PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Gov. Gina Raimondo said Monday her goal is still to lift the state’s stay-at-home order on May 8 and the next day start a “slow and methodical and careful” economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democrat unveiled a website, reopeningri.com, that lays out a phased plan to get the state back to work.
But she stressed that the plan is flexible and everything is subject to change if there is a surge in new cases.
“If there’s another spike, we’re going to have to pull back,” the Democrat said at her daily news briefing.
The first phase of the plan includes allowing small social gatherings of no more than 10 people; some pilot openings of hairdressers, barbers and restaurants under distancing and safety guidelines; and the resumption of non-critical surgeries at hospitals.
The second phase includes more openings, with people continuing to work from home if possible, and the third phase includes larger social gatherings of up to 50 people, and the reopening of schools.
At each stage, moving onto the next phase would require a 14-day period of declines in news cases or hospitalizations from COVID-19, she said.
___
SEVEN MORE DEATHS
The state Department of Health on Monday reported seven new deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total number of fatalities from the disease to 233.
All seven lived in congregate-care facilities and three were in their 90s, agency Director Nicole Alexander-Scott said.
The state also reported 269 news cases, bringing the total to more than 7,700. There are 266 people currently in the hospital with the disease, 81 of whom are in intensive care, with 56 on ventilators, she said.
The number of new cases appears to have reached a plateau in the last few days, which Raimondo called encouraging.
___
VETERANS HOME CASES
Eleven more residents of the Rhode Island Veterans Home have tested positive for the coronavirus, but none are showing symptoms, state officials said Monday.
All residents at the state-run facility in Bristol were tested over the weekend after one showed symptoms of COVID-19 and tested positive Friday for the virus that causes the disease, according to David Levesque, spokesman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
There are now 12 cases at the home.
“The home’s leadership and staff have taken measures to isolate these residents and are currently notifying their family members,” he said in a written statement.
The results of some tests are pending. Testing of staff members continues; four staffers previously tested positive.
The home has 192 beds and currently has 180 residents, Levesque said.
___
REOPENING COLLEGES
Reopening college campuses this fall should be a “national priority” for the economy as the nation recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, the president of Brown University wrote.
Higher education employs about 3 million people and as recently as the 2017-18 school year accounted for more than $600 billion of spending into the national gross domestic product, Christina Paxson wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Sunday.
The loss of revenue if colleges do not reopen in the fall would be “catastrophic” and could force the closure of many institutions, she wrote.
Colleges and universities should develop public health plans now, including aggressive testing, contact tracing and changing how large events are handled, wrote Paxson, who has led the Ivy League institution in Providence since 2012.
Students should prepare for big changes to campus life, she said. They may be required to wear masks on campus, and even large lecture classes may still be held online.
“Imagine athletics events taking place in empty stadiums, recital halls with patrons spaced rows apart and virtual social activities replacing parties,” she wrote.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.