PROVIDENCE – Cases of COVID-19 in Rhode Island increased by 218 Monday to total 7,926, the R.I. Department of Health said Tuesday.
The state also had six more fatalities due to the virus, bringing the state total to 239.
The new deaths ranged in ages between their 50s and 90s, R.I. Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott said Tuesday. Five of them lived in nursing homes and the other lived in a congregate-living setting,” Alexander-Scott said.
Alexander-Scott said that the state needs to continue to be “very vigilant” with policies within nursing homes and hospital settings in order to limit the virus spread.
Current hospitalizations due to COVID-19 totaled 266, the same as the day before. Of those hospitalized, 84 were in the intensive care unit and 55 were on ventilators. To date, 466 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital.
The state conducted another 1,808 tests on Monday, bringing the total number of tests conducted in the state to 57,693.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said the hospitalizations and new cases numbers are “holding steady,” saying there hasn’t been much of a decline, but also not seeing inclines. She urged residents to continue following protocols of maintaining hygiene and to “continue to clamp down.”
“It’s clearly working and it’s clearly saving lives,” Raimondo said. “We’re learning how to deal with it and every day matters. We’re in a fight to bring our infection rate way down and, right now, we’re doing very well.”
Providence had the most positive test results for the virus of all municipalities at 2,348, followed by Pawtucket at 721, Cranston at 446, and North Providence at 409.
Raimondo also urged residents to stay focused on obeying the stay-at-home order and, if done, she’ll be able to lift it May 9. She said she does not want to go the route Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker took on Monday renewing the commonwealth’s respective stay-at-home order from May 4 until the middle of the month.
“That’s going to depend on the people of Rhode Island staying hunkered down for the next couple of weeks… obeying the stay-at-home order,” Raimondo said, adding that she’s seen a “little bit of an uptick” in mobility on the streets, which is “not what we want to see,” she said.
“Hang in there with us, and I hope – and I plan – on May 9 to make the announcement to lift the stay-at-home order. But I won’t do it if we’re not ready,” Raimondo said.
As a means to help eliminate red tape for patients, Raimondo signed a new executive order Monday to help relax regulations that could be burdening patients accessing care during the crisis. Effective until May 27, out-of-pocket prescription costs will not increase and current medicine patients are taking cannot be dropped from coverage by insurance companies.
Additionally, patients will not need referrals from primary care physicians for telehealth in order to go to a specialist. Raimondo is also asking insurance companies to be more lenient in their requirements with her order. Through May 27, all in-patient hospital and rehabilitation, long-term care and telemedicine in-network services cannot be suspended because a policy-holder doesn’t have prior authorization. No prior authorization for COVID-19 testing and treatment will be required.
“I don’t think at this time health care should be delayed because of a need to get prior authorization from a patients’ insurer,” Raimondo said. “Right now, we need to be in the business of providing health care and speeding the delivery of health care.”
This new order follows an earlier executive order Raimondo signed requiring insurance providers to help cover all telemedicine visits as they would cover in-office visits.
Health care workers will also be receiving additional assistance. Fall River-based Merrow Sewing Machine Co., run by Rhode Island residents Charlie and Owen Merrow, have provided the state with more than 3,000 medical protective gowns over the weekend. The state has since ordered approximately 500,000 additional gowns from Merrow, and Raimondo said the supply will last “for months to come.”
“I have said we’re literally scouring the earth for [personal protective equipment], and that’s true. But we’re also looking right here in our own backyard,” Raimondo said. “We needed every bit of [the gowns].”
Following up the state’s recent partnership with Salesforce.com Inc. to develop a platform to help health officials with contact tracing, or re-tracing a person’s steps after they’ve tested positive for the virus, Raimondo also announced Tuesday a new partnership with online survey company SurveyMonkey to contact all of the individuals within the contact-tracing system by text “several times a day” to see how virus patients are doing.
The information collected by SurveyMonkey will be sent to RIDOH on an “aggregate level,” Raimondo said, so the department will better understand the virus and what’s going on with it statewide.
“We need to understand who is sick,” Raimondo said. “How long are the symptoms lasting? What are their symptoms? How severe are their symptoms? When have people recovered? That’s where SurveyMonkey fits in.”
Raimondo also said the more data collected over time, the better the state can better predict a possible spike in cases within a particular population. She also reiterated that being contacted by SurveyMonkey is optional for virus patients, but encourages patients to opt-in.
“That data is going to be like gold to us who are trying to manage the crisis, especially after the economy reopens,” Raimondo said.
Regarding expiring driver’s licenses and registrations, Raimondo said there will be 90-day extensions on renewing such licenses and registrations if they were set to expire in May. Therefore, motorists who have expirations coming up next month can renew them by August. Raimondo also said the Cranston DMV location is open by appointment only and all other DMV offices are still closed to the public.
Regarding the status of other state and local government operations, Raimondo will share later this week “broader guidance” on how the state will handle the rest of government services.
Raimondo and Alexander-Scott’s Wednesday press conference will take place at 2:30 p.m.
This story has been updated to include information from the governors press conference.
