PROVIDENCE – Two weeks into the second phase of the state’s reopening of its economy, R.I. Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott on Monday announced plans to allow Rhode Islanders drive-up visits to nursing homes for Father’s Day.
She specified that not all facilities will be able to participate in visits on Father’s Day this weekend, depending on their layout, and requires people looking to make visits to call the facility beforehand and make an appointment. Visitors will have to stay in their car as the resident will be brought outside and kept several feet apart. Mask wearing and other health measures will also be required.
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Visits to nursing homes and assisted-living homes have prohibited since mid-March. Gov. Gina M. Raimondo urged residents to “exercise extreme caution” when visiting elders.
Raimondo also announced that in-person summer camps will resume on June 29, including some overnight camps, as well as an expansion to distance learning opportunities for public school students.
Raimondo said that she has heard from many camp operators who were concerned about the added price to follow all the health guidelines, including additional staff members, PPE items, and purchasing more cleaning supplies than usual. Camp operators will be able to apply for a portion of CARES-Act funds to purchase this equipment on the ReopeningRI.com website.
The SAIL program, Summer Academy for Integrated Learning, which is a “temporary program designed to enhance the educational opportunities to our students who suffered learning losses during the peak of Rhode Island’s COVID-19 health crisis,” according to R.I. Department of Education’s website. The program will have the potential to provide distance learning summer-long classes that are equivalent to a course credit, summer-long opportunities that are not equivalent to a course credit, weekly or bi-weekly workshops and/or boot camps, daily reoccurring programming experiences.
Raimondo said that these SAIL courses will be available for free to students.
Raimondo said that 150 inspectors went to restaurants across the state and came back with “excellent” results; bars were closed, masks were being worn, there weren’t salt and pepper shakers on tables and there were no self-service food products, such as salad bars. However, she said only 80% of restaurants had their COVID-19 Control plans ready for inspectors.
“What we did this weekend, will show up in the data in two weeks,” said the governor. “And I really hope that in two weeks, we don’t see a spike so we can move onto Phase III.”
Raimondo also addressed that beaches were almost at full capacity on Saturday, but none needed to be closed. Both Lincoln Woods in Lincoln and Colt State Park in Bristol, were forced to close due to capacity as park rangers had to ask congregations to disperse. In addition, the Block Island Ferry saw a number of issues this past weekend, including non-compliance of mask wearing requirements and capacity issues. An additional ferry was put on due to the crowding.
“We don’t want an outbreak on Block Island,” said Raimondo, who addressed the limited health care system on the Island.
Raimondo’s briefing comes as cases of COVID-19 in Rhode Island rose by 146 from June 12 through June 14 to total 16,093 to date, including by 32 cases on Sunday, according to the R.I. Department of Health Monday.
Sunday’s new case count of 32 is the lowest number of new cases in a single day in the state, according to the governor.
Deaths due to the virus increased by 18 since the state’s last COVID-19 briefing on June 12, now totaling 851.
On Sunday, total hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients was 127, a decline from 141 reported on June 12. Of those hospitalized, 21 were in intensive care units and 14 were on ventilators.
To date, 1,474 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital in Rhode Island.
There were 1,813 tests conducted Sunday, bringing the state total to 200,445.
Highest number of positive COVID-19 cases by city, in total:
- Providence has 5,479 positive cases
- Pawtucket has 1,520 positive cases
- Cranston has 939 positive cases
- Central Falls has 882 positive cases
- North Providence has 726 positive cases
- East Providence has 690 positive cases
- Woonsocket has 620 positive cases
- Warwick has 590 positive cases
- Johnston has 433 positive cases
- Cumberland has 282 positive cases
- West Warwick has 261 positive cases
- Smithfield has 257 positive cases
- North Kingstown has 234 positive cases
- Lincoln has 218 positive cases
- Coventry has 184 positive cases
- Bristol has 125 positive cases
- North Smithfield has 117 positive cases
- Burrillville has 98 positive cases
- South Kingstown has 93 positive cases
- Tiverton has 88 positive cases
- East Greenwich has 73 positive cases
This story has been updated to include details from the governor’s press conference.
