EAST PROVIDENCE – The new interim director of the R.I. Department of Health didn’t rule out accepting the job on a permanent basis when asked on Thursday, instead insisting that he wants to help Gov. Daniel J. McKee with the search process “and see where that brings us.”
In his first COVID-19 update held without Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott at his side serving as director of the R.I. Department of Health, McKee spoke on Thursday afternoon about the state’s ongoing response to the pandemic, with Dr. James McDonald stepping in to answer questions for the first time as interim director after serving as the department’s medical director and the chief administrative officer of the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline since 2012.
The press conference was held at Parkway Towers in East Providence, where McKee and his new interim health director passed out COVID-19 self-test kits to seniors who live there.
McDonald faced questions about whether he would be open to serving as the health department’s next permanent director, following the resignation of Alexander-Scott, who was first selected as the director of the department in March 2015 under former Gov. Gina M. Raimondo.
“Let me help the governor right now,” McDonald said. “Let me help in that search for a permanent person, and we’ll see where that brings us. I’m not trying to answer the question any way except honestly. Can I just leave it at that for today?”
The search for a new permanent director has not been given a time frame by McKee, but the governor is being advised by a team of seven local health care experts, including Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University.
During the press conference, McKee defended a $46,000-per-month consulting contract that he gave to Alexander-Scott for her to remain on board from March through May, after she plans to take February off while getting paid with compensatory time she earned during her time working for the state. McKee said he asked for her to stay on board in the director position permanently, but Alexander-Scott told him she had a “window of opportunity” to leave the role for other work. McKee said the consulting contract does not represent a buyout.
“It was a compensation that made sense. It was asked for,” McKee said. “We responded by saying we’d like to have you on as a consultant. … I believe there’s a value to have an outgoing director be in a situation that we can call on her if we need her. We settled on a spot that made sense for the state of Rhode Island and the taxpayers.”
McDonald spoke about the need to get more Rhode Islanders to take a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, noting that just over one-third of the state’s population has received a booster.
“What we really need people to focus on is to move away from the term ‘fully vaccinated,’ ” McDonald said. “You got primary series? Good for you. I really need our population to get boosted, not just to get through this season but to prepare for next year as well.”
While McKee called it “encouraging news” that the state’s positivity rate for COVID-19 has dropped by 48% from a week ago, now at 1,301 cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, his pandemic response team noted that the numbers are down partly because more people are now using self-test kits and are not self-reporting infections to the R.I. Department of Health.
“There’s no mandate for them to report,” said Marc R. Pappas, the senior adviser and chief COVID-19 administrator for the governor. “I know our numbers are a little low.”
McDonald said that, in any case, self-testing is an asset.
“Obviously, not everyone with a self-test is going to report to us,” McDonald said. “Our hospitals are still stressed. I prefer you’re not running around town positive with COVID.”
Rhode Island has been distributing 1 million at-home rapid tests in the past month, including 500,000 that the state announced it received on Thursday.
As for the indoor masking and proof of vaccination mandate that that remains in place at businesses and other venues throughout the state, recently reinstated to last through Feb. 14 after it was first enacted in mid-December, McKee said he’s going to be speaking to General Assembly leaders about it. McKee’s state of emergency powers are set to expire before he could unilaterally renew the indoor masking mandate.
“We’ll certainly be looking at that,” McKee said. “We’ll be talking to [the] Senate president and [House] speaker today about going forward, in terms of what we’re going to do with the emergency order.”
This comes as R.I. House Republicans announced on Thursday that they have submitted a joint resolution to enforce a 180-day limit on the governor’s executive powers, after they said McKee skirted state legislation by extending his emergency powers beyond the 180-day limit on Aug. 14 last year by simply declaring a new COVID-19 state of emergency without the approval of the General Assembly.
“Governor McKee continues to evade the General Assembly’s required authorization and oversight with illegal continuation emergency executive powers,” said Rep. David Place, R-Burrillville. “It is time for our General Assembly to step up to do our job – to either hold the governor accountable or endorse his actions, as required by law.”
McKee also spoke on Thursday about other state officials who are supporting the leadership transition at the health department, including Ana Novais, who on Thursday was named assistant secretary of the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, providing operational support to McDonald. Novais previously served as a deputy director in the health department. Ernie Almonte, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, and Chris Abhulime, McKee’s deputy chief of staff, were also named as part of a new leadership team supporting McDonald.
“We want to let the people know we’ve announced an experienced bench of leaders to support Dr. McDonald,” McKee said.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.
