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About 78% of eligible Vermonters ages 12 and older have received at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19 as of Saturday, Gov. Phil Scott said Tuesday, nearing his goal of 80% when he will drop the remaining pandemic-related restrictions.
More than 11,345 residents need to get a shot to reach the goal, officials said. If 1,000 Vermonters get vaccinated a day, the restrictions will be lifted on June 11 while if double that are vaccinated daily, the full reopening would happen Saturday, officials said, noting that the vaccination rate have slowed in recent days.
âWe re just days away from hitting our goal,â Scott said at his weekly virus briefing. âVermont continues to lead the nation but even after we hit 80%, we re not going to declare victory. We ll continue pushing forward because the better we do now, the better position we ll be (in) for the long term.â
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Vermont is expected to reach 80% of eligible residents vaccinated against COVID-19 in the next week to 10 days, prompting the governor to drop the remaining pandemic-related restrictions before July 4, state officials said Tuesday.
Gov. Phil Scott and state officials said they have been pleased with progress on vaccinations since the governor on Friday challenged the state to reach the 80% mark. As of Tuesday, 76.9% of Vermonters ages 12 and older had received at least one dose, state officials said, after discovering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had some duplicated numbers. That means another 17,250 residents need to start vaccines to hit the 80% target, they said.
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The Vermont Department of Labor stopped accepting new online applications for unemployment benefits last week after its system was receiving nearly 3,000 new claims a day, more than 90% of them fraudulent, Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said Monday.
The department on Friday said it would no longer accept online first-time claims for unemployment benefits. Residents were told to file their claims over the phone. The change dropped the number of new claims by about 90%.
âThe hardest part is that these fraudsters have a lot of data points on individualsâ identities,â Harrington said. âIt looks like a real person, it feels like a real person, but in the end itâs not.â
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The U.S. Department of Labor has directed Vermont to review the eligibility of thousands of Vermonters who received unemployment benefits over the last 13 months after the state deactivated some eligibility criteria to speed payments during the pandemic.
Jim Garner, acting administrator for the U.S. Labor Departmentâs Office of Unemployment Insurance, said in an April 1 letter that Vermontâs practice of paying people before establishing a personâs eligibility creates âa substantial compliance issueâ under federal law and the potential for significant overpayments. VTDigger first reported the story.
Vermontâs labor commissioner and congressional delegation have asked the federal government to reverse the order.