As the state embarks on a cautious reopening of its economy, the nagging question on everyone’s mind is, “Are we ready?” As this week’s cover story shows, despite a mountain of data on the devastating human and economic toll COVID-19 has taken in Rhode Island, there is no definitive answer in the numbers.
The daily data suggest the health crisis is abating. But there is no certainty that the number of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths will not surge again once restrictions on business operations and crowd sizes are slowly eased as part of a phased reopening.
For some people, that lack of certainty is reason enough not to move forward yet. For many others, however, including Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, there’s another question the numbers can’t answer that’s part of the equation when measuring the risks associated with easing restrictions on some businesses: “Can we afford to wait?”
That’s because as terrible as the health crisis has been – with 370 fatalities as of May 6 – there’s also been a devastating economic toll.
More than 150,000 Rhode Islanders have filed for unemployment due to COVID-19. That’s a staggering number in a state of just over 1 million.
The vast majority of those employees worked at small businesses, long the backbone of the local economy and also the most vulnerable in an economic crisis.
Are there health risks to reopening the economy? Surely, but they must be balanced against the immeasurable pain of a local economy moving from a recession to perhaps depression, if too many businesses are lost or downsized while we wait.
