HANOVER — A resident of Kendal at Hanover died this week after testing positive for COVID-19, according to a spokesman for the senior living community.
The resident, who had tested positive last month, also had other health conditions, Kendal spokesman Jeff Roosevelt said in an email.
An obituary in Friday’s Valley News said Betty Breunig, who had moved to Kendal in 1996, died of complications from COVID-19 on Tuesday at age 93.
The community, which is located off of Lyme Road, had no active cases as of Friday, Roosevelt said.
The outbreak at Kendal has included a total of four residents and seven workers, according to a Thursday update from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
Springfield, Vt., priest objects to vaccine SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Leaders of the Catholic church appear to be supportive of vaccination efforts, but a priest in Springfield told parishioners in a church news bulletin that he has moral concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines and that he would therefore not receive a shot.
In the “Pastor’s Corner” in the Jan. 31 bulletin, the Rev. Peter Williams of the Holy Family Parish, which includes St. Mary’s in Springfield and St. Joseph’s in Chester, Vt., wrote that his decision not to get vaccinated is due to concerns that testing of some of the COVID-19 vaccines used of cell lines derived from abortions performed decades ago.
“Now that the vaccines have been developed, tested and produced, Catholic bishops tell their flock that it is morally justifiable to receive the vaccines, but that we should make the pharmaceutical companies aware of our moral objections,” Williams wrote. “But as for me, I will not take a vaccine that has been developed, tested or produced at the cost of unborn lives.”
Through the parish secretary, Williams declined to discuss what he wrote to parishioners.
Both Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI have been vaccinated.
The official teaching of the Catholic Church and thus Bishop Christopher Coyne, the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, is that each person may follow their own conscience as to whether or not they choose to be vaccinated, said Ellen Kane, a spokeswoman for the diocese, in an email.
The Church makes a distinction between the “evil” of the abortion conducted decades ago versus the “protection of human life” that the vaccines can now provide, Kane said.
“Individuals may choose to be vaccinated or not to be vaccinated but one’s choice, including those of individual priests, is their choice,” Kane wrote.
Dartmouth College updates travel policy HANOVER — Dartmouth College students and employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 are no longer required to observe travel quarantine for 90 days after their isolation period ends, according to the college’s COVID-19 Task Force.
Undergraduates in this circumstance are now allowed to travel in New Hampshire and Vermont once they’ve recovered and are out of isolation, and others can travel throughout New England, according to a Friday update from the task force co-chairs Dr. Lisa Adams and Josh Keniston.
The same goes for members of the college community who are two weeks beyond their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The new guidelines apply to those living in New Hampshire. As of Friday, all non-essential travel to and from Vermont still requires quarantine.
NH vaccine registration changes LEBANON — New Hampshire residents who receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine starting on Sunday should expect to get an appointment card with a day and time for their second dose during their first shot, according to a Friday vaccine update from Dartmouth-Hitchcock.
Those New Hampshire residents who have already received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine need to schedule the appointment for their second dose through vams.cdc.gov, and use the same username and password used to schedule the first dose. The appointments will be visible only to those eligible for a second dose.
Meanwhile, Dartmouth-Hitchcock is submitting eligibility documentation to state officials for New Hampshire patients ages 16-64 with significant medical conditions that leave them more vulnerable to serious illness from COVID-19. The current phase of the rollout in New Hampshire includes the medically vulnerable as well as people who are 65 and older.
For those who qualify as medically vulnerable, D-H will automatically submit documentation to the state to confirm patients’ eligibility. Afterward, patients should expect an update in their myD-H account or via postal mail. Such patients should then expect an email from no-reply@envelope.mail.vams.cdc.gov with a scheduling link, or a phone call for those without an email address on file.
D-H patients who are New Hampshire residents and believe they meet the criteria for vaccination as a medically vulnerable patient, but have not been contacted by D-H, are asked to contact their provider.
COVID-19 cases affect schools WELLS RIVER — Due to five COVID-19 cases in people at the Blue Mountain Union School, the school moved to remote learning until February vacation, according to the superintendent.
Monday will be an in-service day to allow school staff to prepare for the switch to remote learning, said Orange East Supervisory Union Superintendent Emilie Knisley in a Thursday evening email to families. Students began learning remotely on Thursday after one case was identified on Wednesday. The decision to make the more long-term change came after school officials learned of more cases.
Athletics also have been canceled through at least Feb. 22, Knisley wrote. In-person learning at Blue Mountain is slated to resume on March 3. The Wells River school serves about 450 students in grades preK-12 from Wells River, as well as Groton, Vt., and Ryegate, Vt.
Elsewhere in the Upper Valley, a COVID-19 case in a person at Woodstock Union High School & Middle School discovered last weekend required two teachers and several students to quarantine due to potential exposure, said Sherry Sousa, Windsor Central Supervisory Union interim superintendent, in a Friday email.
The positive case did not affect the school’s learning model, she said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.