PROVIDENCE – While the percentage of people in Rhode Island testing positive for COVID-19 is on the decline as the pandemic now enters its fourth month, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s concern about how the virus is impacting the nursing home and congregate-care settings remains high.
Raimondo’s update Tuesday comes as deaths in the Ocean State due to COVID-19 increased by 12 on Monday, while identified cases rose by 101, the R.I. Department of Health said.
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To date, cases of the virus in the state have totaled 15,112 and deaths due to the disease have totaled 732. R.I. Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott said the newly reported deaths ranged in age between a person in their 70s to their 90s.
The governor provided grim statistics as to how deadly the virus has been in nursing homes. Seventy-six percent of all COVID-19 deaths in Rhode Island, which is roughly 556 people, have occurred in nursing homes, Raimondo said. That percentage is higher than Massachusetts (62%) and Connecticut (57%).
The virus situations taking place in nursing homes across the U.S. is “tragic,” Raimondo said, and everyone has “all struggled to contain the virus and minimize its impact” inside nursing homes. Part of that, the governor said, is the nature of the virus on how it spreads “incredibly quickly” in congregate-care settings and how it’s “highly contagious and quite deadly” for senior residents.
Raimondo noted the measures that the state took to limit the virus spread, such as not allowing visitors and be one of the first states to test all nursing home employees, to prevent a situation that “could have become much worse.”
“I do recognize [the measures] have caused a great deal of emotional anguish and sadness for patients and their families,” Raimondo said. “But I still feel, even though it is a tough call, it was necessary.” She also said the state, while it’s doing all it can to address the situations inside nursing homes, needs and wants to do better.
There is a positive outlook regarding the pandemic as the daily percentage of positive-test results continues stay below 5%. Of the 2,608 tests the state conducted Monday for COVID-19 – bringing the state total to 159,560 – only 3.8% of those tests came back positive. The total positive-test rate in Rhode Island currently stands at 9.4%, which is more than a 2% decrease from a month ago. Alexander-Scott calls the lowering percentage a “encouraging sign.”
Raimondo also said Monday, the first day of the state’s Phase 2 reopening plan, went “smoothly.” She said state officials visited some stores and manufacturers and saw most people complying with mask-wearing, social distancing and there were “no issues to report.”
“Yesterday couldn’t have gone better from my perspective,” Raimondo said in offering her thanks to the community.
Most businesses Raimondo spoke with informed her that most employees will continue to work from home through the fall, she said.
Current hospitalizations due to COVID-19 totaled 188, a decline from 195 one day prior. Of those hospitalized, 48 were in intensive care units (a two-patient increase day to day) while 31 were on ventilators, an increase from 29 the day prior. There have been 1,302 COVID-19 discharges to date.
Alexander-Scott did acknowledge that, moving forward, it will be a challenge to determine if the state sees increased number of cases over the next few weeks as a result of more people being out normally during Phase 2 or from Saturday’s protest at the Statehouse – and from Monday’s violence that saw several businesses damaged in Providence. Alexander-Scott also said individuals who are out and about need to “play close attention” to themselves.
“If you have symptoms, get tested,” Alexander-Scott said. “We want to make sure that the ability to … decrease the risk of transmitting COVID, all of those opportunities are still there and will continue to promote that, and make it available for people.”
Raimondo said the state is assessing how to make “appropriate” protests safer, such as contact tracing, testing or passing out masks.
This story has been updated to include details from the governor’s press conference.
