PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Department of Health announced on Thursday that it’s proposing new regulations that would allow health care workers who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 to go to work, so long as they wear an N95 mask when transmission rates in Rhode Island are “substantial,” meaning 50 cases or more per 100,000 people in the state per week.
And employees who are fully vaccinated would be able to work without a mask, according to the newly proposed regulations.
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The regulations, however, don’t state that health care facilities can’t require their employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
The new proposed regulations would also change the definition of “up-to-date” for COVID-19 vaccinations, to apply to employees who have received their COVID-19 booster shots when they’re eligible for them, in alignment with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“In accordance with the guidelines set forth … with respect to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination, a health care worker shall: Be up to date with all CDC recommended doses of (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) approved or authorized COVID-19 vaccine … or wear a medical grade N95 mask at each health care facility where he or she is employed or volunteering … during a period in which the COVID-19 prevalence rate in the State is greater than or equal to 50 cases per 100,000 people per week, as reported by the (RIDOH),” according to the text of the newly proposed regulations.
The new regulations are now up for public comment through March 25, and would take effect several weeks after that, according to RIDOH spokesperson Joseph Wendelken.
The new “proposed permanent regulations” would replace the emergency COVID-19 vaccine mandate that was first promulgated on Aug. 17 last year, the health department said.
Wendelken said that as a result of the emergency regulations, roughly 94% of Rhode Island’s healthcare workforce is now vaccinated.
“Our vaccination rate increased by more than 10% in September, after RIDOH promulgated the emergency regulation,” Wendelken said. “This was incredibly important to patient and resident safety, given that months later we were seeing individual days with 5,000 and 6,000 new cases.”
The new proposed health care worker regulations come after Gov. Daniel J. McKee and RIDOH Interim Director Dr. James McDonald recently said the state is shifting from a pandemic stage of managing COVID-19 to an “endemic” phase, as a result of the wide available of vaccines, testing and treatments for the disease.
“As Governor McKee and Dr. McDonald shared yesterday, serious illness from COVID-19 is now becoming a preventable, treatable disease,” Wendelken said in an announcement of the proposed update to the state’s health care vaccine regulations. “We have the systems and tools in place to manage COVID-19 like we do other endemic diseases. The proposed regulation would continue to mitigate risk for the healthcare worker and help keep patients and residents safe.”
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @LaRockPBN.
