PROVIDENCE – Four types of businesses in Rhode Island will be required to check the vaccination status of customers, if they want to open to full capacity for unmasked patrons on Friday, according to the R.I. Commerce Corp.
The business types are: nightclubs; indoor venues featuring live performances; indoor hookah bars; and gyms that want to use saunas, according to Commerce RI spokesman Brian Hodge.
The four types of businesses were singled out for this documentation requirement because the R.I. Department of Health considers them more of a risk for infection among unmasked patrons, he said.
“RIDOH [has] identified these as dangerous transmission points,” Hodge said. That is not because of the number of people, per se, he added, but the way the virus is spread among people who are unmasked.
Nightclubs that want to go beyond 50% capacity have to require a proof of vaccination for unmasked patrons. If a person wants to enter without proof, but agrees to wear a mask, that’s up to the business, he said.
Proof of vaccine status can include the vaccination card a person received when they had their shots, a photocopy of it or a photo of it.
Venues featuring bands and other forms of live entertainment will be required to keep people at a 6-foot separation inside unless they check for proof of vaccination, Hodge said.
Indoor hookah bars and saunas cannot allow people to participate in that activity unless they show proof of vaccination.
State officials did not draw attention specifically to these requirements in the public forums held in the past several days, but on Thursday afternoon issued a written guideline. Responding to reporters questions, Gov. Daniel J. McKee has said several times the state will not require so-called “vaccine passports” that show proof of vaccination.
Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor on Thursday clarified the state’s position on checking the vaccination status of patrons, saying there is no specific form being required by the state, but that establishments can require a specific kind of proof.
Businesses, through associations, also have been asking questions. This week, Rhode Island Hospitality Association CEO and President Dale Venturini said she was getting a lot of questions from bars about what they were required to do.
In its guidance to its members, the association has told them they can ask for proof of vaccination from staff or customers. She couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the state’s Thursday announcement that nightclubs must now comply with.
The state is now calling the businesses affected by the latest guidance. “We’re speaking with folks today,” Hodge said.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
