>> i want to remind everyone those of us those of us when so many are hurting please consider donating to local charities or food banks or two nonprofits. today to increase testing and contact tracing we will share more about what we are seeing on the ground and also talk about an issue of the test from the bay area that cannot be processed and make sure it doesn't happen again. in addition to today's update with the change over the last few weeks commands you can see changes in behavior and while cases are still ways on - - raising the growth rate is growing but is too early to know exactly about getting together in the impact that travel would have and two -year-old cautiously optimistic and with that impact of thanksgiving and with the restrictions and also talk about strategy to go on offense produces on top of surveillance with over 9000 teachers and 25 percent each week and to be clear and of these systems at the time but as we said what the global economy and then come with the vaccine i share that casino without toughest challenges and to be optimistic i ask if i was given false hope we have tough days and months ahead we see that more clearly than we have throughout the pandemic so we can get through the and as strong as possible we cannot give up so again thank you for their commitment to each other and with that i will turn it over to the secretary. >> thank you very much governor and last friday 236 covid test that did not arrive at the lab in massachusetts and therefore could not be processed because of the time elapsed between collection and processing. in addition those that were waiting on these results and then asked them to be rejected compounding the problem rather than informing them of the incident that was followed up by another letter apologizing. first off let me apologize personally none of that should have happened is not the fault of individuals who took the test. they did the right thing. the issue of the delivery then we must take responsibility for not having a better process in place for when they are being processed the agency of human services must make sure that never happens again and the secretary of this agency we need to act literally after administering tens of thousands of tests this is the first time there was a slip-up of this magnitude i've asked the health department in the event if needed and that with the individual impact in addition and admire general counsel what happened with the gas delivery arriving at the ups facility processing on 1128 at 6:23 a.m. and sat there not going out for delivery on 1130 at 841. as a result they cannot be tested in addition i asked my general counsel for those violations that may have occurred and then to rectify any of those violations and then refer to my general counsel the need to be put in place to quickly inform us of that delivery to the lab in addition on the notification process ensures in the future with information that can identify individuals we cannot let this mistake happen again. we have done a lot of testing and vermont if you remember in the spring we had limited testing supplies and limited and the ability to test today we have a robust testing system i will discuss our increased capacity momentarily but most importantly is for testing to be trusted by vermonters this is in addition to the apology that actions need to happen that this incident is not repeated. with this process and reform and the breakdown of anything that we find. >> just a moment ago from the outset and is limited to today with very robust content has that capability grew last spring that are strategically opted in areas where there were an outbreak or more surveillance testing was needed so to keep the flexibility to respond to other needs we are also adding to that capacity for permanent on-demand and then initially we set a goal to have 13 of these and in addition we will have other sites coming online in the coming weeks in addition hospital pharmacy testing that exist. just to give you an idea, idea, burlington and north you waterbury springfield easily accessible testing is crucial to keeping vermonters healthy and safe landing in the weeks to come and coming up even later in some form we meet the needs and then getting tested at vermont.gov and with that testing law so there is limited space but the most important thing in the most efficient way to get test is register online over the last seven days down from the previous conducting 30000 that number included cost so that students are home for the extended. that every new on-demand site with the use surveillance with long-term care facilities and enhance testing and other locations, approximately 30000 tests per week with everything that comes online in addition we continue the conversation and will be working with hospitals with the monthly basis we should announce that next week also issuing cards to the long-term care facilities who do not have access to do direct distribution to the federal government will soon begin offering twice a week testing for employees that reflected. since a long-term care facility decreased we will begin reporting twice a week from long-term care facilities and in addition will begin the number of probable cases to expose people with those antigen test that are not confirmed or where they decided that sometimes people refuse testing it means they are positive. this is done for two reasons. number one as the use of the antigen test is more widely use used, and to be in line with other states we began to report this and add 120 presumptive positives from. september 6 until now with the dates at the time. in areas of contact tracing and it is a critical tool to mitigate of covid-19. we have worked hard to ensure we are meeting the rise of cases across vermont and we seek to go across the country and the state, we're adding more staff in this effort we are currently on track with 72 staff to date on contact tracing team this word mean they could contact to and 16 individuals per day additionally looking at opportunities to expand and implementing the text notification with the initial information, having a quick conversation or a text message to alert vermonters they have been identified to be in close contact to get the word out as quickly as possible. this is not equivalent to the current contact tracing efforts but the first step in reaching out to individuals and alerting them to be expose. lot going on with contact tracing and i will turn it over to the doctor. >> thank you mr. secretary. this is been a long year for many of us many of you continue to adapt while keeping each other safe so in those traditions want to personally thank you. today there were 63 cases those that were hospitalized with covid was some of those reporting issues they are trending a bit north than they were in mid-november. yet to see the impact that we'll see what happens to today and the next week and a half we've also seen three more deaths in the past three days going past 72. to where women in their nineties one was a man in his seventies and her sympathies go out to them. is a vast evening with 185 situations related to a thanksgiving dinner party but i can only hope they would not be assigned. is a wait and see with their efforts those that prohibit multi- household gatherings if we keep doing our part we can weather the current surge of cases. you should quarantine and get tested. and as we said before the opportunities for the transmission increase with those facilities we need to investigate. contact tracing is tracking down these cases they are dedicated to make sure everyone has the information they need including protecting in quarantine and isolation we only do to help to answer the call all employees and customers and guess required by the agency of commerce and even to keep a really good mix because there may be situations when an organization or facility and to take the public health action quickly. with that information or cooperation was not forthcoming for that could of put others at potential risk and then to share our public information and that that we have drafted and to put the public health first and then to be in contact with and with their own health in a timely fashion and to be intentional of how you are feeling every time you leave the house i also want to reiterate what the secretary is saying the number of cases are only cases confirmed from the test from that other publicly reported data that the person has covid-19 and tested positive on the antigen test and that epidemiological he linked to the covid-19. so all those cases with the same public health action that means contact tracing and with isolation guidance and then notified the quarantine. and with that activity in vermont particularly in other places. so now there is 120 cases to be included in the total case they with nursing homes with those terms of long-term care facility and then to become more magnified but as of yesterday one individual passed away in the hospital and with that facility and assisted living for the healthcare facility outbreak shares my view that these facilities travel from the time and the staff in the fact that they are not at all they are even present in our community because that is keeping down the transmission and that's what local gatherings no matter how small they may be. in addition with long-term care facilities both of which will not increase that amount of surveillance testing or to isolate these cases early on and those with the ppr testing to continue to do antigen testing says that primary strategy then to ensure that supply is sufficient that the ppe uses adhered to. >>. >> good morning everybody. while we face considerable challenges with covid-19 there is a reason for cautious optimism. first, the regional cases with a 14 the weekend i will that caseload has slowed and over the past two weeks mobility data indicates they just decrease their movement spending more time at home and less often in the workplaces missing opportunities for the virus to spread. . . . . contin. it was growing for three or four weeks but it has slowed down more recently which is an encouraging sign. however we must also remember the availability and willingness is likely depressing the case number that at least to some degree. we can expect to see the slowdown expect 29% over the next three weeks which is a decrease from the 45% expected last week. again the next few weeks are less certain as we wait to see the impacts of holiday gatherings. the data is also a reason to be optimistic over the ten days following the implementation of the mandates, there was a 20% reduction in travel to the workplace and a 27% increase in the amount of time spent at home. further the overall increased to the second least mobile state in the country. for the per capita growth rate in the country while north dakota had the highest a rate that was about 16 times greater than our own it's one of the mobile states and has been for some time. this drives home the point and importance of limiting the travel and interactions during the pandemic. turning to the numbers we reported 475 cases this week a decrease of over 200 from the week before. things have also seemed to calm down recently in washington county. it's no longer one of the highest active case count in the region. further, during the ten to 14 days following the new mitigation measures we have seen a slowdown and decrease in the case count as mentioned by approximately 30% since the seven day high. this is of course good news but with the impact of holiday travel and gatherings yet to be seen we need more time over the next week to determine exactly what trajectory we are currently on. regarding thanksgiving, we do have early data points that give insight as to what we might expect over the coming weeks. first, regarding overall traveling to vermont, we see that travel is down 52% on the wednesday before thanksgiving compared to 2019 and down 55% on thanksgiving day. similarly, those traveling out of state was a reduction of about 58% this year over the three-day period compared to 2019. further, air travel is down nationally and locally 60% fewer passengers traveled to airports during thanksgiving week while here in burlington the airport reduction is 77% compared to a year ago. there is still a lot of uncertainty around the thanksgiving holiday but it does appear travel was reduced significantly in vermont and we have to keep the guidelines and continue to be vigilant and careful. to emphasize the point we will show on the next couple of slides over 46% of the cases were reported during the month of november more than the months of march through september combined this means we currently have more active cases in the state then prett than pretty mue previously in the pandemic. the chart estimates the active number of cases in vermont and as you can see there are considerably more cases today them back in the spring. this means we still have an elevated risk of coming into contact with somebody that is infectious, and we must be carefully and continue to follow the guidance. finally, turning to the weekly updates on k-12 higher education and long-term care facilities looking at the k-12 chart you will notice that new hampshire added over 100 new cases this week while maine out of 25 and in the year we added 18. this will be the last update we provide on higher education this year since the in person portion of the semester is now complete. the colleges and university did a remarkable job keeping students, staff and communities safe during this very unusual and challenging semester. in total for the fall semester 220,000 tests were administered with 238 positives meaning about 1% of the 21,000 students enrolled contracted the virus this fall. congratulations are certainly in order to everyone who made vermont one of the safest places in the country to attend college this semester. the active number of outbreaks were to eight and 65 additional cases reported through these outbreaks bringing the total of active cases and outbreaks to the 166. at this time i would like to turn it back over to the governor. >> i will now open up for questions. >> [inaudible] we will do our best to answer questions. >> you had expressed concerns because of the false positivity rate. i'm wondering why [inaudible] >> in the long-term care facility by definition it has the highest prevalence that it's ever had before and you want to be able to make rapid decisions regarding the triage of patients and staff and cohort so infections don't spread. so a positive test is available very quickly would be looked at as a way to immediately implement the change. as you saw in vermont in general many of the long-term care facility is much higher than it's ever been than it would be at the prevalence where the false positivity rate could approach 50%. so to find there's a definite role of that in the forecast. >> and i guess in terms of the report with presumptive positive cases i'm wondering why we haven't done that as of yet like why we haven't been including that in the data. and also, we are going to see more cases included. i'm wondering if maybe there's more question two perception the public might take for that or what kind of impact that might have on the public perception. >> the amount of antigen testing in the state at this point in time are determined without testing so we are now over 4,000 cases with 120 cases in the manner that we just described. going forward, there will be more. so we really haven't been -- we are not uncovering a treasure trove of cases that we didn't show anybody before. we kind of decided this would be an appropriate maneuver when the disease is so much more active and we want to make sure that all tests are looked at equally well and not just require [inaudible] >> [inaudible] in the facilities that currently have gone forward. >> we only did that once and it was a burlington health and rehab and it didn't really work. we tried to move to a different facility and it didn't work because sooner or later they became positive and it just wasn't a good strategy at the time. what we do business people directly to the hospital. if there is a need to either lighten up the staff load or to take care of this individual. [inaudible] thanksgiving night was on the phone dealing with within 48 hours after an outbreak happened so getting staff in that time period is helpful in terms of moving patients and helping us locate various things as well as the medical reserve board and other areas that we've had. but what we found in that critical time period the 24 to 48 hour time period the facility seems to be able to stabilize itself in terms of staffing. >> i just want to go back to the question for a minute on a couple of different levels. we want to know about positive cases. so that's wit what the goal is o identify. but we didn't have the number of positive cases so it is more accurate as well and they might be able to reinforce this. we can do more testing. the more we have the more cases we might find, but the positivity rate if it stays the same, all is good. is that correct? >> i am not trying to complete things but if you have a specific question you might want to take a pass and see if we can get back to you we will start from the newport daily express. >> in the conventions in newport vermont it showed a preventive spike with people back and forth. what methodology do you use [inaudible] >> thank you very much for that. some, but faste come up faster e other ones. but this week we hope to have the site up this week. we are concentrating on new orleans and we understand the case counts that are up there. that's why we do have one in newport and we also will be looking at other facilities as we move forward so you are correct. we are concerned about the case count in those counties and we are responding my putting permanent testing there. >> it's going to be happening. >> people who have, could they think that the test [inaudible] is that important in this time period? >> once they get into vermont, they have to quarantine for 14 days or seven days with a test regardless. >> thank you. >> [inaudible] okay. we will move to the islander. >> thank you. in the letter there was no indication of when vermont specifically learned about the problem for the timetable and i guess some of the people are wondering why you explain some of the 72 hour delays but when did vermont learn about it? >> i think we are still looking into that. i don't think we knew about it until yesterday because the package was sitting in a warehouse until yesterday morning so we didn't have any knowledge of that. we thought that it was going through the process and that we were going to get results yesterday. secretary smith. >> the governor is right the package sat in the warehouse for 72 hours. i became aware of this at 8:00 last night and so that's why i have my general counsel going through to do any investigation to find out the timeline and find out what happened here to make sure that it doesn't happen again. >> i knew at 8:00 last night by e-mail that we had an issue. the other question may be you can answer, at least one county resident still received the e-mails. how do you know that you have briefed everybody. you talk about the responsibility and testing but it doesn't sound like it was you that had the problem. [inaudible] for the individual patients. >> i think it is too early. obviously ups is upsetting here to me and e-mail addresses but i think it is too early. he is starting to dig into this morning and will continue to dig into it today to find out and if there is, it wasn't paying attention here, we need to know and if something else, if somebody else wasn't paying attention, we need to know. so i think that it's too early. i met with the general counsel this morning before i came into the press conference and gave him his task of what he needs to do. >> looking at the state employee that sent the e-mail out -- >> i think it is too early but we need to look at a whole situation and timeline to figure out what happened here and dissect it and make sure that it doesn't happen again and if there are things that need to be done, we will. >> is that employees still suspended? >> i don't know who the employee is yet. literally we have tried to work through this late into the night and it started again early this morning. >> thank you very much. thank you. they mentioned in the e-mail that there were failures in the system. have those been identified yet, any changes if there wasn't a blind carbon copy on the e-mail? >> i don't have an answer to that. we are trying to assess the situation so i think that we do fall under the category that we will start to look into it to find out what went wrong to prevent it from happening in the future. i want to again offer my apologies to those that had their personal information sent out in that manner. they didn't do anything wrong. they were just trying to get a test done. we want to make sure that you do get tested and if you get to a testing site today, i make a commitment if you have a test done today we will let you know the results within 24 hours, just make sure you identify that you are one of the ones on that list and we will make sure that it happens even if i have to drive all of the samples myself to the health lab we will get it done in the next 24 hours. >> what would you say to them to try to convince them? >> it's like adding insult to injury. i can't justify it but we need to figure out how to get you a test and let us know how to make that happen because it is just as important today, probably more important than it was on friday so let us know what we can do to assist you to get to the test done and we will do everything in our power. we want to get you tested because we want to know whether you should be protecting yourself and your family and others, so this is important. >> hospitals telling patients that the turnaround is four to five days. what can be done and what is the average turnaround time right now? >> we have been working on this for quite some time. in the commercial operations particularly i think that there was maybe another one. we are trying to rectify that and i will let secretary smith answer that. >> we met the other day and one of the things that we talked about was trying to move away from those midwest labs under the gun in terms of turnaround time sometimes in the area you were talking about in getting the results. moving away from those and moving more towards other labs that are quicker for example we really do pay attention to the average turnaround time given the fact that some of these midwest labs are four to five days the average turnaround time is 2.4, but it ranges a lot between the department of health lab which is one day, dartmouth is two days and then rutland is one day, the regional medical center is one day. so, we keep tabs on these but we have been encouraging the hospital to move away from the labs in the midwest. >> i got an e-mail from someone who's had who said a picture fo0 for a test they got at the northwestern medical center for covid-19. >> should be free. if you know that person, send an e-mail and we will investigate that. >> okay. and the last testing question i spent about 15 minutes on the phone this morning with someone frustrated because he said it took three hours to get a test and the health department told him he wasn't able to sign up on the health registration for any of their tests so he ended up in urgent care and this question is how do we look at the testing for some people if it is very difficult to sign up and it takes three hours to finally get your test done? >> call 211. if they are having problems, call 211 or call the health department and they will assist in making sure that this person gets registered. we don't want anybody having difficulty in getting registered. >> he said he called the health department and they told him because he had an android phone he couldn't register so i just want to clarify people have access to these testing sites. >> they do, and i'm a little bit perplexed. i can help this individual if you would like, just give me a call. we have set up multiple ways you can register, obviously online is probably the easiest for most people but for this case it sounds like the individual is having a tough time so we do have other ways you can register. .. >> governor, different wayses, as you know, i know they are not out of the woods in their budget, from your perspective does that change the math at all, whether they of consolidate or cutback. >> no, because that is one time gift, they have serious challenges in terms of this being on going. in terms of the budget. one time money does not fix it. they will have to look for other ways to increase revenue. using means of bringing more students in, that is what they are losing out on. number of students, the income. the customer so to peak to their portfolio. or reduce. that is only way you get back in the black. they are in the red. >> fo further consolidation. >> i am supportive of any idea they might have, we will consider it to get them back in the black. because they can't go on-line this, vermont does not have resources to continue to provide bridge funding. >> great, thank you. >> john. >> john? john dylan? all right. is that you, john? we'll go to lisa. thank you arthank you for takin. a question pop up testing in schools. where clusters of cases are found. will there be contact tracing? "makin-- might make it more eff. >> thank you for the kuo questi, we try to keep testing outside of the schools, we do not want to introduce any covid cases within the schools, we try to keep them outside of the schools, we try to keep capabilities outside traveled areas that would have a lot of foot traffic that would not normally be there that is the reason for -- that is the answer to your question. >> thank you for that. then, a follow-up. readers in community reach out want to know if they could help as contract tracers. >> yes. there is a course to go through. but we -- you can reach out i will have somebody contact you, lisa. i would appreciate that. frankly. >> great. one final quick follow-up. is there supposed to be a update today? >> i can probably answer that. we talked about this friday. said we would give a weekly update, we'll give an update on friday. in terms of sports. >> thank you very much. >> stewart, nbc 5. >> hi there. there was a report out last night about majority of statess -- miscalculating unemployment benefits. is vermont impacted by this. >> i don't believe so. i will ask commissioner harrington to weigh in. >> thank you governor. thank you for that question. there are two parts in article that i saw that probably. the benefit, people or different states under paying benefits. a lot of that about what we're hearing from states, that individuals were getting the minimum amount of the program. able to validate iempe earned ie was. from the beginning of the program, we built in functionality, if someone up loads their tax information, this system will recalculate the benefits they are earning. so, some states because of backlog and delay in processing of some claims. have not caught up and made the adjustments, but our system was designed that way to make that adjustment based on what they report in earnings they calculate what their weekly benefit is. it will pay them minimum amount until they up lloyd th up load e communication, it -- documentation. other part of the article, was around data reporting. and at least for some time new we've been reporting our filing datdata to federal government, l states found themselves in issue of delayed reporting because the program started the recording mechanisms were not all in place, sounds from the article some states were having reporting puafiling data. but, we have been reporting that for some time now. >> okay. and a question for commissioner. regarding mobility. talked about this some points back. it is interesting how you know, that travel in and out of the down by specific percentages, can you -- is this through cell phone tracking? how do you know that? >> yes, a good question. again information is provided by third party providers, available through googles and others, we have a contract with an outfit called safe graph, providing this information free to governments and academic institutions during the pandemic, very useful information, you have to pow torrance -- power to analyze it and understand what is in there information is ag gated, not you know, not individual informati information. it we don't know who it is. we don't know where they are coming from in terms of street or house or town. then people agree to have their locations followed on whatever apps they might have on their phone from, that we can look at amount of traveling. that occurred whether someone spent a lot of time out of the office in one week, then that cell phone does not sho up showp in was next week. it is aggregated. >> and can you ballpark how many phones you are tracking to come up with numbers you gave us earlier. >> just, to clarify, certainly not tracking, it is sort of data that is provided by the third party provider. in many ways available to the public at large. but the amount of somewhere between 20 to 30% of people agreatohave the apps downloaded location tracked. that is a large percentage of cell phones, then you can do analysis to determine about how many people that represents. >> thank you. >> aaron? >> i kno understand that the, ae preliminary. during you know long weekend. but, what level or what degree of cases would make you consider reopening in some of the restrictions. >> tough to put a number on that. but, certainly of thanksgiving. and then determine from there. we'll continue to analyze the data again. good news at-this-point in time, but, time will tell. whether that will hold, we don't want to even if we say, if we level out. and we're leveled out at 80 cases a day or something. it was not increasing, that not a good place to start out on in anticipation of the next holiday, we have a lot of factors in making the decisions, i think it seems as though understood why it was important. and followed suit, i hope we continue to see a drop, so we can you know change some of the restrictions, so we can go back to some sort of normal. i am reluctant to say at-this-point, until we get there. >> thanksgiving affect your decision whether or not to keep gathering restriction in place for christmas. >> absolutely. >> all right, that's it, thank you. >> governor, right now that 72 deaths from individuals investor older, once the older population is vaccinated. when you continue your work, social gathering and educational and travel restrictions, if so, why, if risk to most threatened demographic has been greatly mitigated. >> you have a good point, we're hoping we can start to reduce the restrictions as time goes on, befor the more people get vaccinated. we have to have a vaccine. that has been ocked by the fade -- okayed by the fda, then a quantity of vaccines, that we can distribute wide enough so it has some effect. there are a lot of ifs, but same time, we would look at that. and hopefully, if we were able to, again dr. levine is more appropriate to answer this question, if we could get to the population that are in must vulnerable, then maybe some of the restrictions in long-term care facilities could be relaxed in some way. nothing could make me happier than that to give relief to those who are in those facilities. >> question, for you or the commissioner. seems as much concentration of policing authority as it is on modernization of policing methods. for example, new hiring. promotion system, in law enforcement agents statewide. police dispatch and data computer system. mandatory for all agencies, why does policing modernization also mean concentration of authorities of the system at state level? >> that is a question for the commissioner. >> good afternoon. thanks for the question, for highlights this important work. number of the things that you noted are areas where we have been in on going conversation with ladies and gentleme legisle details of that plan, much of the foundation goes back as far as in 2021, it will be 51 years of studies. that talk about best way to deliver safety services. but as important as studies we reached a point not only in environmenvermont, but nationala reporting and gathering, in certain kinds of high profile policies like use of force and body worn cameras, is not the way public expect things to funkfunction, 88 in vermont or 8 thousand across the country, there will be more uniformity in approach with key areas of operation. that one of the reasons that modernization strategy is in part frame with those components. >> thank you. >> you see that general public is actually requesting this? do you have any data on that? >> again we have literally 50 years of studies, 23 of them that talk about regionalizing services and combining effort, sasay that not way to run these kinds of operations. >> dr. kelso was there anything to add to the previous question? no, governor. a little bit, as we said. there is no one measure but our goal to get enough of the population back to pullback on some of the restrictions. also going to depend on what else is happening among those who are not vaccinated. whether we're seeing high rates. in hospitalizations, among the unvaccinated folks, but as we vaccinate more, we get closer and closer to easing up. >> thank you very much. >> next up, steve. >> hello, can you hear me? >> we can. >> i guess i had one for mike smith and co one for the govern, concerning the testing, mike, you inferred that the tests were somehow connected to people e-mails? is there no privacy involved? i thought that folks were given a number so that you know, their dna would not be like taken without a warrant. >> i don't know what happened in this case. we're still trying to figure out what went went wrong in this particular case. i don't have annswer for you, but something went wrong in this case. we need to fix i. >> so for majority of tests though,t is -- you can guarantee an -- anon i'm tie. >> for the majority of tests i feel comfortable, we'veave been tens thousands of tts, and never had a problem and this is a i a hoping this is an outloutlier, this is. >> yeah, okay. thank you. gornor, the folks that died last week, ages were 76, 81 and 94. and when all this is said and done, may over, hopefly next spring or whatever. will you planning on having memorial services for those lives who were tragically cut short at age 94 o 81? >> yeah, you know we don't want to forget that, i know we talked about this. where mary-kate brown lost her life her family reached out and said we wanted t make sure that everyone understood their mom was not just number. sheas a person that had a full life. and gave back to her community. we on the 19th, ayou know as evy month, we do lower the flags half-staff, to memorialize those we lost. and we'll continue to do that until this is over. then i think you are right. i want to make suree reflect on tho who we lost. and then focus again on those w saved. with some of the msures we've taken. but i don't want t forget about those who were impacted greatly. >>an't the same be said about every life, governor? for every death? >> well, i think this instance th the pandemic, a worldwide pandemic, when you have a quarter million lives lost. over a quart million, across the country, i think this again, every life is important but this is a pandemic where once in a haven'century, we have been in e of emergency since march. and hopefully we seeight at the end of the tunnel, at the same time, you think this sizes upo a certain level. withvery crises that we face. i'm not sure what you are getting at, steve, but i think this is a different case. i don't know how many pandemics you have been through. but this is first for me. >>hird in my lifetime, but, i mean would you support, in order for something like this to not happen again, we were warned when they started you know, doing these research. that something like this could get loose, might happen. with sars a ms w knew where came from within a relatively short time frame, with this we still don't seem to know. but, would you support, a letter, you know so they we don't support this research that could lead to stuff le this happening. >> i think that dr. levine talked about this a lot. and i thinkt is importantor us to pay attention to science. as we move forward some of these science based organizations, that we don't get in the same position we' in today. but he is the better one to answer thi but we will have to reflect on this as a country. as the world. and make sure that we don't have go through this again. it has crippledur economy, health and we need to do better. >> move on -- >-->> biggest wounds are self-ilicted. >> andrew. >> yes, good afternoon, thank you. my questions are about the alert. i am not sure if i suld wait for dr. levin to return. >> maybe give us a try. if not we'll defer to dr. levine wait for him to come back. maybee won't come back if you ask theuestion. >> i assume that you folks heard pastors concerns that alert may have been based on inaccurate information. i guess i'm looking for details, can you confirm that the alert was, and is accurat in providing the individual that have been tested in terms of when the tests was conducted and results came in, and compacted. >> i think that probably is a better question for dr. levin we feel confident in the approach we took in our reaction in the contact tracing. >> okay. certainly await his return. i have though, a question about expectations -- churches operating and guidance to follow, does anyone know whether the church was abiding by those exctations? and if found in this case or any other case, that church, is not following guidance, are there consequences. >> the religious svices are exempt from a lot of se of the reitrestriction we pit in put ii will ask maybe. if the can give us more information. >> i'll defer to dr. kelso maybe know about more physicall in particular. but, you are right weave a communication -- capacity no maximum cap on that. that is on the web site. i will defer to dr. kelso in termsf specifics for that. >> i don't have any information myself about what this church's preferences were. but i can reiterate when the governor saids we're confident in information that was obtained by the contact tracing. that prompted the alert they sent out. >> okay. i will reserve the opportunity to chat with dr. levine when he returns, thank you. >> avery. >> hello, have a question from a viewer sent t us. holiy signs, and caroling is a big thing, they were wondering about caroling, people inside their homes, elderly and whether it would be safe to do so to travel with filies staying 6 feet apart whi doing it. >> that would from my stand point, i might defer to others, but that would be you know, mixed in different families together. and congregating that would not be a good ide. but i'm not sure if there was a family who was singing outside of the home. from a distance away, that they were all part of one family, i'm not sure that woul would -- that wouldn't be okay. but, i might refer, i don't kn know. know. >> and i'll maybe rely on others to bail me out if i am wrong. i think that governor is right. if a multifamily carolg and remember. the thing is without a mask. singing is without a mask, and notay to protect one self, we saw a church in state of washington have have a -- infen rate from a cho practice, but iif y are a household, i don't see an iue with it, as long as you are outside, i would caution because of people so vulnerable at an age over 65, to just very cautious approaching someone that is in that age group. in terms of caroling. you know, single household, mask. you know all of those requirements you have, outside and at a great distance, i think we -- you should be okay. but remember who is inhe house as well. ay. >> and quick question. ther is a report that came out that said that some states are considering allowin allowing deo give out vaccine. that is something that vermont has discussed? >> not that i am aware of. we have a vaccine team. and we can gethat you answer, but, not that i know of at-this-point in time. >> thank you. >> ... [inaudibleonversations] i think that he had a stiy button last time. >> tom from the vermont standa standard tom? we will try joel lee. >> wondering if we have a problem. >> we will go back to joel from the chricle. we will just ask anyone that can get through to jump in with their questions. >> thi is greg. >> [inaudible] with the financial loss whether it be t state and their testing material and people taking time offork, have they tried to recer some of the expenses? >> again we are just assessing the situation in real time d will be callating all those questions you might have in regards to who, what, when, where and how and then come to someetermination. >> i don't have an answer to that question right at the moment but i expect i will have one i just don't have it rig now. >> people that were getting testing, people reschuling today i believe you said two and a hf days is the average to get results. what's to motivate the factor so they don't get retested. a. >> we will expedite their test. we will expedite the tests of those people that took their test on friday. we don't know in terms of why they are taking the test at thi point. >> auestion for theovernor. a question about people that wanted to travel you said did i unrstand correctly if somebody wants to travel to the state they dnot quarantine and then come here but they come here and theno their quarantine? >> that is my understanding because if you quarante in another state, we want to get you inside of the bubble. >> so for instance if the got in theirar and traveled here but they were still in a bubble where they shouldn't be getting it. if we start opening it up like that, someone flying in from fort lauderdale if they quarantine at home that doesn't give us a lot of comfort and if they quaraine in boston and drive up and stop manchester to get gas that doesn't give much comfort eher so from my standpoint, getting them here and then quarantine is the best policy. if tre's any others that want to weigh in if i got that wrong. >> ank you, governor. we actually do pert people to quarantine in their home for 14 days or seven days and get a test and wait in their home if they get a negative test in both ses [inaudible] i would support you, gernor the y things are the best policy would be to come to vermont and carry out their quarantine on but as long as they are making a direct trip t vermont in their vehicle. >> does th help? >> yes. that's what i thought it was. i was a little confused tha it was translating to sething different. i did have a couple follow-up questions but i don't know if there's others waiting to get on. >> i will ask one more there seems to be a common denominator they are operated by genesis. is it the operational policies to make sure if there is problem there? >> secretary smith? >> as you know, those facilitie are governed under the rules of cms which is the center for medicaid and medicare services. if those are inspected on a regular basis i don't know the specific facility you are talking about but cerinly we can find outhathe latest results were and i can have connor get back to you on that one. >> i was noticing the initial outbreak at least three operad by genesis so i didn't know if there was anything at the state level pele were looking at if there's a bigger issue here. >> not to my knowledge at this time. >> [inaudible] i have a question from a viewer awaiting the results at the center the testing was used to see if there was a correlation between covid-19 and wait water. they want to know where they could find the rults. >> i tnk those are being done locally unless someone can correct me. i'm wondering if they are doing the same on the local level so you might want to call your local administrat to get the results from that. >>and then my second question do you think thanksgivg guidance should haveone into effect earlier on? >> i think it was the appropriate time. we are seeing the results of lloween two or three weeks out so thanksgiving wasn't a problem, halloween was a problem and we tried to give everyone a fair warning and guidelines as to what we should be doing and not doing and then we had to take further action after we saw the outbreaks there so i don't think that wouldave done a lot of good putting those restrictions in place. this took us by surprise in some respects in the trajectory we found ourselves. is there athing you want to add to that? we talked about thanksgiving for weeks before and the data showed that canadian thanknksgiving gae fair warning as to wh might happen. >> thank you. >> i'm going to try to go through those folks one more time. joe with the chronicle. john dillon. joel [inaudie] tom with the vermont standard. >> i think that's everybody. is there anyone on the line at this point that has a question? >> i do have two follow-up qutions. >> go ahead. >> we hav more cases popping up and we hear they are not asking about social gatherings and others are essentially outsourcing and parents ask their students every day about the safety questions how much oversight does the department have to ensure that these questions are being asked every day and being answered honestly and properly? >> you may have to hit * six. >> we do have the doctor back at the house. go ahead. >> can you hear me, governor. i am not quite sure i think we have seen a pretty consistent number with implementing the guidance and it's the first day operationalizing that. we haven't been checking with stricts. i do have regular ctact with the superintendt and it's one aspect of the mitigation strategy i think we can say that they are working well so i think it is a little early but tt is the impac we are gathering a yesterday was the first. >> how about the district's assessing the questionnaires and hoping the parts are doing on day-to-day basis? >> parents are asked on behalf of studes. once again itequires everyone to do their bestor the commisoner we hav been a ttle lucky with all of the tests coucted so a total of twoositives and we will continue to monitor the situationo make sure. >> thank you. what is the earliest for healthcare workers [inaudible] every day are the other day close to the 20th of december. i don't want anybody to hang their head on that date and that would be enough doses for the portion of the workfce [inaudible] if anybody else had a question and wants to go. [inaudle] pretty upfront to tell him what happened the concerns were make se if they thought they were going to get a test rult in theail got a notification and tollow them to avail themselves the opportunities. because of the concern regarding confidential medical information beg available to others that in deed if i could piggyback onto the earlier comments he provided appropriately a number of apologies and that could b an overarching apology but we al feel there's aincere apology for both issues because of the way the e-mail went out. >> it's beyond our ctrol the goal is toet people know they were not gng to get a result and allow them to go where they could go to get tested again [inaudible] went on saturday and then go an e-mail. >> i guess i'm not understanding the question. >> if somne signed up to be tested friday and did not know and ended up getting an e-mail when in fact [inaudible] they were not processed by the labs, so those people have bn appropriately notified. >> one person said they got an e-ma that the test was destroyed. >> i would love for you to forward me that information. thank you. i am still here. i'm sure you are aware whether it was accurate or not. [inaudible] thank you. in my original comment today without being specific about why and when we send out communications we feel very comfortable because we had multiple peoplenteracting with the chuh and the community and we are well aware of the positive tests and we ar well awe of what didr did not exist regarding parishioners at a certain date and exactly what formation was not transmitted to the greater community ia timely fashion. so, all of those facto went into our desire to provide information to the pubc so that if they have bee happened e present at a time of risk they could take care of themselves and loved ones and do the right thing at the right time. plus it was an educational effort a wellt was critical and it need to be done in a timely way. a. >> there's nothing about the claim made that there was no positive test and the person in question two appropriately have contacon the date it was listed at the time because that would be a concern. >> to my knowledge the positive cases anno one in the general public at ts point just being in attennce for something more specific. >> are the any further considerations going on at this point and should thehurch still be holng service or are there operational things the department would like to see made? >> there's no reason for the church not to be holding services. we would like to see the church which details the fact? >>making sure there's people to connect with at a certain date for the contract tracing purposes people could be nnected with rapidly and efficiously as possible. >> okay. i appreciate and circle back. [inaudle] >> i have no idea. i don't have any questions at this point. thanks. i think you've covered it all.ce and the need for federal

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