PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island will move away from multiple vaccination and registration sites across communities to a state-run distribution system within weeks, according to the R.I. Department of Health.
The purpose is to simplify the distribution of vaccines for COVID-19 and inoculate Rhode Islanders faster.
“It’s time to speed it up,” said Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, speaking at a regular weekly briefing.
The state on Wednesday announced it was opening two state-run central locations for vaccination. Starting Monday, people who are 65 and older will be eligible to schedule appointments. People who are 75 and older are now eligible.
Alexander-Scott announced Thursday that more than 10,000 appointments have been scheduled for appointments over the next 10 days.
In coming weeks, more mass vaccination sites will be opened in other locations of the state. They will have the capacity to inoculate several hundred people per hour, she said.
In so doing, the state will consolidate its system of vaccination sites in individual towns and regional centers into five regional sites.
The state will also be consolidating the registration process, to one operated by the state.
Pharmacy-based vaccination programs will continue unchanged.
“Our two objectives are continuing to get faster, and simpler,” she said. “We are focused on that.”
Responding to reporter questions, she said that the state will not allow people who are not age-eligible to be vaccinated. The system now operates on a “self-attestation” process in which people enter their ages to get appointments.
In other news, Alexander-Scott announced that the state’s hospitals have been allowed to reduce their restrictions on visitation for patients to the least restrictive setting under the pandemic.
And long-term care and nursing homes also will be authorized to allow visitors, as long as no one in the facility has tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
Alexander-Scott said the state can do so because its data on COVID-19 has improved so dramatically since January.
Cases of COVID-19 in Rhode Island increased by 320 on Wednesday, with 15 more deaths, the R.I. Department of Health said Thursday.
Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients in the state totaled 180, a decline from 193 one day prior. Of those hospitalized, 32 were in an intensive care unit, an increase of two day to day, and 18 were on a ventilator, a decline of one day to day.
Cases in the state have totaled 122,859 to date, an increase of 419 day to day, accounting for both the day-to-day increase, as well as data revisions for previous days.
Deaths due to the virus in Rhode Island have totaled 2,367 to date.
There were 17,924 tests processed Wednesday, with an overall positive rate of 1.8%. When excluding both repeat positive and repeat negative results, the positive rate was 17.4%.
There have been 2.83 million tests processed in the state to date to 777,167 individuals.
The department said that there have been 119,284 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered to date, as well as 54,350 second doses.
