did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 0.86 deaths per day on March 27 to 0.29 deaths per day on April 10.