PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island’s top prosecutor announced Tuesday that he will quarantine for two weeks after a member of his household tested positive for the coronavirus.
Attorney General Peter Neronha will carry out his responsibilities remotely until he is able to return to the office on Dec. 22, according to an emailed statement from his office.
The household member, who was not named, tested positive on Monday, according to the statement.
Neronha will be tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday and the results will be made public, the statement said.
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FEDERAL CASES GO REMOTE
Trials in civil cases in federal court in Rhode Island will be conducted remotely for the time being in response to a rising spread of the coronavirus across the state, the court announced Tuesday.
“In the interests of the efficient and effective administration of justice in civil actions and as part of reasonable public health measures taken to assist with minimizing the spread of COVID-19 during this surge in the pandemic, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island will conduct all trials and all phases of trial from empanelment to deliberation in civil actions via the zoomgov.com platform until further notice,” the court said in a statement.
Trials conducted by Zoom have proven effective and efficient in other federal district courts, the statement said.
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HOSPITALIZATIONS SURGE
The number of people in Rhode Island’s hospitals with COVID-19 has reached another single-day high, the state Department of Health reported Tuesday.
The 444 patients in the hospital with the disease as of Sunday, the latest day for which the data were available, topped the previous record of 441, reached twice in the past week. Sixty of those were new admissions and 43 patients were in intensive care.
The department also reported about 982 new confirmed cases from the previous day and 22 deaths, bringing the number of fatalities to 1,470.
The new cases were out of nearly 10,500 tests, a daily positivity rate of about 9.4%.
The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Rhode Island has now risen over the past two weeks from 5.92% on Nov. 23 to 8.96% on Monday. State health departments are calculating positivity rate differently across the country, but for Rhode Island the AP calculates the rate by dividing new cases by test encounters using data from The COVID Tracking Project.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Rhode Island has risen over the past two weeks from 950 on Nov. 23 to more than 1,299 on Monday, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
__ SCHOOLS GO REMOTE
Rhode Island’s second-largest school district will move to all-remote learning for the rest of the year because “we are unable to staff our buildings safely any longer” during the current surge in coronavirus cases, according to a letter to parents.
Cranston Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse in the letter Monday said the district will begin virtual learning for its 11,000 students on Thursday.
“With the inability to consistently and predictably manage our staffing due to positive cases, quarantining, testing time requirements, and just general absenteeism, it is not fair to parents and staff to not know from one day to the next if we can open our schools,” the letter said.
Cranston students will learn from home through at least Jan. 4.
Newport Superintendent Colleen Burns Jermain also announced Monday that Pell Elementary, Thompson Middle School and Rogers High School will move to distance learning for the rest of the year because of COVID-19 cases, quarantining concerns and staffing issues, The Newport Daily News reported.
Gov. Gina Raimondo has resisted closing schools during the rise in cases, saying schools remain safe. But she gave high schools the option to move to virtual learning.
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