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Your Coronavirus Update – Today, Oct. 31, 2020
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
MIAA Cancels Winter Sports Tournaments For 2020-2021 Season
Salem has canceled Halloween events, restricted capacity, limited parking and banned crowds and lines outside businesses.
In Billerica, MA, “A thoughtful examination of all recent cases reveals that the primary cause of spread within the community is small family gatherings,” – a trend being seen throughout the state.
Over 70% of Democrats say they are avoiding public places because of the coronavirus, with almost 40% of Republicans saying that.
The airline industry is promoting studies that suggest the risk of contracting the coronavirus while flying is low.
CDC has updated its death numbers of 220,000 deaths. 87,000 died from pneumonia/influenza; 17,000 chronic respiratory diseases; 26,000 respiratory distress syndrome, 44,000 hypertensive diseases; 23,000 heart diseases; 28,000 from cardiac arrest/heart failure – 131,000 had other major active diseases; 10,000 were already on hospice care. CARES Act gives hospitals a 20% bonus for cause of death being COVID19.
All nonessential services have been ordered to shut down in El Paso County, Texas in an effort to mitigate a worsening COVID-19 outbreak that has pushed the area’s hospitals to capacity.
Belgium is going back into lockdown to keep its health system from collapsing.
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are testing a new approach to fighting COVID-19, using a repurposed antiviral AIDS drug for at-home treatment during the first days of symptoms in hopes of slowing the virus early and heading off hospitalization, intensive care, and death. The nationwide clinical trial is being led by Nathan Shapiro, professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, along with investigators at Vanderbilt University and the University of Colorado. They are hoping to enroll 600 volunteers with early COVID-19 symptoms for the study to see whether daily doses of Kaletra, a widely used AIDS drug that combines the antiretrovirals lopinavir and ritonavir, can reduce the number of COVID-19 cases that become serious enough to require hospitalization. Read more, here: https://bit.ly/31YffQU
CDC now says 6% of deaths attributed to COVID19 were due to that cause of death, alone.
Eli Lilly and Regeneron are racing to produce antibodies against Covid. But even if they work as hoped, the companies won’t be able to make enough to satisfy demand.
No marathon in New York this Sunday, but there is a 50 Mile Run for Justice—to protest police brutality against Black people.
In a study to test grocery workers – among 104 workers at one Boston-area supermarket, 20% had positive viral assays for SARS-CoV-2, of whom three-quarters were asymptomatic.
Halloween celebrations have been officially banned in Naples, Italy, with the governor the region calling Halloween “an American idiocy imported to Italy!”
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
ACI has shut down to outside people coming in – starting with Intake Center. Reports of 11 prisoners and some Cos (correctional officers) testing positive. Guards wearing N95s and face shields. Request for comment from RIDOH has gone unanswered.
25% of Nathaniel Green school staff in Providence are out either sick or in quarantine (25 teachers and 6 staff) – they are using subs, staff from main Providence office, and doing a hybrid learning model
All Souls Day Mass will be celebrated at the Cathedral in Providence. You may participate virtually, here: https://bit.ly/3kKLBps
Some Diocese churches are continuing in-person masses while maintaining online streaming.
Quarantined are 75 Hope High School students who took the PSATs there last week.
Kent Courthouse has overcrowded hallways. Some judges not wearing masks.
Homeless Population: According to statistics provided by the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, 26 tests came back positive out of 469 people tested across 14 shelters in October, up to Friday. That testing is organized by the coalition in partnership with the Department of Health and includes 23 people experiencing homelessness and 3 staffers who work at shelters or outreach organizations. This is about 5.5% positivity.
Guns: Rhode Island has already more than doubled the number of background checks for guns since a decade ago.
RI Business with COVID19 Violations:
Fancy Lady Hair Salon, Broad St., Providence
Dollar General, Armistice Blvd, Pawtucket
Tio Pepe’s Cantina, Dexter St., Central Falls
Imajenes Hair Salon, Cranston St., Providence
Ayrox Barbershop and Beauty Salon, Cranston St., Providence
Governor on WPRO:
Small biz – i.e., hobby shop – where they don’t draw a paycheck – you would be eligible for RestoreRI initiative – just expanded the amount – made it easier to get money.
Nursing Homes with no 2nd shift – staffing shortage – Gov would restore 8-hour class for CNAs online – state would issue temporary 120-day license – this would help.
Nursing Home families – family members can waive liability, etc. to be with their relatives.
ACI Family visitation – plan to reinstate broader visitation, but not now, with outbreak.
Clark’s Christmas Tree Farm in Tiverton will not open in 2020 due to coronavirus
Eviction Process – not fair to landlord – can’t evict non-paying tenants, but landlords would go bankrupt – mediation process where state will pay rent, if agreement is adhered to and you agree not to evict. Also, program to guarantee rents for Section 8 recipients.
Extra money for small businesses – can you consider doing another round? Gov: Excellent idea…first time we were too complicated, and we missed the mark – second time simplified – considering round three – under consideration. New announcements for more help coming.
$1.2billion – how much is left? – $500 million left – Federal government HAS to change the Dec. 30th deadline. Also needs another stimulus amount.
Points to drug abuse, suicide, mental illness, domestic abuse, even car accidents all being impacted.
Governor’s Address:
Next Week the Governor will have another address with more restrictions expected – it is set for Thurs, 1pm
Data:
482 cases; 3.3% positivity; 6 Deaths (2 in 50s, 1 in 60s, 2 in 70s, 1 in 90s)
1st of 2 Rounds of Changes – some today, some next Thursday, possibly in concert with other Governors.
Governor says, “We have a chance to turn this around. If we have to use the overflow hospital it is about $50Million a month to run. But we can avoid it. I know we are sick of it. We can all save lives.”
Write down 10-15 people who absolutely have to be near – family, couple of co-workers, maybe a doctor, etc. and commit you are only going to see those people for the next couple of weeks. We have been averaging about 25, so we need to do the work.
Commit to wearing a mask all the time.
Only do essential activities – going out for dinner, etc. not essential
Have to keep kids in school.
Unstructured environments are the problem right now. Transmission happens when we’re comfortable and with people we know in small social situations. We’re doing well otherwise.
Effective immediately, social gathering goes from 15 to 10 – stable, consistent, closed circle – keeping it to 5 even better. – “The law is now 10” – shrink your social network for the next 2 weeks. And wear your mask. Last week the average party size was 23. If we hear through contact tracing that you were with more than 10 people we are going to fine everyone.
15 teachers went out to dinner together and now they are all in quarantine.
East Bay high school students – at least 20+ more there. From this one party, already identified 12 positive cases – at least 4 school districts impacted, could be 1,000 quarantined. RI has a whole team working this one case.
This is where spread is happening in RI:
Masks. Vital to wear masks. Restauranteurs: need to keep masks on when talking to server, and when not eating or drinking. Retailers: post mask wearing requirement and to actively remind customers that they need to wear a mask if they want to remain in the store. More aggressive to impose fines in future.
Sports. Effective immediately: No spectators at sporting events for 2 weeks – exception to very young kids.
Effective Monday: Closing all ice rinks and indoor sports facilities for 1 week.
Houses of Worship. Effective immediately: Asking all faith leaders, offer and strongly encourage virtual services. Coming up with new regulations next week. If you do go in person, go to the service, go right home afterwards. No chit-chatting. No coffee.
Most cases in 30-year-olds – probably asymptomatic. Most cases in hospitals – 60s+
Visitation. Effective immediately: Scaling back on nursing home visitation. Will do our best for exemptions in certain circumstances. We need to protect our older relatives. Stricter rules for nursing homes and hospitals.
Working from Home: Asked businesses to let people work from home. Allow people to do this now if you can.
Carpooling: You need to cut down on carpooling. It is not safe. It is an area of spread. If you have to, open windows, wear your masks.
$5 Million to assist businesses to allow employees to work from home.
Putting out another call for contact tracers.
Halloween: don’t go to a party or congregate. Stay home unless you have little kids. Little ones should go out for a short time and be home by dark.
Q&A
Q: How much, realistically, will the small change from 15 to 10 make?
A: It’s a signal that something bad is happening with the virus.
Q: You expect pushback against this?
A: I do. Bad options, all of them.
Q: Churches should move to virtual, but schools are still open. Carpooling is a problem, but school buses are not – ??
A: If you want to do these changes, with open windows and masks, that will not be a problem. Virtual school is a problem – harder time controlling it among kids at home, too.
Q: Elections happening – kibosh on parties – election parties – NO parties? What type of due process exists for those who want to test?
A: NO election parties. Honk and wave – but NO election parties. We are going to investigate, and it will be like any other civil violation – standard due process. Hearings, etc.
Q: Contact tracers are having trouble reaching people, etc. is this a risk that people won’t be honest with you?
A: It’s a risk, DBR, State Police, etc. we will be doing better surveillance. “If we show up at a house this weekend, and there are 11 people there, we will fine you.”
Q: Cracking down on social gatherings – CT is easing gatherings. Aren’t you encouraging interstate travel while also saying to lock down?
A: Facts are that it is going to hurt commerce and I don’t want to do that.
Q: Age breakout of hospitalized – 60sm 70s, 80s – why not restrict their activity instead of everyone else. Why aren’t restrictions or advisories being targeted to them and not the young people who aren’t getting sick?
A: That’s why we have these restrictions. They are in our world – gyms, stores, companies, etc.
Q: Key point is hospitalizations. Right?
A: Yes.
Q: Central Falls is over 10% – but another community is very, very low.
A: Yes, I’m looking at that. Going to spend the next few days talking to Baker and Lemont
Q: MA is showing less gatherings – transmission in own households – with who they live with.
A: MA is telling her they are seeing similar trends. Seeing household spread, but not just there, among those who live there. Enemy is familiarity.
Q: Phase 2 – ?
A: Not doing that. Commerce has to be supported. But I may have to go there.
Q: Pushback on hospitalization and field hospitals – we are still less than ½. While there was increase in 1st 2 weeks, it seems to have gone down now.
A: This is what the challenge is. Get your own statistician if you don’t believe me. We are on a path to double the hospitalizations every 2 weeks.
Q: Case #s and data around parties – do you have case #s for sports.
A: 1/3 of all cases in sports are related to hockey. 96 sports cases. 70% associated with baseball, football, hockey, soccer. Of the 96 cases, over 970 contacts that needed to be contacted. More so, a problem with contact tracing.
Q: Indoor sports – looking at test results, temp checks, etc. doing everything they can – a week from now, what will change? Why not do it now?
A: Much more we can do – getting contact info, etc.
Governor: no guarantee we will open up in a week for sports. A lot of travel and non-mask wearing, among adults’ sports participants, too (adult hockey).
Q: What’s message to high school parents’ spectators now?
A: New rules do not apply to college or professional league. Reason it is 2 weeks is that we want them to finish the season. Hopefully in 2 weeks they can go and watch the playoffs.
Q: Message to high school sports?
A: Priority of mine to let sports complete – kudos to RIIL.
Q: Much of what you’ve said is 2 weeks – what magic happens after that? You endorsed going outside and outside events. Do 10 or less now apply to outside events.
A: 10 is just social gatherings; not outside – unless if it is in your backyard. Pawtuxet Marketplace with 1,000 people there – right now, it is ok – remains intact. Weddings unimpacted. May change next week.
Q: Twin River unaffected? Rallies unaffected?
A: Twin River is ok. Political rallies would violate the rules. People have a first amendment right – we will be heavy handed; I’ll ask you not to do it – we’ll hand out masks.
Q: What do you tell people who share child placement?
A: Those are people you live with. Those are your family. They are on your list.
Q: Heat not on in school. Child all bundled up; windows open.
A: No good answers. Call the school. Learning when chilly is better option than shutting it down – put the heat on.
Q: Disparate treatment is confusing. Protests, for one. You’ve said the protests violate the rules, but you don’t want to be heavy-handed. What is your guidance to police, mayors, law enforcement, etc. who may not share your view? Is lack of buy-in on allowing protests could result in violence.
A: Gatherings of any kind over 10 people break the rules. What’s the right way to enforce that rule to get compliance? Escalating and heavy-handedness could increase violence. I am discouraging it. Figure out another way without congregating in big groups. If it does happen, we’ll ask you to go home, and we’ll give you a mask.
Q: Is Boston Consulting Group still working on this?
A: No.
We have a goal to keep people safe; to protect our hospitals; until we get to a vaccine.
Governor’s press release:
Today, I’m announcing the first round of changes we’re making to our guidance. Over the next few days, I’ll be talking with the other governors in the region, and I anticipate making additional announcements next Thursday.
We’ve spent the past few days looking extensively at the case data and analyzing every option available to us. Throughout that process, we’ve been guided by three principles:
1. Make targeted interventions where it matters. It’s critical that the steps we take are grounded in the science and data and that we have confidence they will be effective.
2. Protect jobs. Any new restrictions have potential impacts on the economy. It’s important to us that we are limiting economic impacts as much as possible while maximizing the public health impacts of our decision.
3. Protect education. We know that schools are not significant spreaders of COVID, and we also know how important it is that kids have the opportunity for in-person learning. Structured environments help prevent spread. Sending more kids home to learn virtually would just take kids out of structured environments and into unstructured environments, leading to more spread and more cases. So, we made sure our interventions would not threaten kids’ ability to get the best possible education.
Social Gatherings: Effective immediately, we’re reducing the social gathering limit from 15 to 10. This needs to be a stable, consistent group. Write down the names of the people you’re going to see socially. And even with those people, we have to wear a mask.
This is the limit for informal, unstructured, social gatherings. What’s not a social gathering? Offices, buses, schools, and other controlled settings with assigned seating and other public health measures in place. We know that spread is happening in these casual, social settings and is not happening in larger but more structured environments.
To anyone who does have big parties, we’ll shut you down, and we’ll fine you up to $500 for every person there. It’s not worth it. For the next few weeks, let’s avoid social events and only see the people that we need to see.
Sports: Another area where we’re letting our guard down and getting too close is at sporting events. Effective immediately, we can no longer allow spectators at sporting events. The only exception is for players 10 and younger, who can have one parent or guardian with them while they play.
We’re also seeing spread at indoor sports facilities, like ice rinks and indoor soccer stadiums. So, effective on Monday, we’ll be closing all ice rinks and indoor sports facilities for one week. This will allow us to work with the facilities and develop new guidance around masking, testing, contact tracing, and other health protocols.
Houses of Worship: Another area where we’re seeing spread is in houses of worship. If any faith leaders are no longer offering virtual services, we’re asking them to bring that back, and proactively encourage your congregants to use that option for the next few weeks. I want to be able to hold in-person services over the holidays, but that will be dangerous unless we make a real commitment to worshipping virtually for the next few weeks.
Visitation: Our increase in hospitalizations is driven by 60, 70, and 80-year olds. For that reason, we’ll be working with our nursing homes and hospitals over the next few days to scale back on visitation. Except for certain circumstances, we want people to refrain from visiting your loved ones for just a couple of weeks. I know this is painful, and I know how much our older relatives rely on these visits. But if we don’t do this now, we’ll have no choice but to do it for a much longer period in a few weeks, and in that time, we’ll have lost more Rhode Islanders to this virus.
Tips for a Safer Halloween – from RIDOH:
I couldn’t have said it better, and I’m 83
A bit confusing. First, write down 10-15 people you have to have contact with and further down, it’s limited to 10. Which is it? It doesn’t bother me – I don’t let anyone in but it raises the question many people are griping about.
I do take issue with the question about limiting the activity of 60, 70, and 80-year-olds. We’re not the ones who are spreading COVID. I’m 72 – I’m not the one who is hanging out in bars, on a street corner, or having any parties. We’re the vulnerable ones. We go out only when we have to. I go to the market, to a doctor’s appointment unless it’s a wellness check which is done by phone. We try to avoid the younger ones, get into the market or store, and get out ASAP. I live in a duplex – I tape my rent to the landlord’s door so there is no contact. I haven’t had a haircut since January – I look like a left-over from the 60s, only now my hair is gray.
My sons are in their 40s, not married, and live within a mile of me. I haven’t seen either one since February. Both work with the public in essential jobs (Gina has never once mentioned that a utility worker is essential – my youngest walked off a job since the house he was doing an install on, the owner was all over him, trying to see what he was doing). This is what they have been told to do. He wears all his protective equipment yet the owner didn’t bother to put on a mask. My son told him twice to back off or he’d leave. Finally, my son left him with cables hanging and no tv or internet.
So we “oldsters” are to blame? We’re the ones who end up in the hospital or nursing home yet we’re the ones who are following the rules. I come home, I wash my hands and my face. In summer, wearing short sleeves, I also wash my arms. I wipe off the steering wheel, door handles or anything I’ve touched when I have to go out. I wash my masks in hot water & soap every single time. I leave my shoes by the door when I come in and put on slippers.
Time to lay blame where it’s due.
Since when do sports get a pass? My kids played sports at CLCF. Sports in middle school weren’t a thing – they had intramurals (as did I) about once a week. Sports seem to have overtaken education. My dad was a teacher – education is our most valuable tool. I don’t mind paying taxes for education but have a real problem with city-sponsored sports before high school.
Despite what our younger people think, they are the problem. We know how to protest – we’ve done it and nobody got hurt. We weren’t shooting people – if you had a beef, someone got a punch in the nose.
So call me a boomer or Karen (that one didn’t last long) but I’ve been there, done that and yes, I brought up my kids alone, worked, owned my home, struggled and no ”help” from any system. I paid a sitter when the kids were small. No daycare would take a child until they were 3. I packed their lunches, came home, cooked their supper, washed their clothes, sat for homework, and didn’t whine and expect to feel like I was “owed” anything.
Getting very tired of donating, being hit up for something. They can work after school at 14 as my kids did. Adults can get a job. Gina promotes Infosys while Amtrol has had a sign up forever, Electric Boat is hiring and training with good pay and benefits. Why isn’t that mentioned?
Church services – turn on the TV on Sunday. There’s plenty of church services and, under the circumstances, I think God or whatever your belief is, He’ll understand.
I’m tired and disgusted. Wear your mask – it will not only help you with COVID but the flu. Put the blame where it belongs.