Please keep using masks in public and social distancing, wash your hands and get tested if you think you have been exposed.

Manchester Positive Test Results – Update from the Health Department

As of 3:00 p.m. today (July 13), the Health Department is aware of 30 positive antigen testing results from testing conducted at Manchester Medical Center. Antigen tests provide results much more quickly than diagnostic (PCR) tests, but they are not as accurate. Positive results from antigen tests are considered “presumptive positive cases” and not “confirmed cases.” They are not included in our case counts.

The Health Department is working with the people who tested positive from the antigen tests as if they are confirmed cases – we are providing guidance on isolation and conducting contact tracing. We are also working to confirm their positive result with a more accurate PCR test. 

Today, Manchester Medical Center reports that many people reported there today for testing. Most are asymptomatic, however about 20 people are reporting symptoms of COVID-19-like illness. The Health Department’s Case Follow-up Team is contacting people who have tested positive to provide public health recommendations, conduct contact tracing, and share information about Health Department COVID-19 testing in Londonderry on July 15. Close contacts of those who tested positive by antigen testing are being referred to the Londonderry testing event. 

Londonderry Testing on July 15

The Londonderry site is open for people in the area who do not have symptoms and would like to be tested. Registration is at www.humanresources.vermont.gov/popups

Location: Flood Brook School, 91 VT Route 11, Londonderry
Date: Wednesday, 7/15
Time: 9am – 3pm

From the July 13th daily Health Briefing E-mail:

Please visit the Vermont Department of Health’s COVID-19 web and data pages
healthvermont.gov/covid19

COVID-19 Transmission and Children

A commentary published by two University of Vermont pediatric infectious disease specialists in the journal Pediatrics, the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, concludes that children infrequently transmit COVID-19 to each other or to adults and that many schools can and should reopen in the fall — provided they follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their communities.

Read the article COVID-19 Transmission and Children: The Child Is Not to Blame. Learn more in UVM Today.