Free Press Staff

Two elderly patients who had tested positive for the new coronavirus died Thursday, the first Vermont deaths in the COVID-19 outbreak, Gov. Phil Scott said Thursday evening.

"While the exact cause of death will be determined by the state's medical examiner, the fact that they had tested positive for COVID-19 is going to be concerning to many Vermonters, so I thought it was important to address it tonight," Scott said.

The new coronavirus causes COVID-19 which first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China.

The Vermont Health Department gave details of the two patients in a news release:

"The first was a male resident of Windsor County, who had been hospitalized at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction. The second was a female resident of the Burlington Health and Rehab long-term care facility in Burlington. Both were over the age of 80."

“When COVID-19 first appeared in Vermont, we sincerely hoped the state would be spared such losses," Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine said. "Unfortunately, this new coronavirus can be very serious, especially for vulnerable Vermonters, such as people who live in closed settings like long-term care facilities,”

Growing number of coronavirus cases

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, the Health Department reported 22 people had tested positive for the coronavirus out of 667 tested. The state was monitoring 282 people, while 274 had completed monitoring.

More:Four infographics that show the spread of coronavirus in Vermont

A problem for hospitals across the U.S., according to a USA Today report published on March 18, is that hospitals are on the cusp of too many severely ill patients without enough ventilators to keep people with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure alive.

Levine declined to say whether the patients had been on ventilators prior to their death. He also demurred on the question of how many ventilators are available in the state of Vermont, and suggested that would question would be “more appropriate” for a news conference the following day.

"You can rest assured, if there’s a scenario we’re planning for it’s the worst case scenario," Levine said.

Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.

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