Dozens of Federal Emergency Management Agency medical first responders have been deployed to Vermont and New Hampshire in the wake of the COVID-19 surge impacting hospitals.

Last Friday, dozens of FEMA medical personnel were sent to our region to assist with the spike in COVID numbers. Vermont and New Hampshire were among six states that received the support.

And President Biden announced Tuesday that more would be coming to help bolster the response.

The UVM Medical Center’s intensive care unit is 84% full and they’ve received 20 first responders at the facility. This includes 10 EMTs and 10 paramedics.

The Vermont Department of Health reported 242 Covid-19 cases on Monday. Following a weekend of slightly lower case counts — 443 on Saturday, 463 on Sunday — the seven-day average has ticked down to 407 cases per day, compared with more than 470 cases per day two weeks ago.

But two holidays are coming in the next two weeks have officials concerned. Mike Pieciak, commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation, said Tuesday that the state forecast showed cases would either remain level or increase after Christmas and New Year’s, just as they did last year.

The Department of Health also confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant detected in Vermont on Saturday. The variant, which had previously been found in all neighboring states and provinces, is more contagious than the currently dominant Delta strain. 

Dozens of federal medical personnel have been deployed to Vermont to help alleviate hospital capacity issues caused by Covid-19, according to the White House.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a series of emergency measures to address the current coronavirus surge and prepare for the spread of the more contagious Omicron variant.

Among those measures is the deployment of “emergency response teams” to six states experiencing surges. Doctors, nurses and paramedics will immediately deploy to Vermont, according to a White House fact sheet, as well as New Hampshire, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin and Arizona.

As the Green Mountain State’s pandemic-strained hospitals and schools brace for another coronavirus surge driven by holiday gatherings and the Omicron variant, Gov. Phil Scott repeated an optimistic mantra at his weekly press conference: Vermont is as ready as it can be.

“We’re prepared,” he said Tuesday. “But I think it depends on the intensity of the storm.”

The state’s modeling team at the Department of Financial Regulation offered a grim assessment for the coming weeks. Vermont could see as many as 600 to 1,000 new cases a day, up from a current daily average of about 450.