COVID-19 update: Omicron surge persists; schools struggle with new testing regimen

Jan. 22, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

Just a few days into the new plan for Vermont public schools to shift to rapid testing to deal with COVID-19 cases among students and staff and schools are already running low or out of tests and voicing concern about their ability to restock to keep up with demand. 

As state officials work to procure more, Gov. Phil Scott has suggested diverting to schools some tests intended for the general public. Guidance to schools on how to manage also continues to shift, causing confusion throughout the system.

Meanwhile, data released this week by the Vermont Department of Health show a continued surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the state. 

The Health Department reported 1,766 new cases on Friday with 108 people hospitalized, 27 of whom are in intensive care. More than a dozen new deaths were added to the count of those attributed to the virus which now stands at 514 Vermonters. 

Locally, Waterbury saw 193 new cases of COVID-19 reported by the Health Department for the seven days ending Jan. 19, that was the second-highest weekly case count of the pandemic. The town’s total since March 2020 when the pandemic began now stands at 1,260. Just under 58% of those cases have been recorded since Dec. 23, 2021.

Other nearby communities last week also saw increases on an order much lower than Waterbury. The state reported 61 new cases in Stowe for a total of 752, and 32 new cases in Waitsfield which has a total of 268. The communities of the Harwood Unified Union School District together saw 252 new cases reported, the second-highest number in a single week of the pandemic. The highest was the previous week with 378. 

Rocky rollout for ‘Test at Home’ 

Multiple news outlets in the past several days have reported on the shortfall of home test kits in schools as they shift from the earlier “Test to Stay” policy to “Test at Home.” The earlier practice relied on identifying close contacts of a student or staff member who tested positive and then testing based on vaccination status with those testing negative allowed to continue to attend school. 

The new policy begun last week instructs schools to end time-consuming contact tracing. It also has ended support for weekly surveillance testing which until recently was a voluntary way for students and staff to regularly test to determine asymptomatic cases. 

“Test at Home” calls for schools to issue general guidance when an individual tests positive to entire classes alerting them that they could be a contact. It then relies on sending students home with tests to use to determine their status.

Although the guidance still emphasizes that anyone -- students or staff -- who is feeling sick and experiencing any symptoms should stay home, it does not require anyone testing at home to report their results to the schools. 

In just a few days this past week, it became clear that the less-specific methods will require many more rapid tests which have been in short supply since November as the fast-spreading Omicron variant became more pervasive. Pharmacies and other retailers have had difficulty stocking the tests and state distribution events before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays saw demand far exceed the supplies available to hand out. 

Test demand exceeds supply

In announcing the new school policy two weeks ago, state officials were asked about their confidence in supplies for the new effort. They did not say how many tests were in reserve but said they would be working to continue ordering more as cases and demand remains high. 

In practice, however, the strain became apparent quickly this week. On Thursday, the third school day of the week after a holiday, Montpelier-Roxbury Superintendent Libby Bonesteel posted a message on Twitter saying: “Day 2 of following through on antigen test distribution. We have run out of tests with only 3 pos cases & a handful of other exposures we're responsible for according to the guidance.”

News reports checking in with other districts around the state found similar stories. VTDigger reported on the shortages Thursday evening and the Times Argus filed this report Friday.

A check with the administration in the Harwood Unified Union School District found a similar situation. Superintendent Brigid Nease late Thursday said this week already had been difficult. 

“Tuesday was our first day implementing the new guidance. We determined at the end of that day we would run out of tests by Thursday morning,” she said. 

She said she immediately wrote to Education Secretary Dan French to explain the case counts and calculations for tests that would be needed. A state portal to place orders went live on Wednesday, Nease said, and an unexpected delivery arrived with about 1,200 tests on Thursday. 

That gave the district some cushion but, as the VTDigger report outlines in a chart, the new protocol will require dozens of home tests for every positive case identified. Nease confirmed those calculations. 

“We are averaging 5-8 positive cases among our seven campuses daily,” she said. “I anticipate needing 1200-1500 antigen tests each week until the spread settles down. Other districts are reporting the same estimates.”

Nease said that school officials are making their needs known to the state. “I was in state meetings all day today hearing about districts running out of tests. The success of the new model is dependent on supply and distribution from the state. In order for the new guidance to be accepted by parents and staff it needs to be reliable,” she said. “The panic of running out of tests nightly or every other day will do this program in, I'm afraid. … We need to have a sizable stock on hand that we replenish as we use them, not wait until we get close to running out.”

State officials say they are working to procure more tests. In an email Friday afternoon to the Times Argus, Agency of Education spokesman Ted Fisher said the agency is “working diligently” to get more tests for schools with more expected next week. “We are working to expedite delivery to any Supervisory Unions and School Districts … that are using tests more quickly than anticipated,” Fisher said.

Redirecting tests

One possible source of tests could be a pilot program Vermont participated in last week with the National Institutes of Health. Vermonters were able to order two free test kits online that were supplied through Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service. That effort was supposed to make 500,000 tests available in Vermont but the first round of ordering only used 350,000. The remainder of that supply was to be available soon for another round of ordering for the public. 

However in an announcement this week, Gov. Phil Scott urged Vermonters to take advantage of the new nationwide federal program that went live this week where households may place orders for four test kits. That program uses a simple online form at covidtetsts.gov with deliveries by the Post Office expected in 7-12 days. 

“Rapid at-home tests are a useful tool that will help us continue to move forward,” Scott said. “Vermont has worked hard to gain supply of these tests, and I appreciate President Biden’s recent efforts to do the same. The USPS website is up and running now, but federal supplies remain limited, so Vermonters should act fast.”

Anyone who does not have internet access to place an online order may contact the governor’s Constituent Services Office at 802-828-3333 for assistance.  “My team will help complete the online request form for you,” the governor said.

Now that the federal effort is in place, state officials are considering how best to use the remaining 150,000 tests from the NIH pilot program and schools could benefit.  

“As the state awaits the arrival of an additional 150,000 tests it ordered for the pilot program, it is reevaluating the best use of these tests – including potentially allocating them directly to schools, child care programs and long-term care facilities – now that the general public has access to the new federal program,” the governor’s press release explained.  

Uncertainty in the AOE fine print

Along with tackling the test-supply issue, the Agency of Education on Thursday also responded with more updates to the latest guidance to superintendents. The details further relax school requirements around what to do when individuals are exposed to COVID-19. 

The latest details were spelled out in an email to school administrators and they have since been added to the AOE school COVID guidance website where it’s presented in a Question-Answer format. One question-answer on the list addresses how schools should proceed should they not have enough tests to distribute: 

Q12: What should we do if our school runs low or doesn't have testing supplies?

If a school does not have enough test kits on hand to distribute to students who are presumptive contacts (school exposure), students should continue to come to school. Those who have been identified as close contacts (community exposure) or who are experiencing continuous exposure at home should follow the Health Department's quarantine guidance. Any student who has COVID-19 symptoms should stay home from school. However, schools should not prevent students from attending school based on whether or not they have tested, and it is not the school's responsibility to enforce compliance with Health Department guidance.

Nease said the new guidelines shift the responsibility for containing virus spread on families and staff rather than school nurses and administrators. “The goal is to have us stop record keeping, use a total trust model, and even if students refuse to test, they are permitted to come to school,” she said. “I am not sure how this approach will be accepted by our staff, students and parents.”

So far, staff and teachers are supportive of all of the efforts in motion to try to contain virus spread and keep schools open. 

Teacher Justina Boyden is president of the Harwood Union Education Association, the union representing teachers and staff in the school district. “We too are exceptionally worried,” about the shift in procedures and the impact it will have. 

“In all of our schools, we continue to follow the health and safety guidance to try to keep ourselves, our colleagues, and most importantly our students safe and healthy,” Boyden said in an email to Waterbury Roundabout. 

She described day-to-day steps to clean surfaces, keep windows open, maintain social distancing when possible, wash hands and continually remind students to wear their masks correctly. She praised the school nurses and administrators managing the COVID-19 response by working with students and families and navigating the frequently changing guidance, the latest of which she said “was met with frustration and disappointment.”

Those dealing with the response daily recognize the ongoing commitment it will require even without testing happening in schools, Boyden said, but the commitment in schools needs support. 

“We were told that we were to trust that our district and our schools would be given the tools that we would need to successfully mitigate the spread and continue to keep our students and staff safe and healthy,” she said. “We continue to do our part. Our administrative team is doing everything they can. We are left trusting that the Agency of Education and State of Vermont will follow through on its promise to support our schools.”

Weekly cases exceed previous months 

Going forward, it’s not clear yet the extent to which schools will be able to continue to track positive cases if testing is happening at home without any requirement to report results to school nurses. Since school reopened after the holiday break, weekly cases have topped what the schools experienced per month in the fall.

This week, the Harwood district issued daily email communications to families and staff with notifications of cases by school. They reported a total of 26 cases across all of the district’s schools except for Moretown Elementary which had none.

Brookside Primary School reported 7 cases; Waitsfield reported 3; Crossett Brook Middle School and Warren Elementary each had 2; Harwood Union Middle and High School had 5. For the first time this year, Fayston Elementary School saw a cluster of cases this week with 7 reported. Previously the school had had just one case in November and one on Jan. 7.