7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Latino Journalist Says Raimondo Hasn't Done Enough — May 12, 2020
GoLocalProv News Team
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Latino Journalist Says Raimondo Hasn't Done Enough — May 12, 2020
In Rhode Island, the minority community has taken the brunt of the infections. According to Rhode Island data, 44% of all cases are Latino and 13% are in the Black community. Combined the two groups represent 24 percent of the state's population, but have contracted 57% of the disease.
Raimondo defended her administration’s response, “We are working overtime to communicate to the Latino community.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHowever, it was nearly two months before there was significant testing capacity established in areas in high populations of Latinos —Central Falls, Pawtucket, and Providence. Two of the state's largest testing facilities which were available 7-days a week were constructed in South Kingstown and Warwick. Those areas of the state have the fewest cases. South Kingstown has had just 78 cases.
“To suggest that it is just a small effort isn’t true,” said Raimondo.
Almonte answered Raimondo’s claims and questioned the state's strategy of paying advertising agency RDW Group — a non-minority firm. “You need to do more.”
“You are spending millions of dollars,” said Almonte but he said little of it is directed to the minority communities.
Presently, heavily Latino Central Falls has 3,173 cases per 100,000 and in contrast, the next town over Lincoln has 564 cases per 100,000.
WATCH AT NOON: Former Director of Health Dr. Michael Fine on GoLocal LIVE
Last week, former Rhode Island Director of Health Dr. Michael Fine says that Central Falls is America’s hotspot for the coronavirus -- the city has a higher percentage of cases than in New York City.
“The case incident rate -- the number of tested positives per capita in Central Falls -- is now greater than the case incidence rate in New York City. In Central Falls...about 2.6% of the population is positive. In New York City it's 2.1%,” said Fine.
Fine said the lack of data is a problem in Rhode Island. "Widespread access to testing in Central Falls is improving but it is a very slow process. So I can't tell you that in Central Falls we are testing more than people are being tested in New York City or not, because no one is reporting the number of people who are tested city by city. We don't have great city-by-city data," said Fine.
“We hear about deaths in houses in Central Falls -- people dying at home -- and that drives me crazy and tells me that we've just got to do a better job. We've got an issue in this little city and we have similar issues but not quite as intense in Pawtucket and in Providence,” said Fine.
READ 7 Major Coronavirus Developments BELOW
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — May 12, 2020
Outdoor Dining Guidelines
Guidance for On-Premises Dining in Rhode Island:
• Dining must be restricted to outdoor dining areas only (indoor dining is not allowed at this time). All indoor dining areas and seating (such as within waiting areas) must remain closed to customers.
• Bar seating and service to standing customers is prohibited. Additionally, establishments should prevent customer access to potential gathering spaces on the premises (e.g. dance floors, courtyards). Customer seating anywhere other than at tables is prohibited
• Capacity is limited to no more than 20 seated tables at any given time, provided that in no instance shall an establishment’s seating capacity exceed its normal (previous) seating capacity.
• Individual parties may not exceed 5 people, consistent with existing RIDOH gathering size limits.
• Tables must be separated by at least 8 feet and be at least 6 feet away from areas with regular customer foot traffic (e.g. routes to bathrooms, entrances, and exits).
Tables may be closer together provided that physical, nonporous barriers (i.e. plexi-glass, plastic) of an appropriate height (tall enough to fully separate seated customers) are installed between tables, in accordance with standards established by RIDOH.
• Service for outdoor dining requires that reservations be made in advance electronically or by phone (no walk-ins).
Dr. Anthony Fauci Warning of Opening Country Early
Dr. Anthony Fauci will be testifying for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday and "intends to warn the Senate on Tuesday that Americans would experience 'needless suffering and death' if the country opens up too quickly," reports the New York Times.
“The major message that I wish to convey to the Senate HLP committee tomorrow is the danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” he wrote. “If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines to: ‘Open America Again,’ then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country. This will not only result in needless suffering and death, but would actually set us back on our quest to return to normal.”
Musk Defies County Restrictions and Opens Tesla
Elon Musk Tweeted Monday night, "Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me."
New Cases Emerging, Wuhan Plans to Test All 11M Residents
The BBC is reporting:
The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus first emerged, is drawing up plans to test its entire population of 11 million people for Covid-19.
The plan appears to be in its early stages, but all districts of the city have been told to submit details of how testing could be done within 10 days.
It comes after six new cases were recorded over the weekend. Prior to this, the city had seen no new cases at all since 3 April.
Wuhan, which was in strict lockdown for 11 weeks, began re-opening on 8 April.
But the emergence of a cluster of cases - all from the same residential compound - has now threatened the move back to normalcy.
Rhode Island Continues to Rank Among the Highest for Deaths and Cases
Rhode Island ranks 4th overall for cases per 1 million
Rhode Island ranks 8th overall for deaths per 1 million
Numbers
11,450 Cases in Rhode Island
78,462 Cases in Massachusetts
430 Deaths in RI
5,108 Deaths in Massachusetts
1,385,834 Cases in the United States
81,795 Deaths in the United States
4,271,700 Global Cases
287,613 Global Deaths
1,535,097 Global Recoveries
GoLocal LIVE -- Tuesday, May 12, 2020
10:00 AM - Zach Levesque, Northpointe discusses the state of the real estate market
12:00 PM - Dr. Michael Fine, Former RI Director of Health
1:00 PM - Governor Gina Raimondo Briefing
EDITOR'S NOTE: Gov. Raimondo has reversed her policy and is now allowing reporters to attend press conferences and directly ask questions. For more than 6 weeks she had blocked reporters from directly asking questions for the public to hear.
