Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today is reporting Sunday 11 new cases of COVID-19 and 39 new cases since last Wednesday. There are now a total of 1,249 cases statewide. The number of deaths is holding at 56. There is one person hospitalized.

Vermont Business Magazine Starting Monday, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), allowed adult hospital inpatients to have one visitor and pediatric inpatients to have two.

Vermont Business Magazine Following guidance from the State of Vermont, Central Vermont Medical Center is scaling back some limitations on visitors to the hospital. CVMC and all other hospitals in the state began restricting visitation in March to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Vermont Business Magazine Ensuring the effectiveness of policies and media campaigns targeting young people is critical to achieving substance use prevention. However, standard state surveillance systems are often not nimble enough to capture quickly changing substance use trends, leaving decision makers without the latest data to guide state-level prevention efforts. New findings from a collaborative Vermont study, published July 20 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, highlight the study’s uniquely flexible survey instrument and use of incentives to capture the most relevant data and keep young Vermonters engaged.

Vermont Business Magazine Sugarbush Resort raised $20,000 for the Mad River Valley Community Fund (MRVCF) from its recent July 4^th fireworks celebration. The MRVCF is a local non-profit designed to assist local Mad River Valley residents and has been extremely involved in helping the community amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, helping 200 households with nearly $150,000 since March.

“We are grateful to Win and Sugarbush for this awesome donation, it will go a long way to replenishing the fund for future emergencies," said Ashley Woods, MRVCF Chair. "Thanks also to all the volunteers and folks who came out to enjoy the show!”

Vermont Business Magazine This is a weekly report of planned construction activities that will have traffic impacts on state highways, as provided by the Vermont Agency of Transportation.

Leonine Public Affairs The Vermont Legislature recessed late in the evening on Friday, June 26. They will reconvene on August 25 to start the process of developing and passing a budget for the remainder of FY21. The state is facing a revenue shortfall of well over $300 million between the General, Education and Transportation funds for FY21 which combined with the continued uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic creates a daunting task when lawmakers return.

Vermont Business Magazine Throughout the pandemic, the Rian Fried Center for Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems at Sterling College––home to the campus farm––has been busy, growing and expanding its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program while observing COVID-specific health and safety procedures.

Vermont Business Magazine Dealer.com has announced two major deals for its Website products. It has been selected as a premier partner in the FordDirect Advantage Digital Advertising Program and as a choice Honda website and digital advertising provider through the Honda Digital Customer Experience.

Vermont Business Magazine BioTek Instruments of Winooski announces the availability of variable bandwidth monochromators on their modular and versatile Synergy H1 Hybrid Multi-Mode Reader. This allows researchers to achieve even greater levels of assay sensitivity and specificity compared to fixed bandwidth systems.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Auditor of Accounts Doug Hoffer released this week the first part of series of audit reports on OneCare Vermont. OneCare is a collaboration of the University of Vermont Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock, the state and the federal government. The concept is to pay health care providers a lump sum to provide preventative care, which in the long run will save the entire health care system a lot of money.

There is a leap of faith, of course, that in paying OneCare, which is based in Colchester, upwards of $20 million, that it will both actually save the system more than it costs and that, importantly to the auditor, you can prove it.

Hoffer also questions whether benchmarks are set appropriately and wonders how outcomes can be measured against what appears to be dated quality goals. Several of the goals have already been reached.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger has issued the following statement: Like so much, since the pandemic began, Independence Day this year is very different and presents unique risks. This holiday weekend I urge Burlingtonians and our neighbors to stay vigilant in our efforts to keep the virus in check by minimizing exposure to the “Three Cs” — crowds, close contact settings, and closed in spaces.