Governor Gina Raimondo today announced that Rhode Island has 437 new cases of COVID-19. This brings Rhode Island’s count to 6699. RIDOH also announced 13 additional COVID-19 associated fatalities bringing the total fatalities to 202
The age breakdown for these 13 new fatalities is as follows: 2 victims in their 50s, 1 victim in their 60s , 5 victims in their 70s, 3 victims in their 80s, 2 victims in their 90s.
There are currently 267 in the hospital, 77 in the ICU, 48 on vents and 377 people have been discharged from the hospital.
Updates:
• Serology testing: Earlier this week, the state received a shipment of 20,000 antibody tests that are now going through the validation process. In the coming weeks, the state will work with experts at Brown University and the Rhode Island Blood Center to test a random population sample and collect information about the prevalence of the virus in Rhode Island. In the meantime, RIDOH is creating a Rhode Island COVID-19 Testing and Validation Task Force to help analyze and draw conclusions from this data when it is available. The Task Force will be co-chaired by Dr. Angela Caliendo and Dr. Jonathan Kurtis, two Lifespan physicians.
• Workforce stabilization: Today, the Governor announced a new Congregate Care Workforce Stabilization Fund for private providers. For the next month, this fund will provide temporary pay increases for low-wage frontline workers at eligible Medicaid-funded residential facilities. Employers can apply to the Office of Health and Human Services starting next week.
• Banking pledge: More than 20 financial institutions in RI have pledged the following relief to their residential borrowers:
o A 90-day grace period for all residential mortgage payments for individuals impacted by COVID-19, with the opportunity to request additional relief
o An agreement to not report late payments to credit reporting agencies for residential borrowers who take advantage of this relief o A 60-day moratorium on initiating residential foreclosures and evictions; and
o An agreement to waive mortgage-related late fees. More information can be found here. https://dbr.ri.gov/documents/Financial_Institution_Pledge.pdf
• Rental assistance: Starting next Thursday, the state will be making available $1.5M in rental assistance for low income Rhode Islanders across the state. Details and information on how to apply will be announced in the coming days.
• Violence Prevention: Next Thursday at 11 a.m., Governor Raimondo will be joined by Senator Reed, Senator Whitehouse, Congressman Langevin, Congressman Cicilline, Attorney General Neronha, members of the Cabinet and representatives from the advocate community for a Violence Prevention Facebook Town Hall. Rhode Islanders can submit their questions on Facebook or anonymously by emailing communications@governor.ri.gov.
