7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Raimondo to Unveil Phase II Reopening — May 22, 2020
GoLocalProv News Team
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — Raimondo to Unveil Phase II Reopening — May 22, 2020
According to the state’s plan released on April 27, Phase II will include:
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTExpanded childcare options will be available under strict public health guidelines. More restaurants, retail and close-contact businesses like hair and nail salons may open. Additional recreational options will likely return including more parks and beaches, but restrictions remain. Social gathering limits increase to 15 people. Older adults (65+) and those with underlying health conditions can go to work and go out for food or medicine.
But in accordance with federal public health guidance, vulnerable individuals are still strongly encouraged to otherwise stay home. Masks, vigilant hand-washing and increased cleaning must remain in place.
Offices will ease capacity restrictions allowing more people to come in, but many people will still work from home. All activities must account for strong social distancing guidelines of remaining 6-feet apart.
WATCH AT NOON: Former Director of Health Dr. Michael Fine on GoLocal LIVE
See Slideshow: 7 Major Coronavirus Developments Below
7 Major Coronavirus Developments — May 22, 2020
Some States Contact Tracing Apps Violate Their Privacy Terms
While many in Rhode Island, including the ACLU, have raised concerns about the CRUSH COVID app's sharing of data to third parties, this issue is emerging in other states as well.
As governments build coronavirus-tracking smartphone technology, who is making sure their apps live up to privacy promises?
A new analysis of one of the first of a handful of U.S. contact-tracing apps, North and South Dakota’s Care19, finds it violates its own privacy policy by sharing citizen location and other personal data with an outside company. The review was published Thursday by privacy software maker Jumbo.
The oversight suggests that state officials and Apple, both of which were responsible for vetting the app before it became available April 7, were asleep at the wheel. Americans are especially wary of location and health data, and privacy violations of any degree will hamper efforts to use smartphones both to trace-contact and to provide exposure notifications.
Summer Camps and Sports Programs Get Rules and Regulations
On Thursday, Governor Gina Raimondo announced new regulations and guidelines for summer camp and summer youth programs.
These programs will be allowed to begin in-person operations starting June 29.
For a full list of regulations and guidance, visit reopeningRI.com.
Facebook Announces Permanent Shift to Working From Home
While Google and Twitter have extended greater work from home flexibility, Facebook is taking the policy to a permanent standard.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Mark Zuckerberg is shifting Facebook toward a substantially remote workforce over the next decade, permanently reconfiguring the tech giant’s operations around the dispersed structure that the coronavirus pandemic forced on it.
The plan, which the Facebook chief executive laid out in detail to employees in livestreamed remarks on Thursday, is one of the highest-profile examples of business leaders committing to extend the practices their companies quickly embraced to adjust to the crisis. On matters from workplace to strategy, managers are rethinking what works and shifting course, sometimes long term.
The remote-work changes for new hires will roll out initially in the U.S. and apply only to senior engineers at first. With individual team leaders’ approval, new recruits will be offered the choice to work from home, and current employees around the world with strong performance reviews will be able to apply to do so. In time, the policy will be extended to employees outside Facebook’s engineering department.
Media Continues to Take Pounding in Job Cuts
This week, The Atlantic announced it was cutting 17% of its workforce. In the past two weeks, 155 jobs were lost at Vice, 100 at Condé Nast, 90 at The Economist, 80 at Quartz.
More cuts are expected across newspapers, magazines, digital, radio and TV over the next few weeks.
This is on top of tens of thousands of job cuts in recent weeks in the newspaper industry -- including more and more cuts at local papers.
Brazil Coronavirus Explosion
As of Friday morning, there have been at least 310,087 cases of coronavirus in Brazil, according to the Ministry of Health.
And, at least 20,047 people had died.
The pace of the growth of the disease is at a record pace.
Numbers
13,571 Cases in Rhode Island
90,084 Cases in Massachusetts
556 Deaths in RI
6,148 Deaths in Massachusetts
1,608,084 Cases in the United States
95,087 Deaths in the United States
5,209,860 Global Cases
334,878 Global Deaths
2,092,757 Global Recoveries
GoLocal LIVE -- Friday May 22, 2020
10:30 AM - Rebecca Couto Da Silva, provides insights from Bolzano, Italy about the conditions in the country.
12:00 PM - Dr. Michael Fine, Former RI Director of Health -- Coronavirus update
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.
