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Your Coronavirus Update – Today, Dec. 9, 2020
Photo: The National Vaccine Summit was held yesterday with experts from vaccine companies, shipping companies, and vaccine research providing a show and tell of where we are and the process ahead. Full video is on the RINewsToday Facebook page, at: https://www.facebook.com/RINewsTodaydotcom
RHODE ISLAND & VICNITY
The NEARI voted unanimously for Gov. Raimondo to close all RI school buildings by Friday, December 11 and for a statewide move to distance learning for all students through the end of the common calendar winter break on January 4. 1100 student cases, 80 teachers have already tested positive, statewide. Burrillville and East Providence will switch next week. Cranston starts tomorrow.
Dr. Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, a popular local and national spokesperson on the pandemic listed reasons why RI is where it is on the datasets on Twitter. Reasons included the size of the state, the amount of our testing, lots of college students, tight-knit families, dense population, poverty rates, cold weather moved us indoors, restaurants still open. See full article, here: https://rinewstoday.com/why-rhode-island-dr-ranney-takes-to-twitter/
Dr. Fine has been quoted as saying, “What [Rhode Island] is doing is simply not working.”
Dr. McDonald says we may be done with the pandemic by Memorial Day 2021.
The editorial board of the Boston Globe runs an editorial today saying, in summary, that dining out is “just not worth it”.
Connecticut has certified pharmacists to provide the vaccinations.
New Jersey reports that 74% of people called by the state’s contact tracers do not provide information.
RI AG Peter Neronha is quarantining for 14 days after being tested, with a household member testing positive.
Reports that the field hospital nurse/staff recruiters are offering two and three times hourly rates to RI nursing home staff to lure them to work for them – nursing hones are saying ‘foul’.
Local media have been interviewing patients who have been at the field hospitals and they have been complimentary to the care they have been given saying no one should be afraid to go there.
Civil trials in RI U.S. District Court will be conducted by Zoom until further notice,
Governor Raimondo’s call for help:
Rhode Island’s health care workers have been working around the clock to keep us safe from COVID-19. Health care workers are human beings – moms and dads and sons and daughters who have been at it for nine months without a break. They’re tired, they’re strained, and they need backup. Earlier this year, when we put out calls for substitute teachers and contact tracers, we had hundreds of people raise their hands in a matter of days. I’m asking all available health care workers to do the same.
Last week, the Department of Health again began issuing temporary licenses to retirees, visiting health care workers, and others who are completing their training programs. If you’re a retired health care worker, or a health care worker who is currently unemployed or not working in a health care setting, and you’re willing to work the floors in our hospitals and nursing homes to help us manage this surge, we need you. You can learn more about immediately available positions at SkillsforRI.com.
Even if you’re not a trained health care worker, it’s still all-hands-on-deck and we could use your help. If you have physical or mental health experience but can’t commit to full-time work in our hospitals or nursing homes, or if you don’t have health care experience but want to volunteer to assist our statewide response in other ways, please visit RIResponds.org to sign up as a response volunteer.
There’s a lot to do across our response, and we need as many hands as we can get. If you have the time, please consider being a part of this effort. Your support will make all the difference as we work together to reduce the strain on our health care system and save lives.
We’re all in this together. – Gina Raimondo, Governor
Lt. Governor Calls for Transparency in State’s CARES Act Spending, Urges Streamlined Distribution to Critical Areas Ahead of Deadline – Lt. Governor sent a letter to Governor Raimondo urging her administration to take a series of swift, transparent actions to ensure Rhode Island spends its $1.25B in CARES Act funds fully and equitably before the December 30, 2020 deadline.
The Lt. Governor’s letter outlines the following requests:
- Provide the public with a detailed, up-to-date accounting of Rhode Island’s $1.25B in CARES Act funds: Itemize how much has been appropriated to various programs and how much remains in each.
- Devise and share a plan to quickly reallocate unused CARES Act funds to critical areas such as rent and mortgage relief, food assistance, targeted aid for nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and additional support for small businesses and their employees. Streamline the distribution processes for remaining funds.
- Improve and simplify current small business grant programs to ensure funds are properly distributed before the CARES Act deadline: Extend the deadline for the Restore RI grant program to December 15, 2020 and allow all categories of small businesses to apply including dentists, chiropractors, optometrists and other excluded industries. Allow restaurants, bars, caterers, and food trucks to base their RI on Pause Grant calculations on gross receipts which is currently an option for all other qualified businesses.
“Rhode Islanders deserve to know the details,” said Lt. Governor Dan McKee. “To help build public trust and confidence in the CARES Act spending process, I urge the state to provide detailed, up-to-date accounting information and outline a plan for spending or reallocating any remaining funds before the December 30th deadline.”
The Lt. Governor also encouraged the Governor to consider engaging municipal officials, small businesses, civic leaders and community stakeholders in each of Rhode Island’s 39 cities and towns in a bottom-up strategy to increase buy-in from the public on the state’s COVID-19 rules and guidance. This week, the Lt. Governor’s Office will host the first in a series of grassroots community focus groups to gather ideas on new, tailored approaches to encourage the compliance needed to control the virus.
Massachusetts’ new guidelines will roll back to Phase 3, Step 1:
- Outdoor event venues limited to 50 (reduced from 100)
- Indoor and outdoor recreational businesses, gyms, health clubs, libraries, museums, retail, offices, worship locations, reduced to 40% from 50% capacity
- Outdoor venues limited to 25% capacity, no more than 50 people.
- Personal outdoor events of more than 25 people need to contact local board of health prior.
- People hosting more than 25 people outdoors will be required to notify their local board of health ahead of time
- Indoor theaters, performance venues, and indoor recreation businesses will close
- Restaurants – don’t remove masks unless eating/drinking; 6 people maximum at tables (down from 10); 90 minute limit; no musical performances; eat out ony with people in your own household; no food courts, buffets.
- Gyms and offices – wear masks at all times, including employees, unless at individual workspaces or when alone. Closing of break rooms.
Today’s Data: Dec. 8, 2020
Deaths: 22 (Deaths in-hospital: 9)
Total tests: 10,421 – Total positives: 982 – Percent positive: 9.4%
Hospitalized: 444 (New admissions: 60; discharges: 48)
ICU: 43 – Ventilated: 25
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
1 in 22 people in the US have tested positive.
Biden vowed today to give 100 million vaccinations and reopen most schools in his first 100 days, while repeating his promise to mandate face coverings on airplanes, in federal buildings and other places under the government’s control,
The way we organize our cities in terms of residences and offices, I think, has changed forever,” said Carlo Ratti, professor of urban technologies at MIT: no more rush hours, public transit demand will be far less, office configuration such as cubicles and open floor plans will be gone, makeshift office space in homes will give way to designated rooms with closed doors, online backgrounds, and sound proofing, big boom for restaurant and coffee shop meeting spots, but with areas for safe laptop use, and distanced seating, a love for curbside pickup and outdoor dining may stick, flex hours, portable healthcare, higher minimum wage, etc, etc…
President Trump’s attorney, Jenna Ellis, who was on the stage with Rudy Giuliani, tests positive.
In Indiana, staff who participated in carrying out executions have tested positive – as many as 8 with 5 scheduled to continue this work.
American Air is the first airline to offer at-home testing for all flights to U.S. destinations with COVID restrictions, thanks to our partnership with Let’s Get Checked.
Chinese vaccine says it is 89% effective.
25 million doses a week of the vaccine can be handled by CVS.
President-elect Biden’s COVID checklist: Get Americans to wear masks as a patriotic duty, vaccinate 50 million people and reopen the majority of schools by the end of April. He also said he wanted to vaccinate 100 million in 100 days.
17% of America’s restaurants have already permanently closed this year, with thousands more on the brink
Russia has begun mass immunizations but is warning recipients they must abstain from drinking alcohol for eight weeks for the inoculations to be effective. The head of Russia’s consumer safety agency, Anna Popova, said recipients should not drink for two weeks prior to getting the first of two doses. Alcohol should be avoided for the three weeks between the first and second dose, then for three weeks after the second dose, Popova said. “It’s a strain on the body. If we want to stay healthy and have a strong immune response, don’t drink alcohol,” she told the Moscow Times.