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State Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said people of all ages are vulnerable to the virus. Because of that, she said, it’s vital for people to maintain social distance, to not gather in groups of 10 or more, and for people with any symptoms to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Raimondo said she’s confident that the state’s testing capacity will expand by this time next week — a necessary precursor, she said, to allowing more businesses to reopen — but she said getting the necessary materials has been difficult.
“Every state is vying for the resources,” she said. “Frankly, most countries are vying for the same resources. It’s a challenge. Secondly, there are many pieces to this. You need the swabs to do the specimen collection, you need the PPE for the people to wear who are collecting the specimens, you need the specimen kits.”
State officials say more than 200 people are being tested a day. They are targeting more than 600 a day for next week.
In a letter, Raimondo asks top lawmakers to hold a meeting of the state Disaster Emergency Funding Board. Raimondo said the demands faced by state agencies because of the coronavirus would be too great without the borrowing of up to $300 million.
The Emergency Funding Board is composed of the House speaker, the Senate president and the Finance chairs of the House and Senate. It’s not clear if this board has ever met before.
Raimondo said the meeting is constitutional and does not violate separation of powers since the funding board is part of state law.
State GOP Chairwoman Sue Cienki said the entire legislature should vote on as important a matter as borrowing $300 million.
“To prevent our constitution from being violated, we are considering legal action to prevent the Disaster Emergency Funding Board from borrowing funds from any private sector entity without voter approval,” Cienki said in a statement. “A public health emergency doesn’t end our constitutional democracy.”
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, said the situation “raises two issues that we need to look at — whether it delegates too much legislative power to the executive, and whether it delegates too much power to the legislative leadership. Those are not easy questions to answer, especially because separation of powers is so new in Rhode Island and there is little case law.”
The public will not be able to attend the meeting, but will have access through other means.
“The governor is scheduled to speak and her staff will present the proposal to the board,” according to a legislative news release. “Due to restrictions on more than 10 people in a room to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there will be no access to the State Room, but public comments are welcome and can be emailed to relief-funding@rilegislature.gov.”
The release continues: “The meeting will be televised live on Capitol Television, which can be seen on Cox on Channels 15 and 61, in high definition on Cox Channel 1013, on Full Channel on Channel 15 and on Channel 34 by Verizon subscribers. It will also be live streamed at www.rilegislature.gov/CapTV.”
