PROVIDENCE – Businesses and other indoor venues with a capacity of 250 people or more must require indoor masking among guests and employees in Rhode Island for at least 30 days starting on Dec. 20, Gov. Daniel J. McKee announced Wednesday.
For businesses with a capacity of less than 250, proof of vaccination or indoor masking will be required, according to McKee, who announced the new measures during a Statehouse press conference. After 30 days, McKee said, he will reevaluate whether to continue the indoor masking and proof-of-vaccination requirements.
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McKee also said offices in the public and private sector, as well as manufacturers and other businesses with indoor operations, must require indoor masking or proof of vaccination among employees.
“Now is a time to act,” McKee said. “It’s not a time to just sit and wait. We need to make sure we’re doing things in a way that’s collaborative and helps the people in the state of Rhode Island was we get through another hurdle in this pandemic.”
Asked how the indoor masking and vaccination requirements would be enforced and if violators would be fined, McKee said he wasn’t in favor of financial penalties. But he didn’t rule out other enforcement actions by the state.
“I’m not a big fan of penalties, but I’m also a big fan of following the procedures and protocols in place,” McKee said. “We’ll make a balance in that. I’m expecting that we’ll get pretty good buy-in. We’re not just going to sit back and do nothing. I expect we’ll get good cooperation from the people of Rhode Island and local businesses as well.”
McKee was encouraged to implement an indoor mask mandate recently by doctors from Lifespan Corp. who worry about a rising caseload overwhelming local emergency rooms that are already strained by staffing shortages.
The announcement was attended by leaders from the small-business community and the health care industry.
McKee also announced that the state will distribute 100,000 at-home COVID-19 test kits to Rhode Island residents over the next two weeks.
Prior to the announcement, McKee had pledged to roll out a “comprehensive” set of measures to address the continued COVID-19 crisis.
McKee said on Wednesday that more than 76% of Rhode Islanders completed primary vaccine series “and we’re not stopping there.”
When it comes to restaurants, R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said, capacity under these temporary regulations will be defined by the number of seats available in the business. But when it comes to catered events at private venues, the capacity will be determined by the number of invited guests.
Pryor said R.I. Commerce Corp. will produce a frequently-asked-questions document within the next few days to help restaurants and other facilities comply with the temporary regulations.
Asked about athletes being subject to indoor masking requirements in large-capacity venues, McKee said that college basketball players, professional athletes and actors in local theaters would not be subject to the indoor masking requirements.
“No, it’ll be the people who are there [in the audience],” McKee said. “Like at the [Providence Performing Arts Center], the entertainers are removed from the audience. The audience has the mask on. I don’t see that happening [with basketball players being required to wear masks during games].”
However, R.I. Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said younger athletes would be required to mask up. Alexander-Scott also said collegiate and pro athletes have to be vaccinated in order to not wear a mask while playing.
“For the collegiate and pro level, they have to be fully vaccinated and then would not have to wear a mask,” Alexander-Scott said. “All of the other wonderful athletes we have in the state, particularly knowing the younger our athletes or residents of Rhode Island [are at a higher risk] because there are fewer vaccinated, we want them vaccinated and masks during the athletic events.”
McKee could not provide any benchmarks or requirements for discontinuing the temporary indoor masking and proof of vaccination requirements come Jan. 20 when they are set to expire.
“The intention is that it’s temporary,” McKee said.
House Republicans in a statement said the new partial mask mandate imposes “unenforceable measures that infringe on the people of Rhode Island’s privacy. … Many thousands of Rhode Islanders will not show their employers their medical records, nor patronize businesses, if forced to don masks.”
(ADDS final paragraph with comment from House Republicans.)
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
“2 weeks to stop the spread”…heard that before. At some point, the public, particularly those fully vaccinated, with boosters, need to stand up and say “no” to these “feel good” measures that have proven to be ineffective at “stopping the spread”. Even complete isolation (ie Australian and New Zealand) did not “stop the spread”. Masking did not slow the spread in California when Texas and Florida had abandoned mask mandates. And then a flip/flop. What correlation was there then to those populations who wore a mask versus those who did not? Only effective tool has been vaccination. Rates are going up because of waning vaccination protection. But what group is getting seriously ill? The unvaccinated. Reward vaccination and getting boosters, don’t bring it down to be on par with the unvaccinated.
Covid hospital beds predominately occupied by the unvaccinated. Move the unvaccinated to a field hospital with minimum care and staffing and let the backlog build up there. Keep the “regular” hospital beds open to vaccinated only or those who medically are not able to get vaccinated. Enough is enough with the unvaccinated population….follow the lead of Colorado’s governor.
If there’s no metric to measure to end this mandate then what confidence should the public have in these “edicts” if you are saying there’s no metric to measure its effectiveness and therefore set a goal of when you will remove the edict?
Foolishness, yet again. We have learned nothing in effective response in 22 months
I think we have to do all that we can to continue to stop the spread of this insidious virus. When you think about the economic impact to individuals having to quarantine and what it does to businesses when people are out of work, combined with many consumers still staying home- the impact on our economy is significant. Remember civics class? Do you your part for the greater good.