PROVIDENCE – Two more people in Rhode Island have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, bringing the state’s total cases to five.
Health officials on Tuesday said the latest presumptive positive tests were done on a woman in her 50s who recently traveled to Egypt and a woman in her 30s who is a health care worker at Rhode Island Hospital. The source of the younger woman’s infection is not yet known, according to the R.I. Department of Health, which is investigating the case.
Both women are recovering at home.
The cases are considered presumptive positives until they are confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On March 6, a woman in her 60s tested positive for COVID-19, and two other people, a man in his 40s and a teenage girl, tested positive after returning from a mid-February trip to Italy that was organized by Saint Raphael Academy in Pawtucket.
The man remains hospitalized in stable condition, RIDOH said on Monday.
The woman in her 60s, an employee of Smithfield Avenue Nursery School in Pawtucket, was in direct contact in February with a person in New York who tested positive for COVID-19.
Twenty-four tests are now pending at the state’s health laboratory, up from 12 on Monday.
Fifty-eight people have tested negative, and 270 are in self-quarantine.
Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency on Tuesday afternoon as cases there reached 92.
In Connecticut, where two cases are reported, Gov. Ned Lamont declared a state of emergency, and New York officials have enacted a containment area around New Rochelle, a New York City suburb that’s been hard-hit by the virus.
Also on Tuesday, two Rhode Island-based businesses reported that a number of employees came into contact with infected people.
Citizens Bank says a contractor who was conducting training at its Johnston campus from Feb. 24 through March 3 tested positive for COVID-19. The bank did not release details on where the contractor lives, or how many employees the person came into contact with, but did say exposed employees are in self-quarantine.
CVS Health confirmed that an employee who works in the company’s Lincoln office tested positive for COVID-19.
Lifespan continues to restrict visitation, barring visitors to adult units at Rhode Island Hospital, The Miriam Hospital and Newport Hospital. One person is allowed to accompany emergency room patients, and one parent may stay with patients at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and Bradley Hospital.
Mothers giving birth are allowed one partner at Newport Hospital.
Nationwide, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued an order on Tuesday to hospitals to screen all emergency department arrivals, whether walk-in or ambulance.
State officials are continuing to double down on nursing home visitation as well, urging nursing homes to restrict residents’ outings to medical appointments only and screening visitors for signs of illness.
ADDS third paragraph to note infected women are home.
