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Your Coronavirus Update – Today, May 19, 2020
(Photo: Scientist, Moderna, Cambridge, MA)
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
Moderna, in Cambridge, MA has positive news about their vaccine, which also sent the stock market higher in confidence a vaccine is soon to be discovered.
Texas schools will be allowed to open for summer classes
Crane Beach in Ipswich, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Naumkeag in Stockbridge, and World’s End in Hingham, will all open on May 19
Disney in Florida begins to open slowly over the next two weeks. Temperature taking and health screening will be in place.
A high tech group has evaluated each states’s readiness to test and trace: these states were deemed “ready”: Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Vermont.
Virginia Beach will be opening in time for holiday weekend
70 cases of COVID-19 at French schools days after re-opening
130,000 autoworkers return to factories
Notre Dame will begin their fall semester in August, skip fall break, and end before Thanksgiving
Disease trackers are calling a choir practice in Washington state a superspreader event; one individual present felt ill, not knowing what they had, and ended up infecting 52 other people
Uber lays off 3,000 more drivers
The WHO continues their annual meeting – the US has given the group 30 days to come up with a plan or it will make its temporary freeze, permanent.
Every state in the US, except CT has partially opened – CT is expected to open after its stay at home order expires on Wednesday.
20% of shoppers switched from their original grocery stores, looking for proximity to home, cleanliness, availability of products, and delivery.
Mattel has added EMS and first responders to a #ThankYouHeroes line of figures.
Wall Street soars as Moderna vaccine news prompts hope of economic recovery
N.Y. Gov. Cuomo says he has been encouraging sports teams to play without fans
Refried Apparel, in New Bedford, is repurposing professional sport teams swag and making masks out of them.
Microsoft has announced that they’ll be expanding to Atlanta (Atlantic Station) with a new facility bringing 1,500 new jobs.
20,000+ Georgia teens that received their driver’s license during the quarantine will be required to come back and take a driver’s test to keep their license.
ComicCons being canceled coast to coast – moving to a virtual ComicCon@Home
Elvis Mansion will open this week – with 25% capacity and safety precautions.
Arkansas & some Louisisana casinos are opening.
Oregon had their executive orders thrown out in court – and it is on hold while it is being appealed
New York, California and Texas and have invited some pro sports teams to come back, but without fans.
President Trump said late yesterday that he is taking a dose of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative, along with zinc.
Nancy Pelosi weighed in on the president’s use of hydroxy, saying she’d rather he not take it because of his age and he being morbidly obese.
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
Here is the Massachusetts Reopening Plan: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/reopening-four-phase-approach
Massachusetts recreational marijuana shops may open up with curbside pickup.
Several MASSACHUSETTS churches say that they cannot implement the guidelines as written – here is a link to those guidelines, printed below: https://www.mass.gov/doc/places-of-worship-checklist/download
The 1149 Restaurant in East Greenwich will not reopen because of the pandemic.
Facebook Live event for RI hair salons was held last night – RI salons on the border with MA are worried about their customers going “up the street” because they are desperate for services now.
Approximately 15 RI restaurants opened for outdoor dining.
Sen. Jack Reed seeks to extend extra $600 a week in unemployment
Narragansett Town Council did not hear the resolution saying local police should not enforce state guidelines as the resolution was pulled from the agenda.
Rhode Island Bar Association has canceled the 2020 Annual Meeting scheduled for June 18th and 19th at the Rhode Island Convention Center
RI Data:
121 new cases. 236 in hospital. 62 are in ICU. 46 on ventilators. 7 Deaths – age from 50s to 90s – 1 in 50s, 1 in 60s, 4 in 80s, 1 in 90s.
Mask wearing, and all other precautions are here to stay for awhile.
We may be living with this virus like this for a year or more – quicker we follow the rules, the better.
We had a good weekend – excellent compliance – people were out shopping, retailers were adapting – all in all a good job.
Beaches – Memorial Day is coming up – decided that on Memorial Day 2 state beaches will be open – East Matunuck & Scarborough – and only on that one day. Parking spots significantly limited. DEM working on regulations. Bathrooms, changing rooms, etc. closed. Porta johns closed. No lifeguards. No payment to get access to beach. You can go for a walk. Didn’t open more beaches because of operational issues. It’s a heavy lift to open even 2 beaches with all the special needs. RI will probably not keep it for free all summer. Once we have amenities, then fees are appropriate.
State parks are now all open.
Facebook Town Hall Monday at 2:30 for hairdressers, barbers
Churches and faith-based locations – Governor changed her mind and will allow May 30th for in person services. We will work through exact guidelines. Putting onus on faith leaders to follow the rules.
June 2nd primary – primarily mail ballot. Go to Sect. of State office and return it to them by 4pm TODAY. In-person voting will still take place, but with much reduced number of locations.
Equity advisory group Gov. is working with is listed online – if there are groups missing, let her know, etc.
Dr. Scott recognized EMS and first responders as this is EMS Week.
Questions:
Massachusetts is ahead of us in beaches, churches – it’s only one weekend – for instance, RI never closed its manufacturing, and MA did, etc. Judgement call. We are prioritizing work first because of the economic crisis. We are also leaving 2 weeks in between phases while MA is using a week or so.
Providence College situation of parties and parades – they need to do better; this isn’t a joke. Our response going forward is going to be pinpointed. We shut down birthday parties this weekend, without fining people.
Graduation issues of taking masks off for photos. Governor says it makes sense that that would be ok, though Dr. Scott and others have said no.
Summer gatherings – if they are big gathering, we will shut them down.
Softball teams practicing – moving beach blockades, etc. How does this square in most urban settings – now equitable is that? If that’s happening, we’ll see the impact of it in 3 weeks.
Look at Sweden and other countries – you get restless, people get sick and die.
Do colleges take responsibility – as they plan to come back this fall with an influx of students? Governor says – they are entirely responsible. We will help but they need to create their own plans, cleaning protocols, etc.
MA ahead of us with salons and churches – Gov. says she hopes people will wait another week and not go and do that. Follow RI rules.
Testing – emphasis still on testing? Feels good about where we are with numbers. Doing better job than most. We have to test “in the community” where we are most impacted. Stop & Shop program is successful. We want to test everyone who has symptoms within 24 hours. We want to test broadly in the community. We want to be “on” the site of an outbreak within 4 hours and test everyone within 2 days. Testing for employees: large businesses with big corporate campuses will probably want to test on their own, and they can. It’s on their dime, but state will help. If there’s an outbreak in a mfg. center state will come in. Trends in testing: percent positives should be less than 10% – we will see that – except in special areas that are greater than that, then we go in and provide more resources.