→ See more of our coronavirus coverage, including community resources and personal stories.
(Updated 10 am, Monday April 6)
“We are in rapid spread,” Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said Sunday. “We’re climbing up the curve. We’re probably several weeks away from our peak.”
Seven of the eight deaths announced Sunday were among nursing home residents. Three of the people who died were residents of Golden Crest Nursing Centre in North Providence and two were residents of Oak Hill Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Pawtucket. Containing the virus has been a challenge for nursing homes, said Dr. James McDonald of the Rhode Island Department of Health.
“You just can’t move people from one nursing home to another,” McDonald said. “You don’t want to take the virus from one nursing home and plant it in another nursing home. And the other thing to keep in mind is, folks in a nursing home are medically fragile to begin with. And transporting someone has its own risks.”
McDonald said the state is looking into identifying nursing homes that would be willing to function as “specialty nursing homes,” a strategy being used in other states. He said people can transmit the virus for 10-20 days, beginning two days before they show symptoms, which has made this outbreak particularly difficult to control.
A total of 922 people have now tested positive for the coronavirus in Rhode Island, but Gov. Gina Raimondo said more widespread testing is needed to understand the full scope of the virus.
“922 is certainly not all of the people that have coronavirus,” Raimondo said Sunday. “As we ramp up our testing, I fully expect this week, next week, for that number to really shoot up.”
On Monday, Raimondo announced that free, rapid COVID-19 tests will be available to all Rhode Islanders at a new drive-through testing site at Twin River casino in Lincoln, RI. The tests — available by appointment— are being provided through a partnership with CVS Health. The new site is expected to be able to test about 1,000 people per day, doubling the state’s testing capacity to about 2,000 people per day,
In her Sunday briefing, Raimondo reiterated that testing is now available to anyone with symptoms, and specifically encouraged people who are uninsured or undocumented to get tested.
“Go to a community health center, go to the RI Free Clinic, go to Clinica Esperanza, or just call the Department of Health,” Raimondo said, emphasizing that National Guard troops operating testing sites are not immigration enforcement officers. “We want to make sure you get care. Now isn’t the time for people to be isolated or afraid.”
She encouraged people who’ve become uninsured after losing their jobs to apply for Medicaid, and said transportation is available to Medicaid recipients who have no other way of getting to a testing facility through the MTM website, or by calling 855-330-9131. As of April 3rd, over 90,000 filed for unemployment claims specifically related to the COVID-19 crisis, according to Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training.
Raimondo she’s still concerned about crowding at big box stores in the state. And she warned, stricter enforcement may be needed.
“If we don’t start complying and getting a whole lot more serious right now, then I’m going to have to shut everything down,” Raimondo warned, adding that she planned to drive to stores Sunday afternoon and disperse crowds herself, if necessary.
She also said the state is looking into ways to keep people from breaking quarantine orders. In response to a question about Kentucky using court orders to require people under quarantine to wear an ankle monitor, Raimondo said that’s something the state is considering. And she said the state is working to make it easier for people to stay home by expanding food and medication delivery.
