PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A public coronavirus vaccination program for a Rhode Island city among the hardest hit in the state started Wednesday, with the current mayor, mayor-elect and health chief getting inoculated.
Up to 300 first doses of the Moderna vaccine were being administered at several community locations in Central Falls, including two public housing buildings and a Knights of Columbus hall, city officials said. Vaccinations are by appointment.
Mayor James Diossa, who leaves office this weekend; Mayor-elect Maria Rivera; and Dr. Michael Fine, the city’s health policy adviser, were among those vaccinated.
Rivera said it is important to set an example.
“There are a lot of things being said right now about the vaccine,” Rivera said. “Hearing it from us and seeing us getting the vaccine, I am sure a lot of our residents who have questions will now think about getting vaccinated.”
A second round of vaccinations is scheduled to begin Saturday.
The city was chosen for the first public clinics for a simple reason: “We’ve been the hardest hit by this pandemic,” Diossa said.
Central Falls is 1.3 square miles with a population of about 20,000.
More than 3,200 residents have tested positive for the virus and the city’s positivity rate - 28% - is the highest in the state, according to state Department of Health statistics.
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SUSPENSIONS OVERTURNED
The Rhode Island Department of Education has ruled that the superintendent of North Kingstown schools could not bar two students from attending in-person classes because they went to school while their father awaited the results of a coronavirus test.
The siblings, one in high school and one in middle school, were suspended last month by their respective principals from attending in-person classes for the rest of the school year. The family appealed, and Superintendent Philip Auger reduced the suspension until Feb. 12.
The parents went to the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, which petitioned the Department of Education, which ruled in the family’s favor on Tuesday.
For privacy reasons, the family was not publicly identified.
State Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green, quoting Greek playwright Euripides, wrote in her decision that “it is time, and past time to discredit and repudiate the notion that the sins of the father should be visited upon hapless offspring.”
The father eventually tested positive, as did the children, who were then taken out of school immediately.
Auger said 44 other students had to be quarantined because the two students went to class sick and defended the suspensions.
“This was a flagrant disregard for the rules,” he told The Providence Journal.
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VIRUS BY THE NUMBERS
Rhode Island public health officials reported 17 new confirmed COVID-19 deaths and another 1,160 confirmed cases on Wednesday.
That pushes the state’s overall death toll to 1,777 and its caseload since the pandemic began to just under 88,000.
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