Your Coronavirus Update – Dec. 21, 2021

Photo: 401 Health is the Rhode Island app where you can store your vaccination status, track symptoms, if necessary, and get other information on COVID-19. This app is an update of the Crush COVID app, developed at the beginning of the COVID pandemic in RI.

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

Gov. McKee will hold a COVID press conference TODAY at 2pm – we will post a link on Facebook and Twitter.

Rhode Island announces 401Heath Mobile App – an update of the Crush COVID-RI app offers a convenient option for those who received a COVID-19 vaccination to access their verified record with the touch of a button. It’s now available wherever you get your apps on your smartphone. 401 Health can be used by businesses and organizations to verify vaccination records.

Legislators want to pause nursing home minimum staffing requirement legislation that was to take effect in January due to staffing shortages from COVID.

Lifespan’s Dr. Timothy Babineau said, in an op ed to the Providence Journal: “Many of our employees have left the workforce, unable to continue the fight against not only the disease but also against willful propagation of misinformation and the unwillingness of some to take the necessary steps to contain spread of the virus.”

Testing for the holidays: For those who are asymptomatic but are looking for a test before the holidays, the state is expanding access to rapid testing at six existing testing sites. (Previously, people who were asymptomatic received PCR tests at these sites.) Testing is also available for symptomatic people at these locations. Appointments are still needed for these rapid tests. These six sites are:

– Barrington Shopping Center

– Blackstone Valley Community Health

– Cranston Parkade Storefront

– Rhode Island Convention Center Ticket Booth

– Smithfield VFW

– Warwick Shopping Plaza

People must make appointments to be tested at these sites at portal.ri.gov. PCR tests will still be used for asymptomatic K-12 tests at these sites. To help the testing sites run smoothly, people are asked to arrive on time for their appointments. There are also testing available at many local community sites such as CVS stores, etc.

Chapel View Shopping Center in Cranston will remain open until the end of the year for vaccinations.

TODAY: Community based COVID-19 vaccination clinics will be held Tuesday, December 21 in Providence, Newport, Central Falls, and Westerly. In addition, the COVID-19 vaccine is available at state vaccination sites, in many healthcare providers’ offices and pharmacies throughout Rhode Island. To register, visit C19VaccineRI.org and click “Upcoming Community Vaccination Clinics.”

3:00pm-6:00pm Ebenezer Baptist Church 475 Cranston Street Providence J&J, Moderna, Pfizer (12+), Pfizer (5-11) 3:00pm-6:00pm Edward King House Senior Center 35 King Street Newport Pfizer (12+) & Moderna 11:00am-1:00pm Smith Hill CDC 400 Smith Street Providence J&J, Moderna, Pfizer (12+) 8:15am-10:45am The Learning Community 21 Lincoln Ave Central Falls Pfizer (5-11) 2:00pm-4:00pm Westerly Senior Center 39 State Street Westerly Pfizer (12+) 3:00pm-7:00pm South Side Elementary Charter School 135 Prairie Ave Providence Pfizer (5-11)

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu set out a plan to require vaccination proof for restaurants, fitness centers and other indoor venues. City employees will be required to be vaccinated. During the announcement, workers could be heard singing and chanting in opposition.

Brown & URI Men’s Basketball Game canceled due to COVID

5 Providence restaurants move to proof of vaccination: Owners of Bayberry Garden & Bayberry Beer Hall in Providence will now require proof of vaccination crediting bad experiences trying to ask and/or enforce mask wearing. The owners of East End, Dolores, and Nolan’s’ in Providence have also announced vaccination proof will be required.

The Newport Restaurant Group – 11 restaurants – has a policy of proof of vaccination or mask wearing.

RI House Republicans seek to “restore the rule of law and representative government” and called on their colleagues to “go on the record regarding the Governor’s willful disregard of this law we just passed to impose harmful mandates on our residents and businesses.” They say emergency powers cannot last more than 180 days and only the GA can extend them.

The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) announced today that starting January 15, 2022, paper fare products will no longer be accepted on buses. These products include monthly passes, day passes, seven-day passes, and 10-ride passes. Also, as of January 15, 2022, RIPTA will no longer be issuing transfers on buses and all trips will be exact change only. Cash payments will still be accepted on buses, but no change cards will be issued if it is not exact payment. The Wave system gives passengers the option of paying their bus fare with either a reloadable smart card or a new mobile app and is already being used by 40,000 RIPTA passengers.

2.1M COVID test kits are being delivered to 102 Massachusetts towns to be distributed to individuals below the poverty line.

Rhode Island is making an initial supply of 100K test kits available to test 10% of the population.

“Have Jobs Will Travel,” a program of the RI Manufacturers Association, involves transporting workers in an express commuter van to an employment destination, such as from Woonsocket to Quonset Point Commerce Park, where Toray is located.

Researchers at Brown University and RI Hospital have invented a new COVID test called “The Bubbler”, a glass tube with a mouthpiece that could be adapted for use by patients at hospitals, workers in offices and travelers in transportation hubs, ships and planes.

Harvard  is moving to remote operations for the first three weeks of January. 

Cape Cod Hospital beds are filled to capacity at this time.

Mass. College of Liberal Arts enrollment has fallen 35 percent in the last two years. 

Treasurer Seth Magaziner is proposing the following to address the emergency room staffing shortage: 

• Use federal stimulus funding to immediately boost compensation for nurses, CNAs, and techs in emergency room settings.
• Call up the National Guard to assist with administrative and technician functions, freeing up nurses to focus on the work only they can do. Ohio did this on Saturday.  
• Grant temporary reciprocity for healthcare workers with medical licenses in neighboring states.
• Temporarily suspend licensing requirements to allow certain trained medical professionals such as EMTs, paramedics, and retired nurses to assist in hospitals.
• Ensure all hospital employees have access to counseling services to help them cope with the burnout they are experiencing.

Rhode Island must prioritize building out the talent pipeline for care delivery by investing in training healthcare workers by increased support of the nursing programs at URI and RIC as well as more alternative workforce credentialing programs and high school CTE programs to train technicians and other healthcare workers, providing them with competitive compensation and student loan forgiveness to retain talent.

Massachusetts Dept. of Heath says unvaccinated residents are 5x more likely to become infected than those fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated residents 31x more likely to become infected than those fully vaccinated w/a booster. 

NATIONALLY & INTERNATIONALLY

President Biden was in close contact with aide who later tested positive for COVID.

The Delta variant is taking up 20% of ICU beds across the country.

CVS is running Twitter ads for their Minute Clinic services as opposed to going to the hospital emergency room for symptoms of COVID19.

The Omicron variant will take over in a few weeks.

Inside the NHL it is predicted that the season will be paused because of the spread of COVID among players and attendees.

Washington, DC has reinstituted its mask mandate.

Several state first night events have been canceled – LA is one – NYC is considering.

CDC now says Omicron is the most prevalent – over Delta variant – doubling every two days.

The National Hockey League put the Bruins’ season on hold Saturday as an outbreak of COVID-19 engulfed the team.

Queen Elizabeth will not gather with her family this year.

One cruise ship has 48 positive members on board.

Moderna says its ½ dose booster shot raises antibody levels 37-fold. They are looking at developing another booster specific to omicron. While half-dose shots are being used for most Moderna boosters, a full-dose third shot has been recommended for people with weakened immune systems. Pfizer’s testing likewise found its COVID-19 vaccine triggered a similarly big jump in omicron-fighting antibodies. The vaccines made by Pfizer and by Moderna, both made with mRNA technology, are used by many countries around the world to fight the coronavirus.

First Omicron death reported in Harris County, Texas

Testing lines are to be found throughout the US – at home test kits are hard to come by.

6 states have called in the National Guard to help at hospitals, testing sites, vaccination clinics, etc.

The pandemic has caused about 1% of the physician workforce to retire early. The remaining 99% have about ½ considering early retirement.

Mount Sinai Health System’s emergency departments are seeing about 20% more patients — with all conditions — in recent days, but so far they’re seeing more “treat-and-release” coronavirus patients than in earlier waves.

NYC’s Time Square celebration is up in the air – decision before Christmas will be made – at present it is an outdoors event with proof of vaccination. Last year it was essential workers.

National shortage of snow plow drivers – pay is so high for private work that they are not willing to work for cities/towns.

The Netherlands Becomes Latest European Country to Enter Full Lockdown

5 Hospitals in Ohio took ads out begging people to get fully (3) vaccinated: