PROVIDENCE – Gov. Gina M. Raimondo on May 9 will lift an executive order telling Rhode Islanders to stay at home, but on Thursday said people should still keep their social circles to five or fewer.
The intention is to get more residents back to work, she said, not to encourage large get-togethers.
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Rhode Island is in a position to enter Phase 1 of its business reopening, she said, including opening most nonessential retailers, although with capacity restrictions. The state in the past two weeks has had a rolling three-day pattern of declining statistics in areas such as hospitalizations and intensive care unit use, she said.
Her decision puts Rhode Island on a faster course to lift a stay-at-home order and reopen businesses. Both Massachusetts and Connecticut have stay-at-home orders that have recently been extended.
The state on Thursday reported 18 new deaths in the state related to COVID-19 and another 325 positive cases, bringing the latter total to 10,530.
The uptick in cases by 325 reflects aggressive testing by the state in at-risk communities, including staff and residents of nursing homes and more testing in urban, densely populated areas of the state which often are reporting high rates of infection, or more than 500 people per 100,000 residents.
“We are getting into those communities, which is exactly where we need to be with our testing,” Raimondo said.
On Thursday, Providence Mayor Jorge O. Elorza announced a new city drive-through and walk-up testing site next to the Rhode Island Free Clinic on Broad Street. Testing will be offered to anyone with symptoms who calls the clinic for an appointment, regardless of insurance.
The state recently started reporting infections by zip code on the R.I. Department of Health website. In addition to zip codes in and around Providence, more rural communities such as Richmond, Greenville and Burrillville now have elevated infection rates, according to the data.
The state has attributed 388 fatalities since March to the new coronavirus.
On Thursday, two of the fatalities were residents of the Rhode Island Veterans Home, a state-run nursing home and residential facility in Bristol that is home to more than 200 veterans. In total, 14 of the 18 deaths reported were residents of long-term care facilities, according to R.I. Department of Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott.
According to health statistics, 318 people in Rhode Island are hospitalized with the virus, a slight decline from Wednesday. Of those hospitalized, 82 are in intensive care units, four fewer than the previous day. Fifty-six people are on ventilators, a decline of four people from the prior day.
On a phone call with reporters following her televised briefing, Raimondo said she is keeping the social gathering limit to five people for at least two more weeks, she said, because mayors, in particular, have expressed concern that family parties and gatherings may get too big if the limit is increased to 10.
“We know that when people congregated over Passover and Easter, two weeks after that, we saw a spike in hospitalizations. We now when people get together in larger gatherings, we see a spike in hospitalizations,” Raimondo said.
This story has been updated to include details from the governor’s press conference.
